One of New York’s biggest vegan chefs is closing her Brooklyn vegan comfort food restaurant this summer. Owner Isa Chandra Moskowitz will shutter Modern Love at 317 Union Avenue, near South First Street in Williamsburg, sometime in June, after eight years of service.
Moskowitz tells Eater via email that she had to close Modern Love basically because the business model wasn’t working, and she had “to change our entire concept.” The pandemic shift to more deliveries and takeout business “isn’t sustainable for a sit-down restaurant,” she explains. While the restaurant does offer pickup and delivery orders (and, according to her, sales were good), “it’s impossible to absorb the cuts that third-party apps take.” At the same time, earlier in April, Moskowitz urged people to visit the restaurant so she could raise money to fix the air conditioning, opting not to go the GoFundMe route.
This isn’t the end for Modern Love, though — Moskowitz wants to relocate the restaurant with a different service model. She hasn’t set a last date of service yet.
Fellow vegan restaurants like Seasoned Vegan (which also closed in late April) and Toad Style flocked to the Instagram announcement post to share their love and condolences for the restaurant. Meanwhile, fans like singer and musician Ted Leo chimed in, writing that the restaurant is “the best and we’re here for whatever you do next, my friend.”
The restaurant was known for its American vegan comfort food, which New York Magazine described as “ innovative, plant-based renderings of various hearty classics.” That includes dishes like the mushroom fried chick’n, truffled poutine, and the cashew cheddar macaroni.
Brooklyn-native Moskowitz is one of New York’s earlier vegan leaders. She hosted her own cooking show, Post Punk Kitchen, from 2003 to 2005; and wrote cookbooks like Vegan with a Vengeance (2005) and Veganomicon (2007). And actually, she first opened Modern Love in Omaha in 2013. Then she expanded into Brooklyn in 2016. The Nebraska location moved addresses in 2018 and ended up closing in late 2024.
