Vegan lesbians learn you need more than a gimmick

Handsome Her, the lesbian vegan cafe that charged men 18% extra because men earn more than women, shut down after two years. It was located in Brunswick. a northern suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

The gimmick received worldwide publicity but that did not save the enterprise from folding on Palm Sunday after nearly two years in business.



As a commentator at the Evening Standard said: "Seems like  relying on the sisterhood for support got them nowhere, as they're having to close down. Although they weren't exactly worked to death opening for 5 hours a day."

The lesbian vegan cafe is far from the only establishment in the hospitality industry to charge men more than women. Ladies Nights include half-price drinks for women. No one much cares.

But rather than emphasize on its food, the cafe concentrated on its politics.

And management did not seem to work well with others.

In its "A Handsome Farewell" Facebook post, the establishment's staff settled a few scores.

The farewell said, "We strived to bring lesbianism back into fashion. What, you didn't know it was out of fashion? Well for many of us, it is. It wasn't that long ago that it was illegal to even publish the word lesbian (fun fact, it was only first published when the 'Gay Mardi Gras' became the 'Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras'). Now we have a resurgence or resentment for the term (and identity) and lesbians are being erased from queer culture, whereas gay male culture lives on, strong and unscathed. We were taken aback to find that many people in the LGBTIQA+ community have as much aversion to us using the word 'lesbian' as the men's-rights activists who get a kick out of trolling our lesbian events. Lesbians are lovely and they deserve representation, and we are proud to have created a space for women who love women to celebrate their culture once more."

Food was not mentioned in the farewell. Instead there was a lot of talk about events.

The farewell said, "We have been proud to host an array of inspirational causes and events such as Reclaim the Night, One Girl, V-Day, Invasion Day, Sea Shepherd, Waste-free living workshops, discussion nights, film screenings, book launches, the list goes on."

And the lesbian vegans went out of their way to make the place as customer unfriendly as possible.

The farewell said, "We tried to demonstrate ways of doing business more ethically and responsibly by abandoning take-away cups, single use straws and napkins, by shopping locally and supporting women owned businesses."

The reason restaurants use straws and paper napkins is customers want them. Honest. Straws and paper napkins also are cheaper; reducing costs is a good way of making a sustainable business.

Men did not do them in. Not putting the customer first did.