Slutty Vegan's Brooklyn GM becomes its first operating franchisee

Slutty Vegan has named Destiny Correa as its first operating franchisee, converting the plant-based burger brand's Fulton Street restaurant in Brooklyn into an owner-operated franchised location.

Correa had spent almost five years as general manager of the Fulton Street store, which Slutty Vegan says she helped establish as one of its flagship restaurants. The transition keeps the operator in the same business she managed, but changes her role from employee to owner.

Founder and chief executive Pinky Cole Hayes gifted Correa the store and the company said it waived the initial franchise fee and ongoing marketing fee normally associated with a new franchise partner. The structure makes this a notably different kind of franchise launch: a local operating leader is taking over a familiar venue rather than opening an entirely new one.

For franchise systems, it is a useful example of how a brand can build a pathway from store leadership to ownership. It also links succession, retention and local accountability in a single decision. Correa already knows the restaurant's customers, team and day-to-day rhythms; the next test will be how that experience translates into sustained ownership.

The Brooklyn conversion is part of Slutty Vegan's wider national franchise expansion, with the company saying it has previously announced agreements in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Ohio and Atlanta. The brand was founded in Atlanta in 2018 by Cole Hayes and grew from a food-truck concept into a multi-market plant-based fast-casual business.

The move puts the founder's ownership message into a concrete operating model: a manager who helped build a store now holds the keys to it. For prospective franchisees and emerging multi-unit operators, the story is less about a conventional territory deal than about the value of developing proven people from within the system.