Bad Vegan documentary filmmakers tease your next true crime obsession

In the late aughts, Sarma Melngailis became one of New York's hottest restaurateurs thanks to Pure Food and Wine, her vegan eatery whose celebrity clientele included Owen Wilson and Alec Baldwin, and her spin-off cookbooks. Over time, the raw food restaurant developed mysterious fiscal issues and closed in 2015. In May of the following year, it was announced that Melngailis and her husband Anthony Strangis had been apprehended in Tennessee by cops who tracked them down because they ordered a pie from Domino's Pizza. Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson subsequently announced that the pair had been arrested on a warrant stemming from an unsealed 24-count indictment in which they were charged with allegedly stealing $844,000 from four investors, shortchanging employees of more than $40,000 in wages, and failing to pay over $400,000 in sales tax.

The tabloid press had a field day with this tale of a vegan fraudster being apprehended in such a fashion with the headline on The Daily Mail website declaring, "Fugitive former owner of New York vegan restaurant popular with A-listers finally arrested after months on the run when she ordered a cheese PIZZA at a Tennessee Domino's." Ultimately, Melngailis and Strangis pled guilty to grand larceny, tax fraud, and conspiring to defraud, and both served time in prison, with Melngailis being sentenced to four months on Rikers Island.

Now, a four-part Netflix documentary, Bad Vegan, from director Chris Smith and executive producer Ryann Fraser corrects one big misconception (the pizza was for Strangis, not the resolutely vegan Melngailis) and digs deep into this extraordinary tale. Melngailis, who is the show's principal interviewee, alleges that Strangis convinced the restaurateur that she and her beloved dog Leon could become immortal if she completed a number of tests. Readers who have watched Netflix's previous documentary show The Tinder Swindler may be unsurprised to learn that these tests often involved wiring Strangis large sums of money.

Bad Vegan director Chris Smith was familiar with Melngailis even before her arrest.

"I didn't live in New York but had learned about the cookbooks and was a big fan of Sarma's," says the filmmaker, who also directed Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened. "We had ordered a dehydrater. We were making raw food at home. I remember I used to look at the cookbooks and it made me feel insignificant. She looked amazing and everything seemed perfect. When the news broke, it was almost something that was inconceivable to me, after my perception of what I imagined her life to be. But at the same time it was one of many news stories that came and went."

Smith realized that he wanted to make a documentary about Melngailis after meeting her around two-and-a-half years ago.

"We found her to be incredibly complicated and complex," he says. "Ryann and I, a year into it, noted that we were still having the same conversations [about her] that we had at the beginning. We looked at that as a good sign."

The director set out to make a documentary which explained how this bright businesswoman fell under the thrall of her partner and his wild promises.

"In short terms, there's a celebrity vegan chef in Manhattan, that has a very respected restaurant, who through a course of events being arrested at a motel room in Tennessee after being traced to the room through a Domino's Pizza order," he says. "That is on the surface what it is. When you think of going from A to B, it seems inconceivable. Our goal was to take the audience on that journey so that they understood how this person of prominence ended up in this position and ended up ultimately going to Riker's Island. One of the biggest challenges that we faced was helping the audience go on the same journey that she went, so you could understand how this happened."

In addition to Melngailis, Smith interviewed her father and a number of former Pure Food and Wine employees, among others. The director did not talk to Strangis, although in the documentary he is heard speaking with Melngailis on recorded telephone calls.

"We tried," says Smith. "He was very difficult to find. Through an associate, we were given like a coded email address, so we wrote to him with an offer to participate and he never replied."

Executive producer Fraser reveals that Melngailis is, mostly, happy with the documentary.

"I watched it with her last week," she says. "I think that it was a very emotional process to see her life sort played out before [her], but I think that she was okay with the documentary. There were things she didn't like but I think ultimately she was relieved."

So, what is Melngailis doing now?

"She's working on a number of different things, but I think getting things back together maybe," says Fraser.

"I'm secretly hoping she opens a restaurant again," says Smith.

Bad Vegan premieres on Netflix March 16. Watch the show's trailer below.

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