A butcher shop offering premium meats, housemade sausages and take-home meals is slated to open this spring in Mequon.
The shop, which will be located at 11120 Weston Dr., will be the latest addition to the quickly expanding multi-use Foxtown development, a 14 acre parcel of land being developed by Tom Neiman, owner of Fromm Family Pet Foods.
"Tom [Nieman] has always aimed to bring three elements into the market: good-quality beer, good-quality bread and good-quality meat," says Patrick Erdman, food and beverage director for Foxtown restaurants.
Two of those checkboxes have already been crossed off.
Foxtown Brewing Co., 6411 W. Mequon Rd. – a brewery, beer hall and restaurant – opened last fall, and North Shore Boulangerie, which opened this week in a retail space adjacent to the butcher. And there’s more to come, including a private events venue, catering hub, amphitheatre, single family homes, and more office and retail spaces.
The butcher shop, which is expected to open its doors in April, has already passed its needed health inspections and is currently dialing in the processes and recipes for sausages and housemade cured, smoked bacon. The space is also being utilized as a facility for the production of proteins used at Foxtown Brewery, including the grinding and portioning for their popular freshly ground 100% brisket burgers.
At the helm is Ray Brotherton, a Michigan native who started his career in the restaurant industry, but more recently completed a meat cutters apprenticeship with Whole Foods in Minnesota, where he developed a passion for the craft.
Brotherton will act as lead butcher, as well as managing the shop itself, which hopes to capture the look and feel of a classic butcher shop.
“Our goal is really to give people that personal, super friendly retail experience that’s missing in grocery these days,” says Brotherton, noting that shop will also place an emphasis on high quality meats, some of which have been traditionally unavailable to the consumer market.
That includes dry-aged corn-fed beef from Meats by Linz, grassfed beef from Wisconsin Meadows, Niman Ranch Pork and Bell & Evans poultry. Sausages will include Brotherton’s recipes for staples like bratwurst and breakfast sausage, along with specialty sausages like chorizo and andouille.
Brotherton says there will also be prepared foods, including take and bake trays of lasagna or smoked meats, plus grab and go items like housemade pasties, a specialty popular in Brotherton’s hometown in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Customers can also expect the convenience of one-stop shopping, thanks to retail items including sauces, dry rubs and grilling tools.
Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with each and every dish. She’s had the privilege of chronicling these tales via numerous media, including OnMilwaukee and in her book “Milwaukee Food.” Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or recording the FoodCrush podcast, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
