Toronto Butcher Shop to Transform Into Vegan Deli

This summer, Toronto-based vegan deli Jinglepear Deli will open in the space of animal butcher shop Strickland Choice Meats—which previously occupied the space for more than 40 years. The shop will be transformed into a meatless community hub that offers housemade vegan prepared meals, skewers, cutlets, sauces, salads such as potato and macaroni, and sandwiches such as tofu salad, chickpea salad, and Montreal smoked meat. Owner Sinéad Hammons named the deli after an inside joke with her family that involved one of her children, who was not able to get the hang of singing part of a Christmas carol “and a partridge in a pear tree.”

“Things like palm oil, plastic, highly processed, and expensive packaged foods are issues for me, and I ended up having to make the majority of meals and ingredients from scratch for ethical, economical, and environmental reasons,” Hammons told VegNews. “I wanted to bring my personal values as a vegan, a parent, and animal-liberation activist to a business where people could shop for many everyday vegan items they can’t find elsewhere. At the same time, the purpose of Jinglepear Deli is to help everyone eat more vegan and plant-based food, to make it more accessible, to normalize it. I am focusing on showing that healthy, delicious vegan and plant-based food is for everyone.”

Jinglepear Deli plans to open in mid-August for contactless pickup and delivery if the current COVID-19 pandemic does not allow it to welcome customers into the store.