A vegan restaurant chain has been forced to close for good following furious customers criticizing them for putting meat and cheese on the menu.

Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery closed down on Sunday (January 5), with both its restaurants in Echo Park and Pasadena, California, ceasing operations.

The restaurants were co-owned by Mollie Engelhart and her husband, Elias Sosa.

The owners told Eater that the business had been financially suffering, having been behind on rent and taxes by 2023, so the couple looked for ways to pump more money into the restaurants – even going so far as to selling their California home.

In May 2024, they decided to create more business by introducing meat and cheese to the menu for the first time.

The meat products were produced using ‘regenerative farming’, which, according to The New York Post, is said to have less impact on the environment than traditional farming methods.

Engelhard told Eater: “I thought maybe we could merge these two things, my restaurants and my passion for regenerative agriculture, and come to some new pathway.”

However, this decision faced a lot of backlash from vegan diners and animal rights groups.

Sage restaurant faced major backlash when it added meat and dairy products to the menu (Fox 11 Los Angeles)

Customers flooded to review sites to leave a critical comments about the restaurant, with one person claiming on Yelp that they were ‘sure y’all lost a lot of your vegan base when you added meat’.

Protesters also showed up at the restaurant, with one protest causing the restaurant to close early, FOX 11 Los Angeles reports.

This ultimately led Sage back to where they’d previously started, with Engelhart telling Eater: “Now we just find ourselves in the exact same position, deep in debt and unable to make payroll, bouncing checks to vendors.”

She continued: “I think that Sage closing is a reflection of how disconnected we are from our food systems,” adding that it was a ‘sad victory’ for those who’d protested against the menu change.

On January 2, Sage announced their closure on Instagram, writing on the social media site: “It is with a heavy heart that we close the chapter on Sage.”

The statement continued: “We all poured our passion into shifting the concept to regenerative agriculture, but despite our efforts, we find ourselves in the same predicament today.

“Sunday, January 5th will be our final day of service. We invite you to visit us during our last week. Thank you for 14 incredible years of support.

“With love from the Sage family, Mollie & Elias, we say goodbye.”

With the restaurant’s closure, Englehart and Sosa are focusing on their regenerative farm in Texas, Eater reports, with Englehart adding: “I hope that customers choose farmers, choose local, and choose the highest quality ingredients.”

She also said that she was ‘incredibly grateful to have been able to serve the LA community for so long’.

UNILAD has reached out to Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery for further comment.

The family of a man who had been diagnosed with cancer is suing an Oregon hospital for almost $1,000,000 after his face allegedly caught fire while he lay awake for a surgery.

John Michael Murdoch visited the Oregon Health & Science University to undergo surgery in December 2022, after he had been diagnosed with a form of cancer in his tongue called squamous cell carcinoma.

Murdoch was set to undergo a tracheostomy, which would create a hole in his neck for him to breathe through, but his face allegedly caught fire when a spark from a surgical tool ignited alcohol which was being used for the procedure.

One of the surgeons has been named in the lawsuit (Getty Stock Photo)

Now Murdoch’s wife, Toni Murdoch, has filed a $900,000 lawsuit which claims the tool had a history of sparking and that the spark was fueled by the use of oxygen and unevaporated isopropyl alcohol.

According to the lawsuit, Murdoch was ‘awake and conscious’ when the fire broke out. The patient suffered scars, swelling and wounds to his face due to the alleged incident, the lawsuit also claims.

Though he was unable to speak clearly at the time, his wife says he was able to express the trauma he went through.

Murdoch lived with his wounds for six months before he died of his cancer in June 2023.

Ron Cheng, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit last month, said to The Oregionian the alleged incident is one that ‘never should have happened’.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Health & Science University, and the physician listed in the lawsuit, Dr. Adam Howard, have declined to respond to the matter due to patient privacy laws.

Murdoch passed away in June 2023 (Family Handout)

Records from Oregon Medical Board show Howard became licensed to practice medicine in Oregon in 2022, The Oregonian further reports.

In January 2024, Howard’s medical license switched to ‘Lapsed’ status.

Though Cheng has argued the incident should have ‘never happened’, the Emergency Care Research Institute has reported that an estimated 90 to 100 surgical fires take place in the United States each year.

The Joint Commission, an organization which works to improve patient safety, has warned of three elements which can increase the risk of a fire: oxygen, ignition sources and fuel.

Toni Murdoch’s lawsuit alleges all three of these elements were present when the fire started.

As well as his wife, the Oregon man is survived by his parents, step-children, brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews.

UNILAD has reached out to the Oregon Health & Science University for additional comment.

An expert has spoken out on the downsides of following an influencer’s extreme diet that has seen her apparently skip carbs completely for the last six years.

Social media influencer Bella, who goes by @steakandbuttergal on Instagram, is a musician – but her page largely documents what she eats as part of her unconventional diet.

Bella claims to have not eaten any carbs, fruit or vegetables in six years.

A woman has claimed that she’s not had a carb in six years (@steakandbuttergal/Instagram)

“I hate to break it to you, but you do not need to eat carbs,” she told her 420,000 followers in one video. “I have not eaten a single carb, piece of fruit or vegetable in six years and I’m not dying of low energy, nor have I wrecked my hormones.”

Ultimately Bella, who also says that she eats a whole block of butter a day, claims that the carnivore diet has helped her lose 25 pounds, made her periods ‘painless’ and made her taller.

She added that her body now burns fat for fuel.

In the wake of her outlandish claims, a PhD pharmacy student and fitness coach has spoken out and warned about the negative long-term affects this kind of diet can have on a person.

“You can believe some random influencer, we can believe the entire science community,” Angel began.

Bella follows a carnivore diet (@steakandbuttergal/Instagram)

“Carnivore diet might put you in a calorie deficit, so you might lose weight. Cool. [But] you could also just be in a regular calorie deficit, flexible dieting, eating chocolate, eating pasta and still having some balance there.”

She continued: “Over the long term, you might have a low fibre intake that will affect your gut. That is not good for you.

“You’ll also get less vitamins and minerals, for example vitamin C. So it might be well and good that you’re getting lots of iron from these meats, but if you don’t have any vitamin C to help you with absorption, you’re actually not going to be getting the benefits you think you are.”

Angel went on to warn about the issue of having too many saturated fats in your diet, which could lead to high cholesterol in the long-run.

Long story short, it’s good to have a diverse diet.

Explaining why, Love Your Gut’s website states: “Different foods are made up of varying amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals.

“All these nutrients provide your body with energy and elements to help it function at its best day after day.”

It adds: “How can you ensure you’re getting enough nutrients to fuel your body every day? Well, the answer is to have a diverse diet and to diversify your dietary choices.”

Before embarking on extreme diets such as the one Bella follows, it’s always important to consult a healthcare professional first.