Sarma Melngailis: who is Pure Food and Wine co-founder in Netflix show Bad Vegan - and where is she now?

From the producer of Tiger King and director of Fyre, new Netflix documentary series Bad Vegan unravels the bizarre story of raw vegan restaurant icon Sarma Melngailis.

Told through interviews with former staff at her upmarket restaurant Pure Food and Wine, and Melngailis herself, there are plenty of twists in this tale.

Netflix’s synopsis for the four part documentary reads: “After marrying a mysterious man who claimed he could make her dog immortal, a celebrated vegan restaurateur finds her life veering off the rails.”

If that’s not enough of a hook, I don’t know what is. Clearly, there’s plenty to unpack here, so let’s get started.

Who is Sarma Melngailis?

Melngailis opened her New York restaurant Pure Food and Wine in 2005 and it became the place to be for vegan cuisine, attracting the likes of Alec Baldwin and Owen Wilson.

Six years later, and with no end in sight to the restaurant’s success, Melngailis met Anthony Strangis (who went by the name Shane Fox) online and they were married within a year.

Strangis began spending his wife’s money, excusing his spending with vague promises that he would make her rich.

He also told her that he was centuries old and he could make her immortal, and as if that wasn’t enough, he said he would throw everlasting life for her dog into the bargain.

It’s also worth mentioning that Strangis allegedly told Melngailis that as well as being immortal he was a non-human who lived inside a ‘meat suit’, or human body in layman’s terms.

Still in the thrall of the meat suit man, but without enough money to pay her staff, Melngailis borrowed money from her company on behalf of her fraudster husband.

After stealing roughly £1.5 million from the restaurant, the pair fled New York but were caught by the police after Strangis ordered pizza to the hotel where they were holed up using his real name.

Facing 15 years in prison, Melngailis took a plea deal, pleading guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from an investor, and criminal tax fraud charges.

She was sentenced to four months in prison and filed for divorce from Strangis immediately after her release in 2018.

What happened to Anthony Strangis?

It was revealed in an indictment that Strangis had been playing fast and loose with his illicitly gained money.

He spent more than £900,000 at casinos, over £100,000 on luxury watches and hotels, and more than £7,000 on Uber trips.

There are no records of a single penny being spent on dog immortality serum.

After being arrested and also facing 15 years behind bars, Strangis also chose to take a plea deal.

He was sentenced to one year in prison, and five years probation, which will end in May 2022 if he doesn’t commit another crime before then.

Where is Sarma Melngailis now?

After her release from prison Melngailis wrote on her blog, Sarma Raw, that she wanted to get her brand and restaurant back.

Melngailis returned to her apartment in Harlem, with her pitbull, Leon, who is still alive (although probably not immortal).

Melngailis also stated that while she didn’t make any money from her appearance in the documentary, she did insist that the producers paid the amount that her former employees were owed.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. You can also sign up to our newsletters and get a curated selection of our best reads to your inbox every day.