Longtime Wheat Ridge Butcher Shop Reopening October 31 Under New Owner

Wheat Ridgeians who hew to the carnivore diet, your day has nearly arrived. Wheat Ridge Meats will celebrate its grand opening on Friday, October 31 — a Halloween treat for locals that will feature free hot dogs and brats as well as a costume contest.

Locals were heartbroken when Wheat Ridge Poultry & Meats on 29th Avenue and Depew Street was shuttered by the city in May for failing to pay municipal taxes. The city auctioned off the shop’s equipment to clear the debt owed by Jessica Bobitsky, who had suffered the loss of her husband and dire medical issues prior to the shop closing. According to its website, a longtime customer of the former shop stepped in to help relaunch the butcher shop as The Meat Shop on 38th, at 38th Avenue and Teller Street in Wheat Ridge’s town center.

But while The Meat Shop on 38th prepares for its opening — with much the same crew as worked at Wheat Ridge Poultry — entrepreneur Jeff Prah is opening his own butcher and grocery store in the former Wheat Ridge Poultry location, named Wheat Ridge Meats.

Prah previously owned the Denver butcher shop Hook and Hock inside Leevers Locavore (Leevers bought the butchery from Prah) and still owns the Oscar’s Eats deli inside the Sunnyside grocery store.

The new Wheat Ridge Meats will not be butchering wild game for customers, as Wheat Ridge Poultry previously did, which allows for more retail space inside the building. On Wednesday before the grand opening, the meat cases were shiny-clean and empty, and the shelves were half-stocked as Prah espoused his vision for the shop. He’s proudly partnered with a number of local artisans including plant shop Tiger Lily Goods, Full Stop Bakery, Not Bad Cooks, Kream Kimchi, Rocky Mountain Soda and Gnarly Mountain Cookies, as well as products from his own Oscar’s Eats.

Wheat Ridge Meats will carry significantly more dry goods than its predecessor did, and Prah hopes it will be a grocery staple for the western suburb. “What we’re trying to do here is be more affordable; we’re going a little lower on the margins and underneath everybody else in town just so we can provide a great price for the products. And we’ll do more business that way, people will see that value and they’ll come back.”

Prah envisions live music — acoustic and electric — outside in the expansive parking lot, where he also hopes to plant a few dozen seats for diners at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, the grand opening on Friday will be an event unto itself, with grand opening specials starting at 8 a.m. and complimentary hot dogs and bratwursts from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. There’s a ground beef giveaway for a pound of meat every year in 2026, plus a kids’ costume contest where the winner will receive a full turkey dinner with all the fixings from Wheat Ridge Meats.

Prah has kept the shop’s door unlocked as he’s been moving into the space, and he says the neighbors have been encouraging. “People who have been shopping here for years are like, ‘Whoa, it’s completely different,'” Prah notes. “It’s still going to be an awesome butcher shop because that’s our focus, but we decided to bring the grocery side into it and produce and frozen items and all that good stuff so there’s a nice little market here in Wheat Ridge.”

Wheat Ridge Meats is located at 5650 West 29th Avenue in Wheat Ridge and will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, October 31 for its grand opening. For more information, visit wheatridgemeatscolorado.com.