Georgia Tech opens 'Slutty Vegan' restaurant on campus
Slutty Vegan’s entirely plant-based menu features the 'Ménage à Trois,' the 'One Night Stand,' the 'Hollywood Hooker,' the 'Sloppy Toppy,' and the 'Chik’n Head.'
Students and alumni are concerned that the restaurant’s branding is objectifying.
The restaurant chain “Slutty Vegan“ last month opened its first campus location at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, sparking controversy among students and alumni.
Pinky Cole started Slutty Vegan in July 2018 with the intention of providing vegan options to the inner-city Atlanta community that experiences high rates of “hypertension, cholesterol, obesity, and a host of other food-borne ailments.” Now the restaurant has eight locations across Georgia and in New York City.
The Sluts are coming to campus‼️🐝🍔🌱
GRAND OPENING
TOMORROW, MONDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2023 🥳
351 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30332 📍
RIBBON CUTTING at 9:00AM 🎉
Text us “GA TECH” to 📲 678-846-3255 for all things #SluttyGATECH! 🗣 pic.twitter.com/LuvAJxacIJ— Slutty Vegan ATL (@SluttyVeganATL) February 26, 2023
The entirely plant-based menu features the “Ménage à Trois,” the “One Night Stand,” the “Hollywood Hooker,” the “Sloppy Toppy,” and the “Chik’n Head.”
Georgia Tech calls this restaurant a “vibrant, trendy, vegan fast food outlet offering hefty, plant-based burgers to take away.“
In response to the Georgia Tech opening, Cole said, “This restaurant will sluttify campus with all the favorites and a menu that’s ideal for a college student!”
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Some students and alumni, however, are concerned about the objectification of women that could be interpreted from Slutty Vegan’s branding.
The first customer of the Slutty Vegan at Georgia Tech, a young woman, received her meal for free with a giant promotional ticket that reads “Lucky Slut Ticket.”
The company branded the announcement of the grand opening with the hashtag #SluttyGATECH and frequently uses the hashtags #sluttify and #sluttified.
In a comment on Georgia Tech’s Instagram announcement, one alumna shared her perspective that “the term ‘slutty’ was NEVER a word I wanted to have associated with me.” It’s a bit embarrassing that the school is watering down the expectation of morals that existed when I was there.”
Cole told Bloomberg in a 2022 interview that her “concept has nothing to do with sex. Instead, it provides a safe place for people to come together in the name of food.”
She also argued that “more businesses need to think like that and create racy names and create racy concepts that have people talking and thinking.”
Hyper-sexualization is a common theme on many American college campuses, as Campus Reform has well documented.
Sex week escapades that have replaced traditional Valentine’s Day celebrations feature BDSM, free vibrators, abortion appreciation, and sex positive topics that some argue encourages promiscuity and may lead to sexual violence.
[RELATED: Student tuition dollars were used by this university to host Sex Toy Bingo night]
As Shelby Barrow wrote for the Georgia Tech publication The Liberty Jacket, “The restaurant’s name and menu items grab attention and have led to the success of Cole’s business, but at what point does that outweigh the objectification that many women feel having it on campus?”
Campus Reform has contacted Slutty Vegan and Georgia Tech with request for comment, and this story will be updated accordingly.
Follow Gabrielle M. Etzel on Twitter.
