House of Meat - Grand Junction, CO
Whatever happened to Sam the Butcher, the sort of old fashioned, service oriented guy who’d gladly deliver Alice her meat? How did that archetype fade so quietly that we hardly missed his demise? As recently as the`80’s, hanging sides of beef were common sights in the back rooms of retail markets in America. The guy who handed your steaks across the meat counter processed the entire carcass into retail cuts, and dispensed sage cooking advice, too.
“Making pot roast? Buy the 7 bone chuck roast instead of the tenderloin. Rack of lamb? Let me french the bones for you.” Try getting that kind of expertise or selection at a Wal-Mart supercenter.
Across the street from one such Wal-Mart in Colorado sits a one year old butcher shop, run by a soft spoken man with fourteen years of meat cutting expertise in his hands. While you’d think that the big box neighbor would help to kill his business, it ironically highlights the differences between Sam the Butcher and Sam Walton. That juxtaposition drives discerning customers to House of Meat.
The best steaks in Grand Junction aren’t served in a dark, clubby restaurant with plush red leatherette banquette booths that smell of ancient cigar smoke. That sort of place doesn’t exist in a restaurant landscape dominated by casual dining chains. No, the best steaks in town are grilled at home, supplied by independent butchers like Jason Hicks.
Start with quality meat, and you can make your own great steak. House of Meat sells only the top two USDA grades of beef: Prime and Choice. Most supermarkets sell only the next lower grades, and tag them with misleading marketing fabrications like “Butcher’s Choice.” Hicks sent me home with two of the thick, well marbled ribeye steaks he’s slicing in this photo. Seasoned simply, grilled quickly over blazing oak coals and finished with a compound butter, it made a phenomenal dinner (ahem - if I say so myself). If only I can remember what I blended into the improvised butter mixture: anchovy fillets, freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, smoked Spanish paprika, and what else, what else?
The display case tempts busy customers with ready to cook meats like fajitas, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and andouille stuffed chicken breasts. But Beef Wellingtons caught my eye because these pastry wrapped, mushroom and veal demiglace topped tenderloins take forever to make from scratch. There’s two types of cooks who’ll take time to finely mince a mountain of mushrooms and reduce it with shallots and butter into a classic duxelles: home cooks who want to impress their loved ones with this old school classic, or the rare professional like chef Tim Dougan willing to prepare this labor intensive dish for you.
In the House of Meat kitchen, Dougan cooks heat-and-eat specialities like white chili, Palisade peach pulled pork, beef stews and a rotating menu of braised dishes sold by the quart. We took home the spicy, fruity stewed pork made with regionally famous peaches from the neighboring town of Palisade. It’s a delicious pulled pork, albeit different from the hickory smoked Carolina barbecue style I’m accustomed to.
If the products and expertise described here don’t immediately remind you of a similar shop near you, perhaps you ought to seek one out before it’s too late. Supermarket butchers across the country are being driven to extinction by the next meat industry trend. “Case ready” meats come prepackaged in trays ready for stock clerks to unload directly from a truck into a display case. I object to the disappearance of knowledgeable experts from supermarkets squeezed to cut costs. Their replacement with increasingly prevalent plastic trays of “flavor enhanced” meat isn’t a value-added improvement in flavor for the consumer, but a profit-added proposition for producers selling salt water at meat prices.
In a retail environment where local supermarket chains battle Wal-Mart by laying off their skilled meat cutters, independent butcher shops have an opportunity to thrive, provided that consumers care enough to demand honest, high quality meats. Which Sam will you choose?
House of Meat
2546 Rimrock Avenue, Suite 200A
Grand Junction, CO 81505-8666
970-243-6111
November 9th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Nice piece, professor. Wish I had a professional like this guy in my neighborhood. Closest we come is Bristol Farms which is good but verry expensive.
November 10th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Sounds like a plan, prof. So, what helpful butcher close to us do you recommend? =D
- Chubbypanda
November 12th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Hi CP,
Of the old school American type meat markets, I like:
El Toro Gourmet Meats (Lake Forest)
Celestino’s Meats (Costa Mesa)
Beef Palace (Huntington Beach)
Polka Delicatessen (Orange) doesn’t have a raw meat counter, but a good selection of locally made sausages of the Polish variety. The German focused Globe Deli is in Costa Mesa, but I haven’t been since a new owner took over in 2005, so I need to update status soon.
I like these ethnic supermarkets, too:
Wholesome Choice & Super Irvine (both Irvine, both Persian & both halal meat vendors). Lots of turnover on lamb and goat, so you’ll get good quality. Also non-American delicacies like lamb tongues. Baaaah.
Marukai & Mitsuwa (both Costa Mesa, both Japanese for sukiyaki, shabu shabu, etc)
Northgate Gonzalez Market & Gigante (both Mexican, each chain now has multiple units in the L.A. / O.C. region). Things like beef cheeks and house made Mexican chorizo are available here.
99 Ranch is ok for Chinese & SE Asian meats, including raw, uncured pork belly and Smithfield ham (which is a decent substitue for Xuanwei ham).
Dong Huong and T.K. Food Warehouse (both Vietnamese, both in Little Saigon) are good choices for Vietnamese needs, and great places to get bones cheap for home made stocks. Also, whole chicken & duck w/ the heads and feet on. Not gonna find any of that at Ralph’s or Von’s.
Not local to me and much more than a meat market: Tip Top Meat in Carslbad brings a German perspective to the game. La Espanola Meats in Harbor City is the premier Spanish charcuterie maker in the US, and a leading Spanish food importer. Totally worth the drive for either, IMO.
Between all of them, you should be able to find or order any part of any animal you need. While I do buy quality meats at Costco, these indies fill a void for the nonmainstream stuff the big boxes won’t touch.
January 21st, 2007 at 8:21 am
I am so disappointed by the average consumer that purcahses Enhanced Meats. I see consumers with calculators, using them to stay within their food budgets purchasing these products that are charging up to 15% of the purchase price for a smidgeon of salt and water. The meat I see does’nt even look like unenhanced meat. It is pale and shiny with the water and salt. The ONLY reason that Walmart sells this product is greed. These products are sold because the water and salt solution allows the products to sit on the shelf longer. When beef begins to darken naturally it becomes better and tastier this is known as aging. Whenever I shop for beef I always purchased meat that had these signs of aging.
The ignorance of todays consumers astound me. With everyone I know looking for bargains, why would anyone want to pay 15 cents per pond for salt and water. Walmart REDUCE YOUR PRICES FOR THIS SECOND CLASS MEAT!!!!
August 16th, 2007 at 7:12 am
I’ve been a meat cutter for 48 years, I’m a market manager for Save-A-Lot in Dalton, Ga. I have more and more customers coming to me every week saying I just can’t eat Wal-Mart meat.
What many don’t know about their meat is they contain startling amounts of sodium. A modest 4-ounce serving of a pumped round steak, for example, has 430 milligrams of sodium, or 19 percent of your recommended daily intake. saltwater pumping and gas packaging give ground beef a shelf life of 14 or even 28 days. Meat cutters will tell you it shouldn’t have no more than three.
Leon,the apcowboy
August 19th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
My mouth is watering already!!! Thank you for that valuable piece of information. We are driving through Grand Junction, next weekend, on our way to Breckenridge. We plan to do a lot of cooking in the condo we rented and House of Meat is definitely going to be a “stop”. I can just imagine how wonderful one of Sam’s steaks will taste, right off the grill, in that great mountain air.