Troubled Vegan Hot Spot Pure Food and Wine Reopens After Three Month Shutter [Update]

Raw food destination Pure Food and Wine and its sister juicery One Lucky Duck on 17th Street are back open now, three months after staff walked out en masse over unpaid wages.

On Saturday, the team tweeted:

And we're OPEN for lunch today. Partial menu as we ease back into things but we're open. #thankyou pic.twitter.com/mQALSrw9Hp

— Pure Food and Wine (@PureFoodandWine) April 11, 2015

The restaurant's big backyard is back, but it looks like for lunch only.

Oh yes. Garden open for lunch today. pic.twitter.com/RVd9Fq9201

— Pure Food and Wine (@PureFoodandWine) April 12, 2015

One Lucky Duck is also still in soft reopen mode:

Just now @OneLuckyDuck opened, soft open, small menu, 17th street, 12pm to 8pm. #thankyou pic.twitter.com/rPfSERpzPl

— Sarma Melngailis (@sarma) April 10, 2015

No word yet on when the two places will be back at full steam.

In March, owner Sarma Melngailis promised to reopen the restaurant on her blog. She nearly sold the businesses to a foreign investor, but that deal fell through. Instead, she started selling shares of the business to those "who love what we do, and truly care." She also launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $50,000, but it hasn't even hit the $15,000 mark, so it's unclear where the funds to reopen came from. Meanwhile, Melngailis has remained vague about whether her old staff has been paid, and there are postings on Craigslist for just about every front of the house position. Eater has reached out to Melngailis for more on the future of the restaurant.

Update: Melngailis responds: "Things have all been settled and resolved with the staff. The majority of the staff working now are all previous employees from before. It's a really fresh new energy now that things have been resolved and restructured. The restructuring was accomplished via ongoing sales of shares in the overall company."