Visited a whole animal butcher shop in Portland and nobody was breaking down primals

I was in Portland last weekend and stopped by this butcher shop that gets a lot of hype online. Walked in expecting to see someone breaking down a side of beef or at least trimming some lamb racks. Instead, everything was pre-cut and vacuum sealed, just like the grocery store down the street. The guy behind the counter even admitted they get most of their meat pre-portioned from a distributor. Is that normal for shops that call themselves 'whole animal' or did I just hit a bad example? What do you all consider the line between a real butcher shop and just a fancy meat market?

3 comments

3 Comments

allen.iris4d ago

Portland's basically the capital of food hype, so of course a place calls itself "whole animal" and sells pre-packed steaks. The guy probably figured nobody would actually peek behind the curtain or ask the tough questions, just snap pics for Instagram. I've been to a couple spots that claim the same thing and it's always a roll of the dice, one place had a whole pig hanging in the window and the next was just fancy packaging. Does it really matter if you can't taste the difference between that pre-sealed ribeye and something cut that morning? Seems like a lot of energy to get worked up over a sign on the door when the meat itself might be perfectly fine.

the_sam4d ago

Oh come on, @allen.iris, you're really gonna pretend like the label doesn't matter? It's not about taste test results, it's about whether the place is lying to your face. If you hang a sign saying "whole animal butchery" and then sell pre-packed steaks from a distributor, that's just straight up misleading. But here's what I'm curious about: how many of these places actually break down whole animals in the back and just prepackage the steaks for convenience, versus how many are just buying from Sysco and slapping a fancy sticker on it? I've seen both, and one of those is way worse than the other. So do you actually know which one this place is, or are you just assuming the worst because of the packaging?

diana_kim664d ago

Wait, you actually had a place with a whole pig hanging in the window? I've never seen that outside of a documentary. I'm kind of shocked because that sounds like a serious operation, not just a label. But @allen.iris, I think you might be onto something about the packaging not always matching the promise. I've walked into a place in Seattle that claimed farm to table but everything was cryovaced and I just had to wonder where the "farm" part ended and the "Sysco truck" began.