Liora and Double Zero, elevated vegan restaurants at 414 Light St., have shut down, according to general manager Kari Bryan. Their last day in operation was April 16.

The side-by-side concepts were launched in 2021 by Matthew Kenney, a California celebrity chef whose restaurant concepts span the globe from Australia to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and who was featured in the Netflix documentary “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.”

Carrot nori rolls with jalapeño, radish and sprouts at Liora, the sister restaurant of Double Zero. (Shan Wallace/The Baltimore Banner)

In Baltimore, Liora served a menu of high-end fare while Double Zero’s focus was pizza. The sister restaurants occupied the ground floor of a luxury high-rise owned by Questar Properties, which calls it the tallest residential building in the state.

Stephen Gorn — the CEO of Questar Properties who was instrumental in bringing the plant-based concepts to Baltimore — did not respond to messages from The Baltimore Banner.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Beat down by crime, disinvestment and a pandemic, can downtown Baltimore recover?

Printed signs on the door of the restaurants refer to the closures as temporary and say, “We hope to see you again soon!”

But Bryan said both “are permanently closed.” She added that she and the restaurants’ executive chef hope to open another plant-based concept in the old space without help from Kenney. “It really hurts our hearts to do this,” she said of the closures. “We want to bring something amazing” to the building, she said.

christina.tkacik@thebaltimorebanner.com

More From The Banner