Oakland’s Malibu’s Burgers No Longer Vegan

I’m not near them anymore, but used to love Malibu’s when they were at their old location. Yesterday I saw their instagram story with their “Needy Meaty” with what looked like real bacon. That caught me off guard so I did some digging.

Long story short, it looks like they’ve started adding meat to the menu. From what I can tell it’s a pretty quiet rollout, but they now have beef burgers and bacon and wouldn’t be surprised if they have dairy.

On one hand, I get that running a restaurant is incredibly hard, especially now. I’ve gathered that they are locked into a tough lease situation based on one of their posts. So I understand the pressure to do whatever you can to survive.

But I still don’t understand why vegan restaurants keep making this move. Maybe it’s an easier pivot than trying something creative or doubling down on what made people support them in the first place.

Also the location seems rough. There’s already a popular brewery right around the corner w/ a burger spot inside that has vegan and non-vegan burgers. Not sure if that was considered bc competing directly on that front feels like an uphill battle.

I’m not rooting for them to fail. I liked that place and the owner always seemed very involved. However, it’s just disappointing to see them abandon what made it unique instead of trying to build on that.

Has anyone seen a vegan spot do this and survive? I feel like it’s an early sign that they’ll fold soon. Would you still eat here? I truly don’t know if I could go back now.