Imagine Vegan Cafe may close in Cooper-Young

by Greg Williams | MicroMemphis reporter

posted March 7, 2013

Patrons enjoy an afternoon at the bar while reading animal protection flyers in Imagine Vegan Café.

Cooper-Young’s only vegan-friendly café may be looking for a new home after its landlord decided not to renew the restaurant’s lease.

Imagine Vegan Café owner Adam Jeffrey said he has given vegetarians and vegans alike a place to enjoy a meal, snack, or a drink in a friendly, welcoming atmosphere since opening in April 2011. The café is located in a building near the intersection of Cooper and Young Avenue, and shares the building with other businesses. One of the spaces within the building has already been vacated, and Jeffrey said he fears Imagine Vegan Café could be next.

“Our future is still very much up in the air,” Jeffrey said. “If we do in fact have to relocate, we do have some options available that we’re looking into. They’re spread out over the Midtown Memphis area.”
There are several locations Jeffrey has in mind if in fact, the café does move. But just like in selecting their first location, he wants to have their potential second home “as close to Cooper-Young as possible.”

The building was once occupied by Casablanca Café, which specialized in Moroccan cuisine. Once it closed, the building was vacant until Jeffrey took over the lease and opened his restaurant.
“I remember the building being vacant for a while after Casablanca left,” Jeffrey said. “Cooper-Young was the location we really wanted.

Imagine Vegan has a variety of meals and drinks with all-natural ingredients, and of course, containing no animal products or by-products. It’s one of the very few restaurants in Memphis that have an all-vegan menu. 

Gary Brown was in town on vacation from Alabama looking for a place to eat a vegan meal, and Imagine Vegan was first on the list. “I just looked up ‘vegetarian restaurants’ online and this came up,” he said.

For customers like Brown, it also is a place to “get out once in a while,” he explained. “Vegetarians and vegans have to cook a lot, so it’s nice to have places like this. We don’t have to prepare our food ourselves all the time.”

No matter what happens with his lease situation in Cooper-Young, Jeffrey said, he hopes to keep serving customers.

“I love it all,” Jeffrey said about the restaurant business. “Having my children and family here is one of the best things, but also just the conversations with the people who come in. Also, having moms and pops shops in a corporate world is very important.”