"We have officially closed our SDSU location as our lease has come to an end," the message reads. "We’re incredibly grateful to the SDSU community for the years of support, good vibes, and shared meals."
The SDSU outpost opened in 2019 at 5842 Hardy Avenue, taking over a former Den by Denny’s. Unlike the brand’s drive-thru models, it operated as a counter-service restaurant catering primarily to students and the surrounding Rolando community. For years, it served as a busy hub for late-night meals, vegan comfort food, and an alternative to mainstream fast food near campus.
Plant Power was founded in 2016 by Mitch Wallis, who previously launched Hillcrest’s Evolution Fast Food, along with co-founders Zach Vouga and Jeffrey Harris. The first location debuted in Ocean Beach, where it quickly became a sensation for its meatless versions of American fast-food staples. A second outpost in Encinitas followed in 2017, then Redlands, UC San Diego, and a wave of locations across California. By the early 2020s, Plant Power had grown to nearly a dozen restaurants and positioned itself as a pioneer in the rapidly growing vegan fast food sector, even launching ambitious fundraising efforts to take the brand national.
But despite its early momentum, Plant Power has faced setbacks in recent years. Locations in Carmel Mountain Ranch and Anaheim shuttered, and the SDSU closure marks another contraction of its San Diego footprint. The original Ocean Beach restaurant continues to operate, along with branches in Encinitas, Escondido, UCSD, Long Beach, Hollywood, Sacramento, and Redlands.
Alongside the official announcement, employee allegations have surfaced on Reddit suggesting that staff at the SDSU location were not informed of the impending closure until the very last day of operations. One former worker claimed they arrived for their shift only to be told the restaurant was shutting down permanently and that they would need to file for unemployment. The same source alleged that management had been aware of the closure plans for months but withheld the information in order to keep the restaurant staffed through its final days.
"They said that they had known for months and had been trying to stop it. If you had known for months why wouldn’t you tell us?" the former employee recounted. Another claimed that staff were deliberately kept in the dark out of concern they would quit early if told in advance. While these accounts remain unverified, they highlight the human toll of sudden restaurant closures in an industry where many workers live paycheck to paycheck.
Despite these controversies, Plant Power remains a recognizable name in California’s vegan dining scene, with its menu of plant-based burgers, "chicken" sandwiches, breakfast items, and shakes continuing to draw fans. Its Ocean Beach flagship, now nearly a decade old, stands as both a reminder of San Diego’s role in the early vegan fast food movement and a test of whether the brand can sustain its identity amid a shifting industry and scaled-back footprint. For now, the SDSU closure underscores both the promise and the challenges of building a vegan fast food empire from the ground up.
For more information about Plant Power Fast Food, visit plantpowerfastfood.com.
Originally published on August 30, 2025.
