One of New York City’s most quietly endangered restaurants has a future again. Caravan of Dreams—the East Village organic, plant-based institution opened 35 years ago by entrepreneur Angel Moreno—was within weeks of closing permanently when a social media post and tens of thousands of strangers together pulled it back from the edge.
Moreno, 76, had spent several years absorbing a near-impossible series of financial hits just to keep the restaurant alive. After the pandemic hollowed out a once-packed dining room, he maxed out his credit cards and drew down a $150,000 small business loan to cover operating costs. Then came the deeper loss: $300,000—his entire life savings—handed to an investment professional introduced who promised capital preservation and a high monthly rate of return. The returns held for a few months, then the money, and the man, were gone. Because the arrangement had been structured as an investment, Moreno was left with little legal recourse.
By last month, his debt stood at $200,000, and he couldn’t cover rent. He remained open only because of a “miracle” clerical error by his landlord.
Humans of New York
A restaurant that defies business logic
Moreno’s story gained widespread attention after being featured by Humans of New York, a viral storytelling project created by photographer Brandon Stanton. Stanton’s post—garnering nearly 50,000 likes on Instagram and 45,000 on Facebook—featured an interview with Moreno’s parter Mercedes Gallego, who has watched him run Caravan of Dreams for years with equal parts admiration and unease.
“I’m a journalist. I’m very logical, I follow facts. But Angel is the opposite,” Gallego said.
“He has this irrational, childlike faith that everything is going to work out, and it opens doors to miracles. How else can you explain this place? A vegan restaurant run by a completely irrational man who only follows his passions, surviving for 35 years in the heart of Manhattan.”
“Caravan of Dreams has no business model,” she continued. “Even in the good years, it barely made money, because Angel only cares about having the purest and highest of everything. He imports all his olive oil from one region in Morocco. Not for taste—it’s more bitter—but because it has the most polyphenols. He spends $16-a-loaf to serve the healthiest possible bread, and a lot of people just throw their slice away. He serves the cleanest water in the city; he filters it seven times. None of this makes any business sense, but Angel has no aspirations for material goods.”
The pandemic accelerated what had already become a slow, grinding erosion of the restaurant’s regulars. “For decades Caravan of Dreams was one of the trendiest restaurants in the city … Now there are nights with only two or three customers. On the bad nights I look at him and he looks ten years older: his posture, the light in his eyes. Recently he was taken advantage of by someone offering to invest his money … Angel lost everything, $300,000. He’s running the restaurant on credit now. Angel is 76, and I hate to see him taking on so much debt at the end of his life. Every day he stays open, he loses more money, and takes on more debt. But he won’t close the doors because Caravan of Dreams has never been just a restaurant to him.” she continued.
Humans of New York
How thousands of strangers became his miracle
Stanton’s Humans of New York project has dedicated years to documenting the lives of everyday New Yorkers, and shared Moreno’s story hoping to drive some foot traffic to the restaurant. The post included a link to an old GoFundMe Moreno created that had attracted very little attention on its own. Within 48 hours, nearly $175,000 had arrived from thousands of donors. Today, nearly 9,000 donors have raised $306,000—96 percent of the $320,000 goal.
Caravan of Dreams, located near the corner of First Avenue and Sixth Street in the East Village, will stay open. In a follow-up post on Humans of New York, Moreno said “In the middle of the chaos there was a miracle,” Moreno said. “Thank you to everyone involved in this fundraiser. Thank you to all the people working here, all the suppliers, thank you to the musicians who come here and share their music, thank you to all the customers—everyone coming to Caravan of Dreams is a potential friend.”
“Thank you to everyone. I love everyone.”
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