Silver Lake Vegan Restaurant Little Pine to Reopen Without Moby at the Helm

Don’t look now, but Silver Lake all-vegan restaurant Little Pine is returning to life soon, albeit with a few notable changes. The five-year-old restaurant, founded by prolific musician and longtime animal rights activist Moby, has a new chef and a new ownership group to go along with the planned reopening. The restaurant has remained closed for the duration of the ongoing pandemic, and fell on uncertain times after Moby was accused by multiple former employees of not doing enough to protect staff during the shutdown.

The first notion of a reopening was made on Little Pine’s Instagram page just yesterday, but was short on overall details. Since then, Eater has learned that a new behind-the-scenes group of investors have taken over the business and the property (both of which Moby owned), and will be reopening with a new chef and large takeout menu to start. The collection of businesspeople are themselves vegan, and one unnamed person involved with the transaction says that they simply hoped to keep Little Pine, one of the most well-known vegan restaurants in Los Angeles, alive during such tumultuous economic times.

Leading the operation will be chef Roberto Martin, a longtime vegan cookbook author and television personality who formerly ran Elovate Vegan Kitchen in Santa Monica. Some of Little Pine’s previous dishes will remain, with Martin updating the rest of the menu to lean more fully into vegetables instead of fake meat like Beyond or Impossible. The restaurant will also carry a large collection of animal-friendly wines.

As for Moby, he will potentially remain involved with the new business partnership in some background capacity, but will not be involved in operations. He says in a statement to Eater that “moving forward” he has “decided to focus more on philanthropy, documentary production, and of course, music.” There is no firm reopening date for the restaurant, but expect something in the very near future.

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