Hind Quarter Meat, which began as a pop-up butcher business selling locally sourced meat two and a half years ago, has just opened its first brick-and-mortar store in south Barrie.
“Our main goal is to provide to the community meat that was raised in the best conditions possible,” says Jack Clarke, owner of the artisan butcher and gourmet food shop, located on Mapleview Drive West near Veterans Drive.
Some of the highlights at the retail location include prime and AAA Ontario dry-aged beef, house-made sausages and specialty burgers, such as beef bacon and cheese curd burgers, souvlaki sausages, reuben sausages, jerk chicken sausages, pure dry-aged beef burgers, and more.
“We now produce our own line of prepared foods in addition to our meat offerings,” Clarke says.
Butter chicken, jalapeno cheddar cornbread and loaded potatoes are among the top sellers on the prepared food menu. These include add-on items such as bone marrow butter and beef demi-glace.
“At our shop, you are able to get everything you need in one stop to have a truly memorable gourmet meal,” he says. “We also carry fine cheeses and charcuterie.”
Clarke explains that, as whole animal butchers, they make everything from scratch in-house and are able to control quality at every step.
“Whole animal butchers are extremely rare these days," he says.
To illustrate his point, Clarke says that rather than getting boxed cuts of vacuum-sealed meat and portioning it for sale, they receive whole carcasses and large primal cuts of meat to break down at the shop.
“We hang the meat here to achieve the best possible flavour," he says.
Clarke also emphasizes that Hind Quarter Meat doesn't deal with any factory farms.
“Our rigorous quality control standards mean that we only purchase exceptionally good meat, and that we age and process that meat with the absolute best final product in mind," he adds.
Clarke says every batch of every product they make is taste-tested to ensure it's perfect before it hits their display.
“We only use fresh, high-quality ingredients, and our products are made without any fillers, added preservatives, or chemicals of any kind," he says.
Having worked in the fine dining industry for many years, Clarke also shared one of his favourite recipes using his product selection.
“How about a nice dry-aged, rib-eye steak, pan-seared and basted with bone marrow butter and fresh rosemary and thyme, cooked to medium rare," he offers.
As a side, he recommends his griddled rapini with roasted garlic and chili oil, and their "loaded" baked potatoes.
“Our baked potatoes have bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and green onions mixed in," Clarke points out.
Last but not least, he says, they have a toasted, buttered jalapeno cheddar cornbread and a rich, silky demi-glace sauce to top it all off.
Clarke tells BarrieToday he's planning a grand opening celebration for Saturday, Oct. 28.
“We also plan to hold cutting and cooking classes and demonstrations, and occasional special dinners, although we haven't scheduled any of those yet," he says.
The shop is located at 133 Mapleview Dr. W.
For more information about Hind Quarter Meat, visit www.hindquarter.ca.
