LesbiVeggies reopens as a dining destination in downtown Camden

Five years after opening her first incarnation of LesbiVeggies as a 23-year-old first-time restaurateur, Brennah Lambert opens a new chapter this week in downtown Camden — one she says feels more fully like her.

When she opened LesbiVeggies in Audubon, Camden County, in February 2021, the story was much different: A South Jersey high school and college basketball player with a business degree from Rutgers, who had taught herself to cook after changing her diet for health reasons, built a meal-prep business through word of mouth, and turned that hustle into a vegan, gluten-free restaurant that opened during the peak of the pandemic. The restaurant’s name, she said, is “a fun play on words. It represents me. I’m gay, and this is my business.”

Now 29, Lambert talks less like someone who stumbled into the business than someone shaped by it.

“I think the main word for me is growth,” Lambert said as she prepped for her opening, the RiverLine trolley chugging by her front window. “I started out with no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how to cook. I taught myself how to cook, learned that, and then opened up a restaurant with no idea what I was doing, and learned that. Now, I feel more like I have my feet about me.”

LesbiVeggies closed in December 2024, ending a run that gave South Jersey vegan diners a destination for hearty plant-based food such as peach cobbler pancakes and blackened Cajun cauliflower sandwiches. Lambert said it was an important starting point, but not the right long-term fit.

“I think after the first year or so, I was kind of like, ‘All right, I’m not really 100% feeling this. I want maybe a little bit of a bigger space. I want a different kind of crowd around me,’” she said. “I just didn’t feel like I necessarily fit in.”

A possible move to Woodbury surfaced through a grant opportunity, but that plan fizzled. Camden, Lambert said, felt right almost immediately.

“I just liked the vibe,” she said of the Fourth Street space, a former eatery near Rutgers-Camden, the courthouse, and the post office. “I liked the potential. I wanted the brick, I wanted the kind of intimate space and all this moodiness. And a lot of the bones were already here for me to play with.”

The industrial-look dining room, with brick walls and black ductwork, is only slightly larger than her Audubon storefront — about 28 seats, compared with 24 before — but Lambert is aiming for something different. The Camden restaurant is less a takeout operation than a dinner destination where she wants people to sit and stay. She still plans to offer takeout, but also plans to host private events, ticketed brunches, and occasional more intimate, speakeasy-style dinners.

The menu reflects that evolution. In 2021, Lambert’s food already was substantial and personal. In Camden, she said, she is leaning harder into her identity as a chef.

“I think I’ve just been taking myself more seriously as a chef and kind of stepping into that identity,” she said. “Before, I didn’t want to call myself a chef or anything like that, because I just felt like I was learning.”

That confidence shows up in such dishes as eggplant Parm terrine made with her almond-based ricotta; fried oyster mushrooms in a creamy romesco sauce; maple Dijon brussels sprouts; and albondigas in a tomato sauce sharpened with chipotle. Everything is priced under $20. For dessert, there’s a vanilla cake with matcha frosting, topped with strawberry compote and mint. There are also two nonalcoholic drinks.

Lambert said Camden has offered something else she values just as much as the physical space: a sense of welcome.

“Genuine support and community, yes,” she said. “That is the most valuable thing for me as far as being in a space. I just feel great about it. And this just feels like it’s right.”

LesbiVeggies, 39 Fourth St, Camden, 856-531-0276. Hours: 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Free parking in the lot next door after 4 p.m.