V Street has closed due to the pandemic as tensions rise among staff

V Street, the casual Rittenhouse Square sibling of vegan-dining landmark Vedge, has closed for good after 5½ years due to the pandemic, owners Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby said.

“Despite getting [a Paycheck Protection Program loan] in early July to invite some former staff members back to work, many we contacted expressed concerns about the virus, and we completely understand their hesitation,” the couple wrote in a statement to The Inquirer. “Unfortunately, under continuing pandemic conditions, it became clear that we are not able to make the business model work at that location, and we are now in the process of returning the loan. The restaurant industry has been long overdue for meaningful change on many levels, and despite our needing to close this location, we look forward to being a part of that change as we all navigate these unprecedented times.”

Employees were notified of the closing Friday in an email responding to a July 10 email, signed by 34 V Street workers, seeking redress of a multitude of issues.

Tensions are running high throughout the restaurant industry as owners, employees, landlords, and vendors attempt to chart a course to survival amid uncertainty, fear, shifting rules, and a hard reckoning of the culture.

For months, Landau and Jacoby’s employees have complained within the industry about the couple’s lack of communication, particularly about the status of their jobs. The company employed 92 people at the two restaurants, employees said.

Although V Street had been closed, Vedge recently reopened four nights a week for takeout and for eight tables of outdoor dining. A third restaurant, Fancy Radish in Washington had been open for takeout but is closed temporarily.

Last weekend, employees created an Instagram account called @VStreetWorkers to list demands, including an accounting of unused sick pay, a “living wage and hazard pay” of $20 an hour plus tips for Vedge workers, and a move “to dismantle white supremacy within the restaurant group.”

In interviews, workers criticized the couple’s reluctance to start a GoFundMe campaign to help kitchen workers unable to collect unemployment compensation and the couple’s response to the calls for social justice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The couple in the July 17 email offered to follow up with individual employees but not the group.

Landau and Jacoby declined to comment beyond their statement.

V Street opened in late 2014 at 126 S. 19th St. with a bar and a street-food menu. The couple expanded next door in 2016 with a counter-service sandwich shop called Wiz Kid. In early 2019, they closed Wiz Kid and expanded V Street into the space to achieve more seating.