“Let’s Meat On the Avenue.”

“It’s so hard to find a real butcher anymore…” I overheard while waiting to interview The Butcher.

Let’s Meat on the Avenue opened in May 2008.  The fact that it has taken me over a year and a half to get there should completely discredit me from this entire food writing venture.  I drove past it a million times.  I read articles about it.  When I was in the neighborhood, I would sometimes see a man in a red apron working in the window and wonder who he was and why anyone would open a shop devoted entirely to raw meat.  I just wasn’t COMPELLED to go in until I had one life-changing bite of Osso Bucco.

I had come home from the gym late one night, absolutely ravenous, and my supply of whole grain freezer waffles and french toast was bone dry.   Things were looking bleak until I remembered, “I have leftovers!”

These weren’t just any leftovers.   I had leftovers from the dinner my roommate had prepared the night before:  Osso Bucco and polenta with gorgonzola.  For fancy leftovers like this, you get out a place mat and you sit down at the table – no matter how violently your stomach is grumbling and screaming for some post-Body Combat calories.

One bite and I died.  Any issues I’d previously had about eating tortured baby cow meat went flying out the window as I practically licked the bottom of the plate clean.  When she revealed that she’d purchased the veal shanks from our neighborhood butcher at “Let’s Meat on the Avenue,” I knew it was high-time that I dropped in for a chat.

Until I met Steve Gatward, the owner and butcher (heretofore referred to as “The Butcher”) at “Let’s Meat on the Avenue,” I’d never understood that expression, “Get to know your butcher.”  You mean those guys that restock the pork chops and ground beef at Safeway and Harris Teeter?  I’m not sure I trust them after one guy swore to me with a straight face that I could make pulled pork out of pork tenderloin – and we all remember how that turned out.

The Butcher: Steve Gatward

It was January when I finally made my way in to “Let’s Meat on the Avenue.”  Since we were still in the high season for New Year’s Resolutions, I asked the Butcher if he could recommend some good, lean meats.  His first answer shocked me:

“Kangaroo.”

Well, I don’t know what I was expecting.  The Butcher did live in Australia for 20+ years.   Turns out, Kangaroo is some of the leanest meat around: 98% fat free and low in saturated fat.  Kangaroo meat isn’t regularly in stock, but The Butcher says he will start carrying it again once the weather warms up.  He recommends grilling it just like you would a New York Strip or any other beef steak.  Can’t wait to fire up the grill and throw a little ‘roo on the barbie!

Other lean meat options I wasn’t expecting: Ostrich (“a good lean meat from South Africa”), Venison (from New Zealand), and Buffalo (90% fat free), which I snagged a pound of for buffalo burgers.  If you’re not as adventurous as me, you can always stick with chicken:

The Butcher has a sense of humor. How can you not love that?!

The Butcher makes all his own sausage from whole cuts of meat.  No fatty bits, scary animal parts, or fillers like you’ll find in commercially prepared sausages.  You know that expression “whole hog”?  That’s pretty accurate; that’s what goes into sausage.  Everything and anything.  There is no mystery meat at “Let’s Meat on the Avenue” though!  You can watch him make it right there in the shop window.  Can’t beat that for quality control.

If you’re in need of a spice rub, sauce, mustard or glaze for your meat, you have a wall of options (including my favorite: Pork Barrel BBQ sauce):

I can now proudly say that I got to know The Butcher (who will be MY Butcher from now on) and he is delightful and fascinating to talk to.  I highly recommend paying him a visit – for the meat AND for the conversation.