Pinky Cole Launches Vegan Hoagie Shop ‘Voagies’ as Part of Slutty Vegan Comeback

After weathering a rocky start to 2024, Pinky Cole, the entrepreneur behind the popular plant-based chain Slutty Vegan, is staging a comeback with a fresh concept aimed at reimagining the sandwich shop experience.

Her new venture, Voagies (a play on “vegan hoagies”), officially opened at the original West View location in Atlanta, where Slutty Vegan first rose to fame.

“There were a lot of people who thought I was dead, metaphorically,” Cole said during the shop’s grand opening. “But let me tell you how even in that dirt, flowers will grow higher.”

Earlier this year, Cole temporarily lost ownership of her multi-million-dollar food empire due to creditor issues and financial strain. In February, control of the business shifted, but by March, she had successfully regained ownership. She cited operational costs and cash-flow troubles as the cause of the disruption.

Now, with Voagies and what she’s calling “Slutty Vegan 2.0,” Cole is charting a new path forward. The new brand aims to offer flavorful, guilt-free vegan hoagies that go beyond the standard veggie-on-bread fare typically found at sub shops.

“This concept was born because I was tired of going to sub shops and just getting veggies on bread,” Cole explained. “I wanted to create something I could appreciate — that was filling, exciting, and guilt-free. I knew the market was wide open for a vegan hoagie shop, so I decided to do that.”

At the Voagies launch, Cole spoke with the same bold energy that helped make Slutty Vegan a viral success. Her goal is to take this latest concept nationwide — and eventually global.

“This is the first business in Slutty Vegan 2.0,” she said. “This is a hoagie shop like you have never experienced before. This brand is going to scale in a way that you ain’t never seen before… We will see this all over the world.”

Cole also had a pointed message for her critics:
“All the people who ever doubted me — I hope that you have a front-row seat to the success,” she said. “I hope that you are sitting in VIP to all this greatness that’s happening and is about to happen.”

Known for its cheeky branding and bold approach to vegan food, Slutty Vegan helped redefine what plant-based dining could look and taste like. Now, Cole hopes to inject the same creativity and cultural flair into the hoagie space with Voagies.

Though her Bar Vegan concept in Atlanta recently closed, Cole remains optimistic about her next phase — one she describes not as a reset, but a reinvention