Aisha "Pinky" Cole (born December 8, 1987) is an American restaurateur. She is the owner and operator of

Slutty Vegan Slutty Vegan is a Veggie burger, vegan hamburger restaurant chain, based in Atlanta, Georgia. History Pinky Cole, a former television producer, founded the restaurant in August 2018. She intended for it to be a ghost kitchen, where customers w ...

, a plant-based burger restaurant chain in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2023, she was added to the ''Time'' magazine 100 Next list, recognizing individuals with an outsized influence on American culture.

Early life and education

Cole was born and raised in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

. Her parents are Jamaican immigrants and Rastafarians; her mother Ichelle Cole is a musician in the reggae group Strykers' Posse and follows the traditional Rastafarian vegetarian diet. Her mother is a wealth adviser at PNC Bank Her father served prison time for the first 20 years of her life and was then deported to Jamaica. Cole became a vegetarian in 2007, and a vegan in 2014. Cole received her bachelor's degree from

Clark Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Found ...

. She was elected “Miss CAU” in 2008 and is a member of

Delta Sigma Theta Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. The organization was founded by college-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that assist the African American community. Delta ...

sorority. After college, Cole moved first to Los Angeles to become an actress, and then to New York to work in television production.

Career

Television

In 2010, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a producer on the reality show '' Judge Karen’s Court.'' She left television briefly to launch a Harlem restaurant. In 2016, Cole moved back to Atlanta and worked as a casting director for programs such as '' Iyanla: Fix My Life''.

Pinky’s Jamaican and American Restaurant

Pinky’s Jamaican and American Restaurant opened in 2014. It was Cole's first restaurant. It operated in Harlem for two years, until she shuttered it in 2016 after a grease fire.

Slutty Vegan

In July 2018, Cole sold her first vegan burgers through delivery apps and opened the

food truck in September of that year. In January 2019, she opened the first Slutty Vegan brick-and-mortar restaurant in the Westview neighborhood of Atlanta. In 2023, Slutty Vegan had 11 locations in Georgia, New York City, Birmingham, Ala., and Dallas. Cole was inspired to create the vegan restaurant

due to her own cravings for vegan junk food. All of Slutty Vegan's products are titled with some form of sexual connotation, including "

One Night Stand A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single ...

," "Fussy Hussy," "Sloppy Toppy," and "Chick'N Head".

Cookbook

In November 2022, Cole began a five-city tour to promote her new cookbook, ''Eat Plants, B*tch: 91 Vegan Recipes That Will Blow Your Meat-Loving Mind.'' The book was published by Simon & Schuster. ''Oprah Daily'' published four recipes from the book in December 2022. '' BET'' said the cookbook has "food combinations that will make you forget about meat altogether." VegNews listed it as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.

''I Hope You Fail''

Written based on her own experience turning failure into success, Cole's book ''I Hope You Fail'' was published in October of 2023 and is available in print and audiobook formats.

Recognition

In 2023, when ''Time'' magazine named her to its 100 Next list, Danny Meyer wrote that "Her myriad fans adore her sassy, sexy attitude that has not only reinvented the way people think about a vegan restaurant, but also turned classic roadside burger fare into a rollicking party." In 2024, VegNews listed Cole as one of the "17 Black Vegan Chefs Redefining Plant-Based Food and Community."

Personal life

Cole met entrepreneur Derrick Hayes in 2020. The couple became engaged on July 2, 2022, and married on June 10, 2023 at The

St. Regis Hotel St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned and managed by Marriott International. History In 1904, John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York as a sister property to his part-owned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Exhibiting luxury and ...

in Atlanta. The ceremony was covered by the '' New York Times''. Hayes is the owner of Big Dave's Cheesesteaks, a non-vegan cheesesteak restaurant based in Atlanta. They have a daughter, D'Ella (born 2021), and son, Derrick Jr. (born 2022). Hayes has two daughters from a previous relationship, Dallas and Denver. At their 2023 wedding, the couple announced Cole was pregnant and they are expecting a third child, a boy, in December.

Philanthropy

Cole and fellow alumna Stacy Lee paid the tuition of 30 Clark Atlanta University seniors in September 2019. In May 2022, Cole gifted an

LLC A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

to every graduating student at the Clark Atlanta University commencement ceremony. Cole runs her own philanthropic organization, The Pinky Cole Foundation, which focuses on providing financial support and educational programs for children of color.

References

External links

Pinky Cole
on Instagram
Official website
for Slutty Vegan {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Pinky Living people Women restaurateurs Businesspeople from Baltimore Clark Atlanta University alumni American people of Jamaican descent Delta Sigma Theta members 1987 births