Herbivore, the 19-year-old vegan restaurant that at one point had two locations in SF and one in Berkeley, is now officially dunzo as Mission Local reports that Monday was the last day for the Mission location at 983 Valencia Street. The self-described "Earthly Grill" first opened the Valencia flagship in 1997 and is thus one of the city's longest running vegan-only establishments several of which have either closed or decamped to the East Bay in the last year.
The Divisadero branch of Herbivore closed last fall after some run-ins with the Health Department and quite a number of hilarious one-star Yelp reviews.
Just last week, the nine-year-old Berkeley branch also closed.
Vegans may or may not be broken up over the news, because of the noted drop in quality of the restaurants, but in the Mission this really only leaves Gracias Madre, Shizen, and Indochine as destinations for vegan-only menus.
Last year, popular high-end vegan spot Millennium, in the Tenderloin, relocated to Oakland, and we learned yesterday that Saha, another spot popular with vegetarians and vegans, is moving to Berkeley to Herbivore's former digs, in fact.