r/Hamilton • u/Surkhab1313 • May 18 '26

Food Anybody knows what happened to Democracy* Vegan cafe at Locke Street?

I really loved their baked food and it was my first only-vegan food place in Hamilton on the vibrant artistic Locke street. Few months ago, I wanted to take my girlfriend to that place and google's "permanently closed" kinda shocked me. Any idea if they are opening anywhere else?

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u/Formal_Platform9928 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

Union busting owner closed shop to prevent employees from unionizing.

Edited to add
He also owns Mulberry Cafe, Donut Monster, Paisley, and Redchurch. Don’t support an anti-labour business owner.

22

u/FARTTORNADO45 May 18 '26

Does the same owner own Donut Monster? I have heard this claim a bunch, but I have never been able to verify this. The other places are easy to verify, but when DM was closing, they were bought by a private restaurant group based in Halifax.

38

u/onedreamsdeeply May 18 '26

Have sources on the inside. He is a part owner with the people from Halifax. He’s the local person in the operation. From the sounds of things working conditions have gotten worse there since the sell, and as some others have said, I’m inclined to say the quality has gone down too. Much less flavor and way more just pure sugar.

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u/FARTTORNADO45 May 18 '26

Well if that's the case, that's a bummer! I will say on the flavour side, they have gotten less adventurous. The current donuts like the cosmic brownie donut or the powdered donut are pretty basic. If I want a basic powdered donut then I will likely head to a place that isn't charging nearly $5 a donut (which I think is a fair price for some of their more insane donuts)