Old-time butcher store revives at The Butchery’s latest site
After a decades-long decline of town butchers showcasing hand-cut meats, a growing demand for alternatives to mass-produced chickens and steaks has inspired a resurgence in boutique butcher shops across the country.
Orange County carnivores can have their choice of Jidori chicken, Kobe beef, buffalo meat and other delicacies, along with charcuterie and aged cheese cut from a wheel, at The Butchery. The meat market and take-out shop has three locations in Orange County, the latest having opened in November in Newport Beach’s Crystal Cove shopping center.
Business partners Brian Smith and Robert Hagopian’s other shops are in Costa Mesa and Brea.
Smith and Hagopian said they wanted to elevate the aesthetic of a classic butcher shop at their latest location by using subway tiles, concrete floors and chalkboards that advertise house-made sandwiches for sale. But otherwise, the shops offer the same goods and service.
Customers can peek through deli cases for items like top-choice and prime beef, grass-fed beef, and all-natural pork and poultry sourced from regional farms and ranches.
All meats can be hand-cut to order and prepared to specifications by butchers.
And on wooden shelves the partners stock wine and beer to pair with, for example, the locally made sausages stuffed with cheddar.
“Our main goal is to have everything taste really good and be the same quality found in high-end restaurants,” Hagopian said during a recent tour of the newest store. “Remember, a good steak only needs salt and pepper.”
He would know.
The business partners, both Laguna Beach residents, met through their children and often found themselves cooking dinner for their families.
They took cooking courses together and wanted to recreate best-practice techniques in their kitchens.
Smith asked professional chefs to name the best place to purchase meat for dishes, but he quickly learned that the only option was mass-produced poultry sold on foam trays and wrapped in plastic.
Frustrated with the lack of quality meats offered in Orange County, Smith and Hagopian discussed opening a business that offered specialty products, from dry-aged beef and Wagyu to bison and venison.
They opened their first butcher shop in Costa Mesa in 2009 and seven years later established their second location, in Brea. With their third site, they plan to cater to Newport Beach and cities south on Pacific Coast Highway.
Smith and Hagopian said they buy from farmers who never feed their animals antibiotics or hormone-like growth promotants and whose meat is free from artificial enhancers, preservatives and chemicals. Poultry is sourced from farms like Snake River Farms and Double R Ranch in the Pacific Northwest and Salmon Creek Farms, based in Twin Falls, Idaho.
The shops carry wet-aged and dry-aged steaks. Wet-aged involves taking a fresh side of meat, vacuum-packing it and letting it age in a refrigerated unit for seven to 28 days. For dry-aging, steaks are hung in coolers for at least 30 days, the evaporation softening the meat.
Hagopian said The Butchery aims to appeal not only to advanced chefs but also novices.
He suggested a house steak tip to a couple who identified themselves as grill beginners. The cut is user-friendly and should be cooked on high heat, Hagopian instructed.
The steak tips offered in the display case are top-choice sirloin flap meat, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture notes as high quality. It is meat that is tender, juicy and flavorful.
The Butchery carries only roasts and steaks that are graded prime or choice, meaning they are the first-and second-highest graded beef. Top-grade meats are harder to mess up in the cooking process.
Seasoned butchers are happy to talk shop and give prep recommendations to the uninitiated customers.
It’s the type of service that retail experts believe has helped increase the demand for specialty-food stores.
According to nonprofit trade organization Specialty Food Assn., specialty foods saw a record year in 2014, when U.S. sales topped $100 billion, an increase of nearly 22% over 2012.
The study referenced humane food production and a return to simple, old-fashioned practices as contributing factors to a growth in specialty stores.
“We like to educate customers, encourage them to taste samples and find the best piece they are looking for, because then it’ll change the eating experience to exceptional,” Hagopian said.
The Butchery locations are 8058 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Newport Beach; 103 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa; and 415 S. Associated Road, Brea. For more information, visit butcherymeats.com.
Twitter: @KathleenLuppi
