This Plant-Based Chain Just Beat Bankruptcy To Reclaim Its Spot In The Upscale Dining Scene

The last few years have seen a slew of bankruptcies at popular restaurant chains, but the industry downturn is also spreading to some smaller upscale concepts. Popular chain restaurants that went bankrupt in the past year have included Bucca Di Beppo, TGI Fridays, and Red Lobster, and even chains that haven't gone bankrupt, like Denny's and Applebee's, have been closing stores. There is no one cause for the whole industry; a perfect storm of rising costs and the disruption of the pandemic has made keeping sit-down restaurants open harder than ever, and those trends also came for the vegan chain Planta.

Founded in Toronto in 2016, Planta is an upscale vegan dining concept that expanded rapidly in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Once boasting restaurants in cities like New York, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the chain had 18 locations when it declared bankruptcy earlier this year. At the time, it cited a high amount of debt that it took on to survive during the pandemic, which it couldn't pay off as business slowed over the last few years. 

Luckily, there is some good news: Planta's legal representation has announced that the chain will survive bankruptcy and continue to operate with a reduced footprint. Planta has survived by selling off many of its assets and finding a new buyer interested in taking over the surviving locations. The newly restructured Planta will now have just eight spots open around the country, but for fans of vegan dining, that is better than nothing.

Planta's website continues to list nine locations, so it's not clear if one more will close, but the remaining spots are in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Washington, D.C. area. The concept was originally based around high-end vegan food with inspirations from a variety of different cuisines, including items like kimchi baos, cauliflower wings, lettuce wraps, and summer rolls, but there are now three different forms of Planta with unique menus. The choices vary by location, but Planta Queen offers a slightly smaller, more Asian-oriented menu, with an emphasis on handrolls. Planta Cocina now only has one location in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Marina del Rey, and has more Mexican-inspired dishes, including vegetarian tacos and queso fundido.

While restaurants have been struggling across the board, vegan and vegetarian concepts have been hit hard, with many local spots and small chains like Kevin Hart's Hart House closing in the past few years. There has also been a turn away from offering plant-based alternatives, with companies like Beyond and Impossible struggling since the pandemic, and options like McDonald's McPlant being taken off menus. It's hard to tell if this is a growing trend back towards eating more meat, or just an industry-wide struggle that is also hitting plant-based concepts, but the survival of Planta should at least offer vegetarians and vegans some hope that some of their favorite spots will continue getting chances to thrive.