Customer Service A Priority At Butcher’s Best Market

By Nancy K. Crevier

Through the doors of the Newtown Deli & Catering can be found Newtown’s one and only “hoof to sausage guy,” Steve Ford, the owner of Butcher’s Best Market located inside the 79 South Main Street eatery. Associated with the Newtown Deli & Catering for the past year and a half, in September Mr Ford carved out his own 300-square-foot space for the sale of fresh meats, poultry, game, and even some seafood.

“I grew up in the service business,” said Mr Ford, “and have been a ‘skinner’ in our family meat locker business since I was 14 years old.” The term “hoof to sausage” refers to a time when butchers received shipments of whole, fresh meat from small farmers located outside of the cities, and created their own cuts. Butcher’s Best Market is one of the few butcher shops today committed to the fresh, custom cut meat orders of yesteryear, placing service before sales at all times, said Mr Ford.

Inside the 12-foot-long fresh meat case, customers will find steaks, roasts, stewing meat, ribs, and other cuts of beef from certified Angus beef cattle, pork loins, pork chops, and store-made bacon, lamb from Newtown’s Sepe’s Farm on Toddy Hill, Belle & Evans chickens, fresh rabbit and other game, ground bison and bison medallions, and Thursday through Saturday only, clams, oysters, wild caught king salmon, and one selection of white fish, such as grey sole. This fall the market will be selling dry sea scallops, a completely natural scallop that is never brined.

The veal handled at Butcher’s Best Market is hanging veal from Giupetti out of Chicago, and is never cryo-vacced or boxed. “It is one of the best veals available,” stated Mr Ford. He is currently making connections to local, grass-fed beef farms, in hopes that he can support small beef farming, as well. “I try to choose very minimally processed products,” Mr Ford said.

A good portion of the case is dedicated to one of Mr Ford’s specialties, sausages made on site. “I am probably the last butcher making his own sausage,” said Mr Ford. He offers an extensive variety throughout the seasons, including bratwurst and kielbasa, Italian varieties, Portuguese chorizo, a broccoli rabe and pork sausage, hot lamb sausage, and custom-made sausages to suit the individual. The sausages are each seasoned with Mr Ford’s own spice blend, and include no preservatives or additives. “When you make your own sausage, that’s one of the abilities you have,” Mr Ford said. “My concept is to do what the customer wants, not what I think should be offered. The difference [between Butcher’s Best Market and supermarkets] is in service,” he said.

Key Ingredient: Conversation

What customers will not find in the meat case are prices. “I want customers to look at the quality and presentation. I want to start a conversation — What is it? How should it be cooked? It works well. My prices are competitive,” Mr Ford said. He encourages questions from his customers and is eager to provide them with information gleaned from his more than 35 years of experience. “I can help with meat selection, and guide them to picking the best cut for a particular meal,” he said. With a passion not only for the precise cutting of fresh meats, but for cooking as well, Mr Ford said that he has cooked nearly everything that he carries and knows that what he offers is the best in the area.

Complementary seasonal vegetables, as well as staples such as potatoes, onions, fresh herbs, and bell peppers are available for purchase at Butcher’s Best Market, artfully arranged in woven baskets that reflect the old-fashioned effect Mr Ford wants to convey. On a rack above the back window, a collection of cleavers dangles above two authentic butcher blocks, vintage weight scales decorate the top of the meat counter, and prices are listed on two large blackboards on the back wall. Mr Ford even makes a point of wearing an old-time bowtie and will trade his baseball cap for a straw hat on request.

For customers with not quite enough time to do it all, ready to cook items like meatloaf topped with the store-made smoked bacon are available. He also offers pork chops, lamb breast, and chicken breasts stuffed with a pork sausage and bread stuffing, and flank steak stuffed with a bleu cheese spinach filling. Beef broccioli consists of a thin slice of beef, seasonings, grated cheese, and prosciutto ham, rolled and ready to cook, or a similar Hungarian/German version called Rouladen, using a filling of onion, bacon, pickles, and brown mustard.

Aged Beef

Butcher’s Best Market is the purveyor of its own aged beef, a rarity for the area, and a process that is cherished by meat eaters for the intensely flavorful and tender meat that aged beef provides, Mr Ford said. As beef loin is aged in a controlled, refrigerated environment, the meat softens as moisture is removed and enzymes begin to break down connective tissues. “It’s like the difference between coffee and espresso,” explained the butcher.

Butcher’s Best Market is also pleased to provide “turducken” made on premises, a gourmet treat consisting of a boned chicken tucked into a boned duck, stuffed into a turkey cavity, seasoned, and available stuffed or not, and ready to cook. “It is very popular around Thanksgiving,” Mr Ford said. He will have a limited quantity of premium turkeys from Pennsylvania and organic turkeys from Plainville, N.Y., this holiday season. Customers can preorder beginning November 1.

“We do a lot of things that I think should have always been done, all along,” Mr Ford said, noting that Butcher’s Best Market is willing to provide customers with special orders, will cut chickens or any other meat product to order, or season any product to a customer’s specification, all at no extra cost.

Educating his customers and learning from them is all part of the philosophy behind Butcher’s Best Market, said Mr Ford, and is what sets him apart from other meat purveyors. “Until you take an interest in other people, they won’t take an interest in you.”

Butcher’s Best Market is open Monday through Friday, from 6 am to 6 pm; on Saturday from 7 am to 5 pm; and on Sunday from 9 am to 3 pm. To preorder or to place a special order, call 364-0013. Butcher’s Best Market is located at 79 South Main Street inside Newtown Deli & Catering.