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Sarma Melngailis (born September 10, 1972) is an American chef, cookbook author, businesswoman and convicted criminal. She was the owner and co-founder of Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck, both
vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
raw food Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the diet (nutrition), dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is cooking, uncooked and processed food, unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and resu ...
restaurants in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Melngailis' restaurant appeared in ''
New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
''s Top 100 Restaurants round up, and made it into ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' list of All Star New York Eateries for five consecutive years. Both businesses closed in 2016 after staff walked out over unpaid wages. After fleeing New York, Melngailis was tracked down in Tennessee and arrested for fraud in 2016. She was convicted in 2017.


Early life and education

Sarma Melngailis was born September 10, 1972, in the United States, and was raised in
Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...
. Melngailis's father John Melngailis was born in
Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
,
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
and was a physicist at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT). Her early interest in food came from her mother, a professional chef. Her parents divorced when she was nine years old. She attended
Newton North High School Newton North High School, formerly Newton High School, is the larger and longer-established of two public high schools in Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the other being Newton South High School. It is located in the village of Newtonvill ...
. Melngailis graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1994 with a B.A. degree, and a B.S. degree in economics from the
Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...
. Melngailis moved to New York City, working at the investment firm
Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was an American investment bank, securities trading, and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. After its closure it was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chas ...
until 1996, then moving to
Bain Capital Bain Capital, LP is an American Investment company, private investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, with around $185 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, p ...
in Boston, working in
private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...
investment. She returned to New York City in 1998 and joined a high-yield investment fund at
CIBC The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...
, but soon left to enroll at New York's
French Culinary Institute The International Culinary Center (originally known as the French Culinary Institute) was a private for-profit culinary school from 1984 to 2020 headquartered in New York City, New York. The facilities included professional kitchens for hands- ...
from which she graduated in 1999.


Career


Restaurants

Together with chef, author, and speaker Matthew Kenney, her then-boyfriend, she opened Commissary in 2001, but it closed in March 2003, after which she consulted for Jeffrey Chodorow's China Grill Management. In June 2004, Melngailis with Chodorow and Kenney, opened Pure Food and Wine as New York City's first upscale raw food restaurant. Located in Manhattan's
Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park, and the surrounding neighborhood (which is also referred to as Gramercy), in Manhattan in New York City. The approximately park, located ...
neighborhood, the restaurant was listed twice in ''New York magazine''s "Top 100 Restaurants" and in "The Platt 101" and five years in a row in ''Forbes'' magazine's list of "All Star New York Eateries." In 2009, Melngailis believed that Kenney gave inadequate attention to the financial side of the Pure Food and Wine operation; Chodorow, taken by the strength of her business school and financial background, expelled Kenney from the operation and lent Melngailis million to buy the business outright. The trio opened One Lucky Duck Juice and Takeaway in 2007, a takeaway retail store attached to Pure Food and Wine. The website OneLuckyDuck.com, launched in 2005, was an online store for snacks prepared and packaged from Pure Food and Wine, as well as ingredients, skincare, supplements, books, apparel, and home products, all related to raw and organic living. A second One Lucky Duck location was open in New York City's
Chelsea Market Chelsea Market is a food hall, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The Chelsea Market complex occupies an entire city block with a ...
from December 2009 through January 2015. From 2014 until July 2016, One Lucky Duck Juice and Takeaway operated in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
, the first location outside of New York City.


Controversy

In January 2015, Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck staff walked out en masse due to Melngailis' failure to pay employees a month's worth of owed wages. This was the second time within a year that a month's worth of wages had been withheld, the first being in July 2014. Melngailis addressed the walkout and subsequent closure of both restaurants in a blog post posted in February 2015. She apologized for the incident, but later deleted the post. In an interview with ''Well+Good'', Melngailis stated that the delayed wages were due to slim margins caused by debts and expensive ingredients, and that she had also previously missed her own rent payments. During the ordeal, Melngailis provided employees with a different explanation, blaming the situation on changing banks. In April 2015, Pure Food and Wine, One Lucky Duck, and OneLuckyDuck.com reopened. A majority of staff did not return to the restaurant after its reopening. In July of that year, the staff of both restaurants walked out due to unpaid wages. Both establishments have been permanently shut down. The Pure Food and Wine restaurant closed in spring 2016.


Arrest and guilty plea

On May 12, 2016, it was reported that Melngailis and her then-husband Anthony Strangis were arrested in
Sevierville, Tennessee Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, United States, located in East Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among th ...
, after he ordered a pizza from
Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...
. The couple were staying in separate hotel rooms. It has been reported that "In addition to the fugitive from justice warrants, Strangis was wanted for
grand larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...
, scheme to defraud and violation of labor law. Melngailis was wanted for grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, scheme to defraud and violation of labor law." On December 19, 2016, prosecutors offered Melngailis a
plea In law, a plea is a defendant's response to a criminal charge. A defendant may plead guilty or not guilty. Depending on jurisdiction, additional pleas may be available, including '' nolo contendere'' (no contest), no case to answer (in the ...
deal in which she would agree to serve one to three years in prison. Melngailis' attorneys were reported by '' Vanity Fair'' to be planning a "
coercive control Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to in ...
" defense. Melngailis pleaded guilty in May 2017 to stealing more than $2,000,000 from investors, and scheming to defraud, as well as criminal tax fraud charges. She received a jail sentence of nearly four months. She filed for divorce from Strangis in May 2018. The 2022
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
documentary series '' Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.'' details Melngailis' scandals, including her relationship with Strangis and her financial crimes. Melngailis disputes the veracity of the series and its conclusions citing numerous misrepresentations of her story in an attempt to heighten drama, particularly in the show’s final minutes.


List of Restaurants


Bibliography

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References


External links


SarmaRaw BlogArchived blog posts by SarmaSarma Melngailis Listing from HarperCollins Publishers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melngailis, Sarma 1972 births American restaurateurs American women restaurateurs American people of Latvian descent Living people People from Newton, Massachusetts Businesspeople from New York City American women company founders American company founders Newton North High School alumni American people convicted of fraud 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American businesswomen Bain Capital people Bear Stearns people