Fleisher’s Grass-Fed & Organic Meats has developed several sidelines built upon its successful retail business, which specializes in sustainable meats sourced from a 50-mile radius. It has expanded to sell soap stocks (made from tallow) and prepared foods. It wholesales to eight restaurants in New York City, making a delivery one day a week. It also offers a six-week butcher shop training program for $10,000; so far, eight students have graduated, and the class is booked through February. Several graduates have opened butcher shops of their own, according to co-owner Jessica Applestone.
“We’re bringing back a lost art,” said Applestone. “We learned our trade from Tom Schneller [former owner of Schnellor’s, an uptown butcher shop that closed a decade ago]. He’s the resident butcher at the CIA [Culinary Institute of America].”
Applestone said that she and her husband, Joshua, whose grandfather was a butcher, also have served as consultants to a butcher shop opening in L.A. It just goes to prove that being one-of-a-kind can start a trend, leading to all sorts of opportunities.
