Where’s the Beef? Maybe at a Butcher Near You!

by Susan Davis on 03/08/09 at 8:42 am

No longer an endangered breed

If anyone is old enough to remember the neighborhood butcher shop, then you’ll also remember the neighborhood bakery, the neighborhood sweet shop and maybe even milk that was delivered before dawn in chilled quart bottles that might have had a little bit of cream floating on top.

For the most part, these neighborhood institutions disappeared with the growth of suburbia, shopping centers, supermarket chains and mass merchandisers like Walmart, that sell all of the above-mentioned items at greatly discounted prices.  It’s made life for the consumer a lot easier in many respects, but it is also the reason small town America has dissolved into a very pale shadow of what it once used to be.  And unless you can afford to shop at pricey specialty stores, you may find it difficult to find specific cuts of meat or even a supermarket butcher who knows the difference between rump and ribs.

But in today’s pre-packaged meat environment, a phoenix may be rising from the ashes.  A new generation – many of them former chefs – is reviving the craft of butchery and helping bring back the traditional butcher shop, but with a new spin.

Butcher Shops are Making a Comeback

Nathan Anda is a former chef who works as an in-house butcher for several specialty restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area.  He knows his way around a carcass.  In his daily job, he uses a variety of cutting tools – knives, cleavers, and even hacksaws, to carve an animal into every conceivable type of meat that will end up on someone’s dinner plate.

“As a chef, you’re trying to get a better product at a better price,” says Anda, in an interview with USA Today.  “Using the whole animal lets you do that. I get both the expensive and inexpensive cuts for less money from a farmer I know and trust.”

Anda is planning to combine his culinary expertise and meat carving skills to open his own butcher shop in the nation’s capital this year.  The specialty store will also feature a small dining area for customers.

A Butcher Grows in Brooklyn

Similar stories abound in other parts of the country.  In New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, the owners of Marlow & Sons opened Marlow & Daughters, bringing an old-world style of butchering to a neighborhood that is undergoing a revival. Marlow & Daughters is part of an emergent group of epicureans who are doing their part to take food production back to the basics.

Meanwhile, in the tony Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, Robert Wiedmaier opened The Butcher Block adjacent to his bistro, Brabo.  Although it may be disguised as a place to pick up prepared foods or a take home meal, the storefront sells prime cuts of meats, and offers regular cooking demonstrations to its upscale clientele.

Nadolski’s Butcher Shop in the bedroom community of Goochland, Virginia is owned by Jonathan Nadolski — “Chef” Jonathan Nadolski.  Once at the helm of the esteemed La Petit France restaurant in Richmond (which recently closed), he opened his butcher shop earlier this year to bring local, farm-fresh meat and produce to his customers, along with  “old world” charm and customer service.  You can pick up everything from sausages to lobster, chicken wings to Fois Gras at Nadolski’s, one of the few places in the area with such a large selection of meat, seafood and poultry.

Customer Service is  Key

Although the average consumer will find less expensive cuts of meat at their local supermarket, specialty butcher shops can provide the prime products that you might find at Whole Foods or Balducci’s, only cheaper.  Plus, butcher shops can provide the customer service that is often missing at larger stores.  Just ask Tia Harrison, one of the three women chef/owners of San Francisco’s Avedano’s, which opened in 2007 in a space that had ironically been a butcher shop, going all the way back to 1901.

“It’s great for customers to be able to come in and get real suggestions on how to prepare things,” says Harrison, to USA Today.

Harrison and her partners provide a full range of meat and grocery products, including grass-fed beef, wild-caught and responsibly farmed fish, seasonal local and organic produce, and handpicked gourmet pantry items.  The owners of Avedano’s see the current crop of butcher shops as a full circle return to a time when you forged relationships with store owners — only with a modern twist to make it worth an extra stop.

“They’ll make that special trip to a butcher shop, but only if you offer them something extra, whether it’s a greater knowledge about their meet, cooking advice or a unique product,” says Harrison.

In other words … great customer service.

Related Link:

Video of the butcher at Marlow & Daughters in action