Toronto Foodies Flock to Veggie ‘Butcher Shop’

Michael Abramson presents Yam Chops’ carrot “lox”. Photographs courtesy of Yam Chops.
That luscious lox is made of carrots. Silky cream cheese comes from cashews. And the crispy bacon? Maple-marinated coconut.
Welcome to Yam Chops, the herbivore paradise that bills itself as Canada’s first “vegetarian butcher.”
“We’re about non-meat meat that tastes great, with great texture,” said Jess Abramson, whose family runs the shiny storefront next to a chicken shop in Toronto’s Little Italy. “We’re describing that act of putting that protein at the center of your plate, and getting it within easy reach of customers. If you’re a vegetarian, the question of your main meal always haunts you.”
With customers who run the gamut between vegetarians, “flexitarians” and curious carnivores, Yam Chops has earned a fanatical following among Toronto foodies. “We’re a throwback to what a butcher shop might have been 100 years ago, where they knew your name and what you liked,” Abramson said. “We encourage people to taste, guide them around the store, open cases for them. People crave that kind of service now.”
Yam Chops burgers, made with beets.
They’re also lining up for treats like highly rated burgers based on sweet potatoes or beets; orzo and farro salads; rich mushroom-barley soup; and plant-based “chicken” shawarma. The hugely popular bacon bathes organic coconut flakes in a “slightly smoky, slightly salty, slightly maple-y marinade” and bakes them until crisp.
And for that lox? The Yam Chops crew starts by slicing large carrots on a mandolin, then sprinkling the slices with a dry “marinade” of cracked black pepper, smoked sea salt and brown sugar. After the carrots have marinated, they add a wet marinade of egg replacer, lemon zest, olive oil and water. The slices bake for about 20 minutes, which adds a slightly sweet note and creates the lox texture, Abramson said.
‘Lox’ made from carrots is topped with cashew cream, capers and dill.
“We always serve it topped with house-made cashew cream, capers and dill. The resulting carrot ‘lox’ hits all the flavor notes of smoked salmon except the strong fishy flavor. Topped up, it’s a very similar experience — or for a non-seafood lover, even improved,” she said. As complex as they sound, “a lot of these recipes are from my father’s experiments in the kitchen,” Abramson laughed.
Before opening Yam Chops in 2014, the Abramsons had never run a food business. Abramson’s parents, Michael and Toni, ran an ad agency that employed Jess and her sister Leya, who now runs Yam Chops’ social media operations. After they sold the business, Michael — like Jess, a longtime vegetarian — decided on a vegetarian eatery as his next act.
The place took off almost instantaneously — “without sending a single press release,” noted Abramson, who oversees Yam Chops’ burgeoning juice business. “It’s been crazy.” More than 100 requests for franchising have reached the Abramsons, but that’s not where the family business is heading.
Nor is kosher certification. Though there’s “no meat in our building” and its products are all plant-based, Yam Chops doesn’t have a kosher stamp — and probably won’t get it. “One thing that prevents us from going kosher is that we’ve been asked to close on Saturdays to get the certification. But that’s our biggest day,” Abramson said.
Michael Kaminer is a frequent contributor to the Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting
-
Fast Forward Trump fires national security officials, reportedly at urging of Laura Loomer, far-right Jewish ‘Islamophobe’
-
Fast Forward Display honoring Jewish women graduates of naval academy removed ahead of Hegseth visit
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: מיידעלע געפֿינט 3,800־יאָריקע קמיע לעבן בית־שמש, ישׂראלTIDBITS: Little girl finds 3,800-year old amulet near Beit Shemesh, Israel
אַן עקספּערט פֿון פֿאַרצײַטיקע קמיעות האָט באַשטעטיקט אַז די קמיע איז געלעגן אויפֿן אָרט פֿונעם אַמאָליקן לאַנד כּנען.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.