The Park Hill neighborhood is getting a taste of tradition with a new specialty shop. The Local Butcher, opening Saturday, May 25, in the Oneida Park shopping center at East 23rd Avenue and Oneida Street, is the latest branch of the butcher counter launched inside Denver Central Market by CEO Justin Herd, along with Tim Leitch and Herd's mother, Jerrilyn, in 2016.
The Park Hill expansion is a dream come true, Herd says, providing a much bigger shop than at Denver Central Market, allowing the team to offer a full-service butcher’s market by stocking a larger meat selection and a variety of dry products, such as smoking pellets and rubs made by Traeger. Additionally, the space includes a cold-cut deli case serving sandwiches and salad creations. Customers can build the perfect summer picnic basket or charcuterie board from a variety of prepared meats and a wide selection of cheeses. Like the original location, the Local Butcher at Oneida Park provides familiar cuts and grinds, but Herd also plans to include fish and game, such as elk, bison and venison.
One characteristic that will not change is the quality of the meat for sale. Herd notes that the most common question asked by customers is “Where is it from?” The Local Butcher answers that question through a commitment to closing the gap between meat producers and consumers by sourcing from small Colorado farms. Open discussions with butchers about the origin of a shop's food allow for product transparency, he explains, which isn’t provided by grocery-store labels and confusing packaging. Each partnered farm, Herd adds, is committed to humane practices and does not administer hormones or antibiotics, and the meats have shorter travel times from pasture to butcher.
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“If you buy our ground beef and you cook it side by side with the other ground beef, you’ll notice the difference right away — the smell, the texture, the taste at the end,” Herd explains. Each day, the butchers grind the meat for optimal freshness and prepare the sausages in-house using the shop's special seasoning blends.
Nestled within a large residential area, the Oneida Park location allows the Local Butcher to connect with neighbors as a one-stop butcher shop, where customers can buy deli meats and sliced cheeses for lunchboxes, ground beef for Mom’s special weekday Bolognese sauce, and a family-sized brisket for summer celebrations. Herd is excited to connect with repeat customers and to have conversations about the best steak to grill for date night (making an impression will be easy with this selection of high-end steaks) or even just to compare notes about raising toddlers.
“The relationship that people have with their food should translate to the relationship they have with the people selling their food,” Herd notes.
Join the Local Butcher, 2242 Oneida Street, for a grand-opening celebration from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m on Saturday, May 25, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 26, to meet and greet the team, sample some grilled creations and shop the sales — since everything will be 20 percent off for this weekend. We recommend trying the blueberry breakfast links and Jerrilyn's Reuben sandwich.
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