The curtain is coming down on Sluts, the natural wine bar in San Francisco that opened its doors amid much fanfare but now, not even a year later, is preparing for its final last call on December 31. The owner, Imana, has been hit with a series of financial and reputational blows that have forced her hand. She revealed in an Instagram post that she's been evicted from her apartment and is faced with bankruptcy.
Imana's business troubles have stemmed in part from a prior venture, Hi Felicia, garnering headlines for all the wrong reasons—claims of wage mismanagement and a toxic work environment brimming with sexual harassment allegations, as detailed by Eater SF. However, the restaurateur has been vocal about her intent to set the record straight and fight the narrative presented by the media that she says took a toll on her business and personal life, destroying it and, by extension, the lives of those associated with her like dancers, employees, and vendors, not to mention her wallet.
Amid mounting debts, Imana has stated that several vendors have escalated their efforts to recoup funds by putting her business through collections and slapping liens on her assets, while tax delinquencies loom large with the IRS and the state of California. In a move to somewhat right her sinking ship, she has launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking to raise $55,000, with declared intentions of reimbursing vendors, as quoted in her Instagram appeal, "I owe a lot of money to vendors, and I will be putting up a GoFundMe as a way to pay what I owe."
Imana stands resolute, expressing her saga through social media in a public display of both defensiveness and vulnerability. She has penned a stark admittance of her financial shortcomings, emphasizing the distress the situation has spurred, yet in the same breath, she vows never to "fall into a media trap again, and allow a stranger to take my narrative, chop it up, and use it for what best fits the narrative they want," as described in her Instagram post.
