Aisha "Pinky" Cole (born December 8, 1987)[1] is an American restaurateur. She is the owner and operator of Slutty Vegan, a plant-based burger restaurant chain in Atlanta, Georgia.[1] In 2023, she was added to the Time magazine 100 Next list, recognizing individuals with an outsized influence on American culture.[2][3]
Cole was born and raised in Baltimore.[4] Her parents are Jamaican immigrants and Rastafarians;[5] her mother Ichelle Cole is a musician in the reggae group Strykers' Posse and follows the traditional Rastafarian vegetarian diet. Her mother is a wealth adviser at PNC Bank[1][6] Her father served prison time for the first 20 years of her life and was then deported to Jamaica.[1][7] Cole became a vegetarian in 2007, and a vegan in 2014.[1][8]
Cole received her bachelor's degree from Clark Atlanta University.[9][10] She was elected “Miss CAU” in 2008 and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[11] After college, Cole moved first to Los Angeles to become an actress, and then to New York to work in television production.[1][12]
In 2010, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a producer on the reality show Judge Karen’s Court.[6]
Her first restaurant, Pinky’s Jamaican and American Restaurant, operated in Harlem for two years, until she shuttered it in 2016 after a grease fire.[1][4] Cole moved back to Atlanta and worked as a casting director for programs such as Iyanla: Fix My Life.[1][10]
In 2024, VegNews listed Cole as one of the "17 Black Vegan Chefs Redefining Plant-Based Food and Community."
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In July 2018, Cole sold her first vegan burgers through delivery apps[14] and opened the Slutty Vegan food truck in September of that year.[1] In January 2019, she opened the first Slutty Vegan brick-and-mortar restaurant in the Westview neighborhood of Atlanta.[1] In 2023, Slutty Vegan had 11 locations in Georgia, New York City, Birmingham, Ala., and Dallas.[6]
Cole was inspired to create the vegan restaurant Slutty Vegan due to her own cravings for vegan junk food.[10] All of Slutty Vegan's products are titled with some form of sexual connotation, including "One Night Stand," "Fussy Hussy," "Sloppy Toppy," and "Chick'N Head".[15]
In 2023, when Time magazine named her to its 100 Next list, Danny Meyer wrote that "Her myriad fans adore her sassy, sexy attitude that has not only reinvented the way people think about a vegan restaurant, but also turned classic roadside burger fare into a rollicking party."[16]
In November 2022, Cole began a five-city tour to promote her new cookbook, Eat Plants, B*tch: 91 Vegan Recipes That Will Blow Your Meat-Loving Mind.[17] The book was published by Simon & Schuster. Oprah Daily published four recipes from the book in December 2022.[18]BET said the cookbook has "food combinations that will make you forget about meat altogether."[19]VegNews listed it as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.[20]
Written based on her own experience turning failure into success, Cole's book I Hope You Fail was published in October of 2023 and is available in print and audiobook formats.[21][22]
Cole met entrepreneur Derrick Hayes in 2020. The couple became engaged on July 2, 2022, and married on June 10, 2023 at The St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta. The ceremony was covered by the New York Times.[6] Hayes is the owner of Big Dave's Cheesesteaks, a non-vegan cheesesteak restaurant based in Atlanta.[23] They have a daughter, D'Ella (born 2021), and son, Derrick Jr. (born 2022). Hayes has two daughters from a previous relationship, Dallas and Denver. At their 2023 wedding, the couple announced Cole was pregnant and they are expecting a third child, a boy, in December.[24]
Cole and fellow alumna Stacy Lee paid the tuition of 30 Clark Atlanta University seniors in September 2019.[25][26]
In May 2022, Cole gifted an LLC to every graduating student at the Clark Atlanta University commencement ceremony.[27][28]
Cole runs her own philanthropic organization, The Pinky Cole Foundation, which focuses on providing financial support and educational programs for children of color.[29]
