She’s back with a-veg-ance!
Page Six hears that disgraced vegan chef and restaurateur Sarma Melngailis is making a sensational comeback attempt.
Sources tell us that Melngailis — who pled guilty to fraud charges in 2017 after she bled her restaurant dry of cash, she claims, while she was under the “coercisive control” of her ex-husband — is trying to reopen the very same Union Square hot spot that she defrauded.
An insider told us that Melngailis — whose downfall was documented in the Netflix hit “Bad Vegan” — is courting investors for the Pure Food & Wine, which was once one of New York magazine’s Top 100 Restaurants but closed in 2016.
(Alec Baldwin famously met Hilaria at the raw eatery.)
Meanwhile, a Page Six spy spotted Melgailis taking what seemed to be a business meeting at a cafe on Irving Place last week before walking across the street to the former Pure space — which we’re told has been empty since her restaurant shuttered — unlocking the doors and showing them inside.
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She appeared on the “Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel” podcast last month, and when Uchitel asked if she’d open a new eatery, she said: “Yes. In the right circumstances.”
She added that her goal is to make enough money to repay anyone who was left out-of-pocket by her misadventures.
“There’s a bunch of different things that I’m working on that could repair the damage, which I take on as my responsibility,” she said, while declining to get into specifics about the putative projects.
She suggested that she needed to find a major cash cow if she hopes to make good on her mistakes.
“People have said, ‘Why don’t you open a food truck?’ or ‘why don’t you do catering?’ And I’m like, that’s not going to make $6 million.”
Melngailis didn’t respond to our request for comment.
