The first plant-based butchery in history began with Jaap Korteweg, who opened his shop, The Vegetarian Butcher, in the heart of the Hague, South Holland, in 2010 (via The Vegetarian Butcher). Today, you can find their vegan meats on the menus of big retailers like Burger King, Dominos, and Starbucks locations across the U.K. (via The Vegetarian Butcher). Six years later, just across the pond, the first vegan butcher shop appeared in the U.S. — and no, it wasn’t in Los Angeles or Portland, but in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city ranked 18th on Forbes‘ list of vegan cities.
Starting in Minneapolis, The Herbivorous Butcher pioneered the vegan butcher movement in North America in 2016 and was followed by the opening of The Very Good Butchers, another vegan butcher shop in Victoria, Canada, a year later (via VegNews). In the years since, dozens of plant-based butchers have opened in cities from Yamchops in Toronto to Monks Meats in Brooklyn, and No Evil Foods in Asheville, North Carolina, to The Butcher’s Son in Berkley, California.