(Spoilers for Netflix’s Bad Vegan will be found below.)
Bad Vegan tells the story of Sarma Melngailis, the celebrity restauranteur who fell from grace and became a fugitive of the law. Sarma got sucked into a cult-like mentality by Anthony Strangis (who used the pseudonym of “Shane Fox”), who she eventually married and who apparently persuaded her to drain her business accounts for, well, reasons. He had promised to make her dog immortal, among other things, and the smart and successful Sarma — the founder of the wildly popular One Lucky Duck and Pure Food and Wine eateries in NYC — ended up in a bad situation. She served four months in Rikers after pleading guilty to grand larceny. Investors got the shaft, her staff had long since walked out after not being paid, and the eateries shuttered forever.
It’s a sensational true story, for sure, to became known as “the vegan Bernie Madoff.” But there’s a strange Alec Baldwin connection here, so let’s dig into that gossipy tidbit.
Alec and Sarma were friends, and he may have wanted to be more than friends, and one doesn’t even have to watch Bad Vegan to see that suggestion. Alec was a huge fan of Pure Food and Wine, and on July 26, 2011, he tweeted, “… when in NY, folks, go to Pure Food and Wine on Irving Place. Even if just to stare at @Sarma.”
Well, Sarma and Alec never actually got together (for reasons disclosed in Bad Vegan), and Alec actually met the woman who would become his wife (Hilaria) while dining at Pure. In 2019, Alec posted an Instagram tribute to how he met Hilaria: “8 years ago, I wandered into Pure Food and Wine on Irving Place, on an unseasonably warm February evening… I turned to my left I saw a woman who would change my life. Entirely.”
Sarma had continued to exchange banter on Twitter with Alec, and she soon noticed a man joking around with Alec and asking him for advice. In 2020, The Daily Beast characterized this man, who was Anthony Strangis, as a hustler, and yep, that’s about right. There’s no real sense that Alec actually knew the guy beyond exchanging tweets, and Sarma began talking with Strangis online. Soon enough, she fell under his spell, and she was giving him money and generally falling under Anthony’s spell. Bad Vegan details what came next and how, eventually, the law came for both of them.
Bad Vegan (from executive producer Chris Smith of Tiger King and Fyre: The Greatest Party) will stream on March 16.
