Minneapolis vegan ‘butcher’ shop temporarily closes after building fire

The Herbivorous Butcher is temporarily closed after a Tuesday night fire wrought damage on the building that houses Minneapolis’ vegan “meat” shop.

“We are heartbroken,” the proprietors wrote on social media Wednesday.

The shop is now closed, and sales on delivery platforms have been halted “until we can assess the damage and begin to rebuild,” they wrote.

Founded in 2014 by siblings Aubry Walch and Kale Walch, the Herbivorous Butcher began as a Minneapolis Farmers Market experiment and in 2016 turned into a hit brick-and-mortar store in northeast Minneapolis that ships nationwide. At the heart of their operation are housemade proteins that stand in for animal products, such as vegan Korean BBQ ribs, chorizo sausage and Brie cheese.

According to a release from the Minneapolis Fire Department, fire crews were dispatched to 507 1st Av. NE. at approximately 9:10 p.m and forced entry to find smoke on the first floor and a fire above the kitchen area, between the first and second floors. The sprinkler system extinguished most of the fire, but the crew had to cut a hole between the floors to put out remaining embers. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

“The fire department had to flood the space, and everything is now a mess,” the Herbivorous Butcher team wrote. “We’re still taking it all in — and figuring out what comes next."

The Walches have set up a GoFundMe to help with cleanup, repair and restoring operations.

Fortunately, the equipment for making vegan cheese and for steaming and smoking the vegan meats seem to have survived unscathed, said Kale Walch, who was feeling “optimistic” the day after the fire.

“A small business is an interesting series of bumps along a rustic back road, and it’s just another change to the equation,” he said. “We survived a pandemic. We’ve done worse, and we’ll do it again. We can handle it.”

The duo also own J. Selby’s vegan restaurant in St. Paul. They’ll move some food production to that location, at 169 N. Victoria St.

“I’m gonna try to do as much as I can out of there,” Kale Walch said. “I’ll probably be doing even more.”

He was still assessing how much product was lost in the fire. “I spent about 30 hours in all making a fried chicken order for some of our wholesale customers. I’m just hoping it was in cold storage located elsewhere rather than in the refrigerators in there,” he said.

But faced with the possibility of losing it all, all he could do was laugh. “You know, smoked chicken, there’s a market for it.”