Irregardless opened as Raleigh’s first vegetarian restaurant when Arthur Gordon opened it with a bunch of college friends in 1975. Arthur eventually bought his friends out and ran the restaurant for decades. Arthur was often ahead of the curve. He banned smoking in 1985 and added solar panels to the roof and opened a farm in 2012. Arthur Gordon sold the building and the business in January 2020. David Meeker bought the building and Lee Robinson, a longtime front-of-the-house restaurant guy in town, bought the business. Robinson joined Jeff Hamlin to discuss the history of Irregardless.