High-street butchers suffered as customers flocked to the mults, but now some are fighting back by reinventing the traditional format. Here’s our pick of five of the most innovative…
Charlotte’s Butchery
Owner: Charlotte Harbottle
Opened: 18 January 2013
Location: Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne
What’s your story? “I was studying for a degree in Theology and Religious Studies when I ran out of money,” says Harbottle. “I got a job in a butcher in the North East and I fell in love with it. Then I moved to London and worked with O’Shea’s in Knightsbridge and Lidgate’s in Holland Park. Visiting home in Newcastle I discovered a shop for sale and the rest is history. I spend my time in the shop, doing public demonstrations, writing about food and enthusing about meat. I am the luckiest woman alive.”
What makes you different? “I have a lot of respect for the tradition of butchery and I’m incredibly proud to be entrenched in such history and ritual. However, I also find that butchery has an unapproachable and archaic side. I wanted to challenge the idea that butchers were intimidating and difficult to communicate with. I also love how creative this job is. We experiment with bits of offal all the time.”
The Grocer says: Harbottle brings an experimental approach which has seen her win awards for creativity. And offal is the way to many a foodie’s heart, a trend long since recognised by Charlotte’s Butchery.
Barbecoa
Owner: Jamie Oliver
Opened: October 2010
Location: St Paul’s, London
What’s your story? “When the idea of Barbecoa was first conceived, we agreed we would only ever use the best possible cuts of meat available,” says a spokesman. “To achieve the level of quality we wanted as well as the consistency, we knew we would have to manage the entire process from farm to plate. The idea of having our own shop sprang from there.”
What makes you different? “We go to enormous lengths to secure the exact grade of the meat we want. We have fantastic relationships with the farms and abattoirs, and we also grade on intra-muscular fat, or ‘marbling’. We receive all our meat fresh, so we know exactly what we are getting and can really inspect the cut. And all the ageing happens in-house– it’s a labour of love, but the end produce is unlike anything else.”
The Grocer says: Possibly the most visually stunning butcher in the UK, Barbecoa drags the butchers’ shop into the future. Inside also looks fantastic, with cuts of meat hanging all over the walls and whole pigs hanging upside down, waiting to be butchered.
Muddy Boots Meat Shop
Owners: Miranda and Roland Ballard
Opened: 25 April 2014
Location: Crouch End, North London
What’s your story? “We started Muddy Boots five years ago,” says Miranda Ballard. “Today we make top-end burgers, meatballs and meatloaf and our main supply contracts are with Waitrose and Ocado. We were intent on targeting the supermarkets initially but we’ve decided to start our own chain of high street retail shops.”
What makes you different? “We’re open from 8am to 10pm and Sundays. We have an alcohol licence and will serve platters of charcuterie with drinks in the evenings. Shoppers will be able to order online and click and collect within two hours – and we think we can get that down to one. We can try so many new products and take data to Waitrose and Ocado with a really good indication that something works.”
The Grocer says: When Muddy Boots throws open its doors for the first time, customers will find it has ripped up the manual. Click and collect is clever. The social element is fun. But arguably most important is the long opening hours, which make Muddy Boots an option for the commuter who might otherwise have gone to a c-store for their sausages.
The Meat Merchant
Owner: Peter Hannan
Opened: September 2009
Location: Moira, Northern Ireland
What’s your story? “As Hannans, we have been in business for 24 years supplying to the catering trade. In 2009, we opened our first shop, The Meat Merchant, offering the public the chance to buy restaurant-quality food at wholesale prices,” says Peter Hannan. “We have been growing steadily and now employ 21 people and have a turnover of £7.5m.”
What makes you different? “We are at the forefront of new methods in dry-ageing beef. In May 2012, we built Europe’s first salt chamber, a 12-foot high, 4-ton wall of hand-cut Himalayan rock salt bricks. It helps to draw out moisture and slowly seasons and sweetens the meat, resulting in a totally unique sweet and flavoursome end product. Demand has been so high we have had to build another salt chamber four times the size of our first one.”
The Grocer says: The Meat Merchant’s Himalayan salt chamber delivers stunning meat that makes even the most devoted carnivores swoon. On a Saturday, the shop is only open between 8am and 2pm, but almost 1,000 hungry shoppers hit the store to buy meat, spending “way above the average” for a butcher shop.
Gafoor Pure Halal
Owner: Gafoor Pure Halal
Opened: December 2013
Location: Upton Park, East London
What’s your story? “In 1964, a hardworking family set up a farm in Lancashire to grow vegetables and breed chickens,” says a spokesman. “The business flourished. Today, the first generation has retired, but it passed those values to the next generations of family members.”
What makes you different? “Ozayr Patel is propelling the retail business in a different direction. Gone are the traditional halal displays. Instead, hygiene, presentation and branding are central. We use shrink-wrap packs, which appeals to our new generation of shoppers. Although the packaging met with resistance from the older generation, they are slowly coming round.”
The Grocer says: After successfully supplying retailers, Gafoor’s move into retail has seen family member Ozayr Patel introduce relatively innovative concepts to the older halal shopper, while firmly adhering to the traditions of halal butchery.
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