Chloe Coscarelli searched for years for the perfect space for her new restaurant, CHLOE. I’ve visited probably hundreds of spaces.”
But when she walked into 185 Bleecker Street, “I felt like I was home.
“The space is perfect — because I already built it,” Coscarelli, 36, told The Post.
Just over seven years ago, the celebrity chef was riding high.
Her restaurant chain By Chloe was praised for making vegan food stylish and accessible.
Starting with its original West Village location, which opened in 2015, it expanded to five locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as outposts in Los Angeles, Boston and Providence.
She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30.
But in July 2017, Coscarelli was forced out of By Chloe by former business partners – losing not only her brand but her name – in a nasty legal battle.
Even at her lowest, she told herself that she would somehow find a way back.
Earlier this month, Coscarelli opened CHLOE, an all-day plant-based cafe, in the same space where she started nine years ago.
Redemption never tasted so sweet.
“I feel very lucky. It sounds strange, but you have to believe in yourself, even if the path doesn’t seem clear,” said Coscarelli about realizing her comeback dream.
Coscarelli grew up in Los Angeles — her mom used to work in retail and is now a manager at CHLOE, and her dad works as a film director — and became a vegan at 16.
She moved to New York for culinary school at the Natural Gourmet Institute in the Financial District and, in 2010, the then-22-year-old became the first vegan chef to win the Food Network’s cooking competition show “Cupcake Wars.”
She published her first cookbook, Chloe’s Kitchen, in 2012, and began developing recipes for what was then an entirely new and fresh dream: a fast-casual restaurant that overturned the old stereotype of bland and boring vegan food served seriously. restaurants caught up in the macrobiotic hippie days.
From Chloe it would be open and airy, light and bright, with Instagram decor.
The menus — with playful grits of fries and burgers — offered such comfort foods as a quinoa-taco salad and the Guac Burger with black beans and sweet potatoes.
Calling it “elitist veganism,” The New Yorker opined that “the restaurant’s faux mac and cheese, with a sweet-potato-cashew-cheese sauce and shiitake bacon, is better than the real thing.”
Coscarelli partnered with Samantha Wasser, whose father, Jimmy Haber, owns BLT Steak, to open the first restaurant in 2015.
Grub Street reported by Chloe was nearly 1,000 tickets a day in the first year.
But in 2016, she was kicked out of Haber’s ESquared restaurant group because, according to a lawsuit she filed, the company wanted to “mass produce” her fare and she didn’t, and she told The Post, when ” refused to align” with Haber’s demand for full control of the company.
When Coscarelli didn’t back down, she alleged in the lawsuit, ESquared executives “conceived a plan to steal the company on the spot.”
An attorney for Haber and Wasser said at the time that their company, ESquared, “has always been — and will continue to be — acting in the best interests of By Chloe.”
Coscarelli also alleged in the lawsuit that Haber “taunted” and “threatened” her — calling her a “fragile little girl” who needed “a shrink” and warning “she would need “a bodyguard” if he dared to meet with
him personally.”
Haber said in a statement in 2018 that the company is “disappointed by these public allegations from a disgruntled former partner” that seeks to “undermine the company and hurt its loyal employees,” Eater reported.
“It was incredibly challenging,” Coscarelli told The Post at the time. “Even just walking through the city you love the most and seeing your name everywhere and knowing that you can’t even get in and that you don’t belong, even though it was of you and made by you – it was a really challenging to navigate.”
The lawsuit was settled and Coscarelli was restored to ownership, but the damage was done.
In December 2020, the By Chloe chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Rebranded as Beatnic, it was put up for sale and bought by investors in 2021.
Now owned by Indian fast-casual chain INDAY, Beatnic has only one location in Boston and one in South Street Seaport.
She called the end of the By Chloe era in 2021 “sad and … maybe for the best.”
But her fans did not stop believing in her.
“Many of us have always been here supporting you,” one customer commented on her Facebook post at the time. “Never let greedy people bring you down.”
And she never stopped dreaming of opening her own country, her own way, again. Last year, she ran into an irresistible fight.
“When I saw my original location on Bleecker Street empty and leased, my first thought was, ‘Wow, that’s a shame, all this for nothing,’” Coscarelli told The Post. “And my second thought was, ‘Let me call the broker and see if I can take a look inside.’
“Fortunately, the owner really wanted me back.”
Her new menu includes dishes like buttery nachos made with a maple seitan; and spicy kelp noodles with cashews in a chili sauce.
There is a classic burger made with a charred mushroom-walnut-soy patty.
Desserts include cinnamon espresso cookies, a coconut cream tiramisu, and Coscarelli’s signature cakes and pastries.
On opening night at CHLOE, Coscarelli — who is currently single — was showered with flowers from longtime fans and guests telling her how much they missed her food. It was an already married couple having their first date at By Chloe.
Another couple who frequented the old restaurant came with their two children.
“[They] see this space as a marker of time in their lives. There are a handful of guests who came when they were young,” Coscarelli said, “and are now returning to a more grounded place in their lives. To feel like they have that connection to the space is special.”
#Chloe #Coscarelli #NYC #vegan #restaurant #CHLOE
Image Source : nypost.com