Neighborhood butcher shops draw customers with top-quality meat, personal touch

“Our clients come to Kinship because they want to know exactly where their meat comes from, how it’s raised and how it’s processed,” said Myles Moody, chef and co-owner of Kinship Butcher & Sundry in the Virginia-Highland area of Atlanta.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Of course, butcher shops have a long local history. When the Municipal Market of Atlanta — sometimes called the Sweet Auburn Curb Market — opened in the geographic center of the city more than a century ago, it provided a permanent home for what had been an informal gathering of farmers selling livestock and produce.

“We were Atlanta’s original butcher shop, and 100 years later we are still here selling meat,” said Dorthey Hurst, the market’s director of business development.

While live animals no longer are sold there, the Municipal Market continues to feature three meat counters where shoppers can buy such items as whole hogs, oxtails and baby turkey wings. Regina Berry of Country Meat Market there has been selling meat since she was so young she needed a crate to stand on in order to see customers eye-to-eye. And the meat cutters at Porky Pig sell pork sausages they make from a 100-year-old recipe.

As Atlanta expanded geographically, butcher shops opened throughout the city. The area’s oldest freestanding butcher shop is Shield’s Market, which opened in 1947 in downtown Decatur.

However, through the years supermarkets eventually took over the lion’s share of meat sales with their prepackaged cuts ready to grab out of refrigerated cases.

But while neighborhood butcher shops declined in number, they didn’t go away.

In 2007, Rusty Bowers met Wes and Charlotte Swancy of Riverview Farms at the Morningside Farmers Market. “I realized we shared the same ideals about sustainable farming, humane treatment of animals and being better stewards of the environment,” he said. The next year, he found a location in Avondale Estates and opened Pine Street Market, where he practices whole-animal butchery on hogs raised by the Swancys.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

“These are heritage pigs grown and pasture-raised about an hour and a half from Atlanta,” Bowers said. “They are fed food that is grown on the farm and can forage as well. What you get as a result is perfectly marbled, yet lean, pork that is sweet, juicy and delicious. The pork is processed weekly and is hand-cut by our staff. Compare that with the meat in a grocery store. The average piece of pork in a grocery store has been frozen for six months to a year, cut in a factory and probably traveled from across the country or farther.”

Kevin Ouzts opened the Spotted Trotter in 2009, where he started producing 800 to 1,000 pounds of charcuterie a week out of rented kitchen space at Sawicki’s in Decatur, which since has closed.

Now in his own building on Moreland Avenue in Reynoldstown, Ouzts said he went into the business because he saw the opportunity to provide customers with meat from animals that were raised well.

“This is hard work,” he said. “We stand in a cold room every day and you can only charge so much for a pork chop. But we know our customers want to ‘eat good meat.’ And we make that possible.”

Credit: Kevin Ouzts

Credit: Kevin Ouzts

There are two butchers and three meat cutters on staff at the Spotted Trotter. “A butcher needs to be able to break whole carcasses, where a meat cutter cuts down the primal and subprimal cuts of pork, beef, lamb and chicken,” Ouzts said. “Everyone on our staff can talk to our customers about how they’re going to be cooking that meat.”

Parker Patton of Patton’s Meat Market in Duluth worked as a teenager in his dad’s grocery businesses in Buckhead and Marietta, where he learned to become a butcher.

In 1986, he and his wife Kristie opened their first butcher shop, and they settled in their current location in Duluth in 1994. It’s a family business that includes their daughters and sons-in-law, which Patton said fits in with Duluth being “family-oriented.”

At the busiest times, as many as seven staffers are on hand to trim the certified Angus, American and Kobe A5 wagyu beef they sell from their 36-foot meat case, along with pork and poultry.

Credit: Aaliyah Man

Credit: Aaliyah Man

Atlanta’s local butchers do more than sell raw meat, though. Oak Grove Market offers prepared dinners to enjoy at home or eat on-site. Frazie’s, Tucker Meat Market, the Spotted Trotter and Kinship offer hot sandwiches featuring what’s in the butcher case. Patton’s Meat Market sells a range of items customers need to prepare dinner — from the Kamado grill on which to cook it to the produce for side dishes. And Bowers’ Pine Street Market has been offering popular butchering classes since 2010. It also offers knife sharpening and restoration of “forgotten” knives.

Sean and Emma Schacke opened Evergreen Butcher + Baker in 2019. They said they were drawn to Kirkwood by the sense of community there and the opportunity to be a true neighborhood shop. One of the things that sets them apart is their bakery, recently named one of the best in America by The New York Times. Sean is the butcher and Emma is the baker.

“We have customers that come in with a recipe they’ve found that they’d love to make, and we get to help walk them through it and find them the right cut for their needs,” Emma Schacke said. “And it’s extra fun when we get customers who ask us for cuts that aren’t commonly found here. The joy of being a whole animal butcher is we can cut them literally whatever they are hoping for off our weekly whole cow, hogs or lambs.”

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Evergreen also prepares deli meats in-house. “We love it that customers can come buy a loaf of bread, have it sliced, then come to the butcher counter and get their deli meats sliced by the pound,” Schacke said. “It’s not easy to find deli meats that aren’t ultra processed, and we think they taste much better made from our quality local meat.”

Talking with the owners of these neighborhood butcher shops, it becomes clear that this is a business that runs on passion and a desire to provide customers with the best quality meat and accompaniments.

Patton said his clientele ranges “from families to individuals to professional chefs. Most of our customers shop with us because they value meat that’s tender and flavorful and trimmed exactly as we’d trim for our own families.”

“We love making people happy through food, and they thank us every day for that,” Frazie said.

Credit: Nick McElroy

Credit: Nick McElroy

METRO ATLANTA BUTCHER SHOPS

The Municipal Market. 209 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta. 404-659-1665, municipalmarketatl.com

Buckhead Butcher Shop. 3198 Cains Hill Place NW, Atlanta. 404-963-5335, buckheadbutchershop.com

Evergreen Butcher + Baker. 2011 Hosea L. Williams Drive NE, Atlanta. 404-996-2442, evergreenbutcherandbaker.com

Frazie’s Meat & Market. 2030 Main St. NW, Atlanta. 404-941-9171, fraziesmeatandmarket.com

Kinship Butcher & Sundry. 1019 Virginia Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-343-4374, kinshipbutcheratl.com

Midtown Butcher Shoppe. 985 Monroe Drive NE, Atlanta. 404-343-3614, midtownbutcher.com

Oak Grove Market. 2757 Lavista Road, Decatur. 404-315-9831, oakgrovemarket.com

Patton’s Meat Market. 3931 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Duluth. 770-495-0077, pattonsmeatmarket.com

Pine Street Market. 4A Pine St., Avondale Estates. 404-296-9672, pinestreetmarket.com

Shield’s Meat Market. 1554 N. Decatur Road, Decatur. 404-377-0204

The Spotted Trotter. 229 Moreland Ave. SE, Atlanta. 404-254-4958, thespottedtrotter.com

Tucker Meat Market. 2187 Brockett Road, Tucker. 770-939-2959, facebook.com/TuckerMeatMarket

Vice Kitchen. 6000 Medlock Bridge Parkway, Johns Creek. 470-657-1985, vicekitchen.com

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