British Columbia’s smaller towns have a lot to offer: beautiful nature, oceanside getaways, a tranquil pace of life. But what they don’t have is good deli. At least they didn’t—until recently.
It’s a mission that the comedy writer Howard “Buzzy” Busgang wanted to take on after leaving his Los Angeles home for Salt Spring Island, B.C. He opened Buzzy’s, a Montreal-style deli, on what he likes to call “an island with more bears than Jews.”
Little did Buzzy know that there was another deli man nearby: Zane Caplansky, owner of Toronto’s famous Caplansky’s chain, had moved to Tofino after nine years of running his shop on College Street. Caplansky isn’t quite out of the business—he still has a restaurant in Toronto’s airport, and sells mustards and merch online and through a few distributors—but by and large, he traded in the hectic life of a seven-day-a-week deli man for one of peacefulness in a peninsula town of fewer than 2,000 people.
The two big-city expats who moved to small-town B.C.—who’ve never met before—both join us today on Yehupetzville, The CJN’s podcast about Jews living small-town Canada, to talk about why they made their life-changing decisions and why they have no regrets.
Listen and subscribe above.
- Learn about Buzzy’s at buzzys.ca
- Learn about Caplansky’s at caplanskys.com
Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada: learn more about them at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network—you can find more great Jewish podcasts every day at thecjn.ca.
