Sarma Melngailis

Sarma Melngailis(born September 10, 1972)is an American chef, cookbook author, businesswoman and convicted criminal. She was the owner and co-founder ofPure Food and Wineand One Lucky Duck, bothveganraw foodrestaurants inNew York City.Melngailis' restaurant appeared inNew York Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants round up, and made it intoForbes'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.
Sarma Melngailis was born September 10, 1972, in the United States, and was raised inNewton, Massachusetts.Melngailis's father John Melngailis was born inRiga,Latviaand was a physicist atMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT).Her early interest in food came from her mother, a professional chef. Her parents divorced when she was nine years old.
She attendedNewton North High School.Melngailis graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvaniain 1994 with a B.A. degree, and a B.S. degree in economics from theWharton School.
Melngailis moved to New York City, working at the investment firmBear Stearnsuntil 1996, then moving toBain Capitalin Boston, working inprivate equityinvestment.She returned to New York City in 1998 and joined ahigh-yieldinvestment fund atCIBC, but soon left to enroll at New York'sFrench Culinary Institutefrom which she graduated in 1999.
Together with chef, author, and speakerMatthew Kenney, her then-boyfriend,she opened Commissary in 2001, but it closed in March 2003, after which she consulted forJeffrey Chodorow'sChina 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'sGramercy Parkneighborhood, the restaurant was listed twice inNew York magazine's "Top 100 Restaurants" and in "The Platt 101"and five years in a row inForbesmagazine'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 MelngailisUS$2.1million to buy the business outright.The Pure Food and Wine restaurant closed in spring 2016.
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'sChelsea Marketfrom December 2009 through January 2015.
From 2014 until July 2016, One Lucky Duck Juice and Takeaway operated inSan Antonio, Texas, the first location outside of New York City.
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 withWell+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.
On May 12, 2016, it was reported that Melngailis and her then-husband Anthony Strangiswere arrested inSevierville, Tennessee, after he ordered a pizza fromDomino's Pizza. The couple were staying in separate hotel rooms.
It has been reported that "In addition to the fugitive from justice warrants, Strangis was wanted forgrand larceny, 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 apleadeal in which she would agree to serve one to three years in prison.Melngailis' attorneys were reported byVanity Fairto be planning a "coercive control" 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 2022Netflixdocumentary seriesBad 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.