Slutty Vegan moves from Baltimore Peninsula to Johns Hopkins campus

Slutty Vegan is leaving Baltimore Peninsula for a site on the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus along Monument Street, a move that puts the plant-based burger chain next to one of Baltimore’s most dependable daytime crowds. Founder Pinky Cole Hayes has framed the shift as a decision about access, saying the brand wants to be closer to the people who actually use the restaurant and to keep investing in Baltimore rather than stepping back from it.

There is no timeline yet for when the Baltimore Peninsula shop will close or when the Monument Street location will open. That makes the change less of an immediate handoff than a signal that the city’s restaurant geography is still shifting, especially between a waterfront development still filling in and a hospital district that already draws a constant stream of workers, patients, visitors and family members.

The Baltimore Peninsula location opened on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, as one of the early tenants at Rye Street Market, the commercial piece of the 235-acre, $5 billion South Baltimore project. The development was promoted as a walkable waterfront destination with bus access, the Charm City Circulator’s Cherry Route and three nearby Light Rail stations, but the relocation suggests that a polished mixed-use district does not always deliver the same daily volume as a campus built around a major medical institution.

Johns Hopkins Medicine already treats food access as part of the hospital experience. The Johns Hopkins Hospital campus has a range of dining options for patients, visitors and staff, including coffee, grab-and-go meals, salads and sandwiches. Slutty Vegan’s move positions it inside that existing ecosystem, where lunch traffic and repeat visits can be driven by shift workers, waiting families and people passing through East Baltimore all day, not just by weekend customers or destination diners.

Cole Hayes, who has said her return to Baltimore is personal as well as economic, first linked Slutty Vegan’s local expansion to her roots in the city and her ties to City and Western high schools. Earlier plans had also pointed to a second Baltimore location at Northwood Commons, underscoring how closely the company has been thinking about where its customer base actually is.

The move comes as Slutty Vegan has faced financial turbulence this year, including amendments to Cole’s bankruptcy case. For Baltimore, the immediate effect is clear: Baltimore Peninsula loses a recognizable tenant, while Johns Hopkins gains a brand with an established following and a better shot at catching the city’s daily foot traffic.