What is Digg?86 Comments
- ScottMcIntyre, on 04/07/2009, -2/+20Interesting to read of the US situation. I particularly like shopping at my local butcher because they source their meat locally. Of course, supermarkets also claim this- but with my butcher this means the produce is from farms in my area of the countryside, rather than Scotland or the wider UK. So, this also helps support the farmers nearby me and the local economy. The only downside is that local butchers tend to be a little more expensive and, these days, people are looking to cut budgets. However, for that little extra money, you are getting the confidence your meat is of the best quality and prepared in front of you.
- mwtapp, on 10/11/2009, -2/+18I think a few butchers will always be around for the fine dining crowd.
- MooseOfReason, on 04/08/2009, -1/+14I didn't realize a butcher was 25 things.
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -0/+13You mean for the "likes good food" crowd.
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -2/+11Pretty much every traditional local business is disappearing in America. %90 of everything is a national chain store. There might be a decent amount of butchers and such still in large cities but in suburbans town in the west all we've got is large grocery chains. Don't you love the cancer stage of "free" market capitalism?
- Jacare, on 04/08/2009, -0/+8i don't think it has so much to do with cost, more do with the convenience of buying all your groceries in one store.
- barc0001, on 04/08/2009, -0/+6In town they certainly are, yes. If you are near or in a rural area and fortunate enough to have farm with their own onsite butchery, you get the perfect storm of inexpensive meats combined with *very* local high quality meat. The place I go to is on a farm about a 45 minute drive from my place, but $100 fills 2 coolers to the top and lasts the family about 6 months. The bacon is absolutely unreal. The downside is the place is only open 4 days a week and I can only usually cut out there on a Friday, which is bad because they do the butchery on Monday and Tuesday, and apparently all of the Korean families from downtown come out on the Wednesday and clean them out of their short ribs, so none for me. :(
- covertbadger, on 04/08/2009, -0/+6You're judging 'good food' on pizza and burgers? LOL. I'm not surprised you can't tell the difference - burger meat is generally cheap fatty meat anyway (that's what gives it its flavour), and any meat on a pizza is drenched in oil and cheese, so it's not surprising you can't distinguish. I guarantee you that anyone with functioning tastebuds will be able to distinguish corn-fed free-range chicken from a chicken that's spent its life in a barn walking around in its own ***** until the ammonia rots its feet.
- gorgalor, on 04/08/2009, -0/+6Victor's Meat & Deli
(310) 837-8401
10002 National Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Off of National and the 10 Freeway - gorgalor, on 04/07/2009, -0/+6My butcher shop is 3 doors up the block, and I live in LA. I feel quite fortunate. Meat quality is waaay above grocery stores. Even though it's a bit more expensive on a per pound basis, I can order the proper amount of meat and have it trimmed there. It really cuts down on waste. That's one of the benefits of having pro's with an array of knives and advice right in front of you. Now if I could only find a good fish market...
- state08, on 04/08/2009, -5/+10Ah yes, of course poor customer service = black female.
- upick, on 04/08/2009, -1/+6Maybe in future we'll all be buying direct from the farmers
- Xaevier, on 04/08/2009, -0/+5Really is a shame, when I went to Italy for a month all they had were local butchers, fish mongers etc. The quality of life in terms of space/technology was half of what we have here but they sure made up for it in their food.
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -3/+7Now everyone eats ground beef with ***** in it.
- StradAndStrat, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4I too am from Wisconsin, my grandfather was a dairy farmer and I grew up on fresh beef. Unlike a lot of places, hand chosen meat and hand processed is not hard to find here, taste it once and you will never go back.
- Akairenn, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4One of the nice things about living in a decrepit, undeveloped part of my state is there's no shortage of decent butcher shops.
It doesn't quite make up for not being able to order Chinese at 4 AM, but it helps. :P - pfranz, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4Which butcher shop? What part of L.A.? I've intended to, but still haven't ventured from the grocer in search of fresh meat.
- Frostek, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4Certainly worth reading "Fast Food Nation" for some eye-opening facts about food safety in the US.
- spookyttws, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3I have a wonderful butcher. Well, it's not one person, like on the Brady Bunch, but "The Beef Palace" here in Huntington Beach, CA provides me with great meat at competitive prices. The best part is their unyielding commitment to their product, besides the two life sized ceramic cows outside (for kids to ride and take pictures on) their sign and all throughout the butcher shop they've posted pro-meat anti-vegetable propaganda (but it's all done with quite a bit of humor). I love my Butcher, they've been here for almost 50 years and I really don't see them leaving anytime soon. To paraphrase Anthony Bourdain, "I've found that constant exposure to meat leads a person to black humor, where as constant exposure to fish causes a person to become humorless."
- Tearlock, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3Actually some butchers will NEVER go out of business as long as hunting remains legal, because many hunters that do not know how to or don't care to butcher their own game take it to the local butcher to do for them. A friend of mine who is a hunting nut never butcher's them himself and he's not the only one.
- AmyVernon, on 04/07/2009, -1/+4That's the thing, really - they are more expensive. But you really tend to get much higher quality meat. I'm sure that wasn't always the case, but the few butchers that are around these days have got to be the better ones, or else they'd have gone out of business, in general, I'd think.
