A Madison Valley retailer is going old-school in Magnolia.
Bill the Butcher, and independent meat market with a location in Madison Valley (2911 E. Madison St.), opened its doors over the Fourth of July holiday in Magnolia.
Owned by chef and master butcher William Von Schneidau, Bill the Butcher is a throwback to the days of yore when neighborhood butcher shops were commonplace. The only difference now is that, this shop will mostly sell organic meats, in addition to dozens of pairing items such as wine and sides.
“We want to bring the butcher shop back to the neighborhood,” said store planner Thad Donat.
He said after the company performed demographic studies of the area, as it did with all of its locations, it made sense to move forward with the company’s fifth location.
Buying local
Bill the Butcher began in Woodinville and has since expanded with stores in Laurelhurst, Madison Valley, Redmond and now Magnolia. Plans are already underway for a store in Bellevue.
The company is also filing for a liquor license to sell wine and beer, like its other locations.
The concept of Bill the Butcher is to buy as locally as possible — and from farms, not factories. And this would reflect each store, geographically. For instance, if a store opens in Clark County, the company would buy only from farmers within that region.
Right now, there is a central warehouse in Shoreline, where meat is cut and processed, and all the meat — as well as eggs, milk and other dairy products — come from farms in Snohomish and Skagit counties.
“We’re as local as possible,” Donat said. “We’d buy across the street if we could.”
Donat is counting on organic purchases to continue to climb, even in a cool economy.
But buying organic can be expensive, sometimes twice as much as non-organic purchases, be it meat, fruits or vegetables. Donat is well aware of that, he said, adding that as the Bill the Butcher opens more stores, it will increase its buying power and can keep costs affordable.
The plan is to open as many as 10 stores in the Greater Seattle area and stock those locations with products from the same, local farmers.[[In-content Ad]]
