Hollywood A-lister Kevin Hart has stunned customers in California by closing down all locations of his vegan fast-food chain Hart House overnight only about four months after the state mandated a large raise for Minimum Wage workers in the fast-food industry.
The two-year-old Southern California vegan restaurant chain closed all four locations on Tuesday, according to Eater.
“The response to the product has been incredible, and we thank our committed team, our customers, and our community partners for helping make the change we all craved, and for their unwavering support of Hart House,” Hart House CEO Andy Hooper said in a statement.
Hart opened the chain in 2022 after adopting a vegan diet. The restaurants offered moderate prices and its own line of vegan products.
Hooper opened the chain’s most ambitious location just last year in a prime spot in Los Angeles.
“Opening on the corner of Sunset and Highland, across the street from Hollywood High School, adjacent to a Chick-fil-A, a couple 100 yards from an In-N-Out, [and inside] a former McDonald’s building is about as emblematic as you can get of our aspiration to be the future of quick-service restaurants,” the CEO said last May.
The Hart House chief has not issued any statements fully explaining the sudden closure, but thanked customers in a post to Instagram on Wednesday.
“Thank you. To our team, guests, and community, who helped make the change we all craved,” Hooper wrote.
“A Hartfelt goodbye for now as we start a new chapter.”
But the closure comes four months after the Democrat-led state legislature passed a mandate to pay fast-food workers — but not other workers — a $20 per hour wage. The new wage went into effect on April 2.
Since that time, the fast-food industry has been sent scrambling to cope with the huge increase in expenses. Some have rushed to install electronic kiosks. Others were forced to cut workers and hours.
Some studies have reported that fast-food prices have soared seven percent since the new wage took effect.
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