- static07, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3Similar things happening here in western Europe, the big supermarkets are putting a lot of local shops out of business. Butchers specifically are dissapearing for a different reason. You can still get your meat in your local store but chances are, its just a reseller. They sell a crapload of different salads, but there just one type of steak available. The butcher that carves you a piece of meat straight of the carcass is a dying race. Meanwhile everyone is competing over the best chicken salad.
- diggadigga, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3Dam, my food world would take a dive if my Butcher went out of business. The meat is way higher quality than grocery store meat. Plus, you can get organ meat (pancreas, liver, kidneys, glands, lungs) that are super cheap and more nutritious than the muscle meat.
- StradAndStrat, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3I just recently got back from a few months in East Africa, fresh meat never tasted as good as the road side stands there (fresh goat especially, wow...)
- Gndoab, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3thats brazillian bbq here in the states.
and yeah. it's fantastic. - MooseOfReason, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3Churrasquiera.
- Kitakaze, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3What on earth does that have to do with butcher shops vanishing in the US?
- sarcasmosis, on 04/08/2009, -1/+4Buy your meat as close to the source as you can get it, and from a source as reputable and reliable as you can find. Don't buy red meat from Wal-Mart especially, don't buy generic meat anyway, and if you can help it, avoid major chain grocery stores' pre-packaged meat as well. Avoid IBP beef. If it wasn't wrapped by a human in the last few days, you don't want to eat it. Find a local butcher; it's worth the trouble.
I'm proud to have had a butcher in the family. He no longer has the job, as it was made obsolete at his place of work by pre-packaged meat, and the day that happened the quality took a nosedive.
It's an art as well as a science. You can taste the difference, and even things as simple as proper handling makes it significantly healthier. - ShoujoKakumei, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2I live in a semi-rural area and there's at least 3 legitimate butcher shops within a half-hour drive of my house (which is about as far away as anything anyone would want to go to is).
Of course, I don't buy meat at any of them, because if I had enough money in my grocery budget to justify paying the prices they charge, I'd be saving more of it to get the hell out of this redneck-infested bleeding ***** of a town. - Licurgo, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2i love the bread store on my street, the lady is very nice, i just buy for the chit chat, the mom and pop business rocks, ***** wal mart, im gonna eat a lot of bread this week, very tasty leavened bread, lot of it nomnomnomNomNom bread...
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2In the UK we have butcher shops which stand by themselves. They always stock the best tasting high quality meats, usually putting the supermarkets to shame. The thing is though, they tend to be slightly more expensive, turning everyone to that hole at the back of the supermarket. Shame really because its forcing them to close down. We need to do something about this unfair supermarket monopoly before theres nothing left but aircraft hangar-size supermarkets selling everything.
- covertbadger, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2That's odd, here in the UK's South East I find butchers to be much cheaper than supermarkets, even in towns. If you have a local market, get up early and go along and find a butcher there.
Of course, if you go to a full-on farmers market you're going to pay more, but then you really are getting what you pay for - the steaks there are grass-fed beef and were probably still running around 8 hours before you pick your cut.
And yes, the bacon is always vastly superior to supermarket stuff. Thicker, tastier, and cheaper. - thedivinelyevil, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2And in countries like Nepal, meat isn't something you find at the supermarket, you have to go to the butcher, or just buy a farm animal and butcher it yourself.
- ThanatosST, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2I wish I knew of a decent butcher shop locally. I love my beef, but I can't get decent quality anywhere near here :(
- barc0001, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2Check my comment above, if you live near farms you might be able to. And it's very good.
- Haoie, on 04/07/2009, -2/+4Can say the same about most all mom and pop operations, when Wally World moves in next door.
- suprememilo, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2It's Fogo De Chao for ppl who have one around them and it is quite $$$$.
But idk what this has to do with butcher shops. - MasterGrief, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1http://blog.lib.umn.edu/hick0247/engl1501w/pork-br ...
- MasterGrief, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1It's just a series of articles. A few days ago, something like "25 things vanishing in America: Stick shifters" was on the front page.
- expert01, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1The three biggest local butchers closed shop and combined into one big butcher's shop. Which leaves three butcher shops for an area of 150,000 people.
- nepidae, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I had a milkman in in the netherlands and it was badass. (milkman was in the part 2 section i guess)
- JScore, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I love the Butcher shops where I live. I just need the snow to go away so I can get to my grill.
- NeoCortex, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I looked through the whole list of 25 things: No mention of Arcades. Surely they should be in the top 5.
- diggopolous, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1Alice was closer
- agbullet, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1Isn't viscera very high in cholesterol?
- hakluytbean, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1There's always plenty you can do about things in apparent decline. The UK probably benefits from operating on a smaller scale but people have become enthusiastic about independent food producers lately with farmers' markets and media interest like the BBC Food and Farming Awards and... Young Butcher Of The Year 2009! ('Chop Idol') - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-112 ...
- AlienFromBeyond, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I will kill you for that comment.
- tehWyman, on 08/19/2009, -0/+1My grandpa owns a butcher shop and has been trying to sell it for quite a while. Not too long ago, a flood (read: 2) offers came in.
We live in an area where quite a few people hunt, but he gets more beef and hogs than game. - inactive, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I'm lucky, not far from where I live is a slaughter-house butcher shop. GREAT meat!
Check it out: http://www.jwtreuth.com/index2.html -
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