Another Whirlwind Tour

I bet you've never been to TEN butcher shops in a day.  And if by some stroke of crazy you have, I bet you were really pissed that you couldn't find whatever obscure ingredient you were looking for!

Andy and leave for Seattle tomorrow morning to go to the funeral of my absolutely amazing grandma Hilda.  (As an aside - check out this blog that my cousin made that shares her story.  What an inspiration she was to all of us!)  Since we're getting into town a day early, we thought we could maximize the trip by scoping out the Seattle meat scene.  Hopefully we'll pick up some ideas that we like and can incorporate into our store! 

We're going to head straight up from the airport to:
1. Bob's Quality Meats
2. The Swinery
3. Salumi (this is our planned lunch break - the sandwiches and the charcuterie plate sound out of control!!)
4. Don & Joe's Meats 
5. BB Ranch Butcher (4,5 are in Pike's Place Market I think)
6. Rain Shadow Meats
7. A&J Meats and Seafood
8. Bill the Butcher (Magnolia)
9. Cascioppo Brothers Italian
10. Better Meat Inc.
11. Bill the Butcher (Wallingford)

Seattle folks - are there any gems that I missed?

I did a similar tour of San Francisco a few weeks ago, and to be honest it gets pretty monotonous by the end - just another butcher shop, you know.  But, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't.  Some of the key things I noticed was that a bunch of shops had display cases that were completely foggy - you couldn't even see the product!  I couldn't believe it.  And, almost none of the shops I went to told the story about the meat - where it was from, how it was raised, etc.  Exceptions to that complaint in SF were Olivier's Butchery and Marina Meats, but most the rest made you ask, and even then many didn't know.

When we get our shop up and running we want to really tell a story - as a new customer walks in we want them to leave from their first visit with a pretty good idea of what we're all about.  Funny that's the biggest lesson learned.  Totally Business School 101; Have a vision/mission and build your business incorporating that purpose into all aspects of what you do.

So, what's your favorite butcher shop and why do you like it?  Or, if you don't have a favorite, is there a horror story?  Leave it in a comment here on the blog - I can't wait to take your recommendations and put together our next market survey!