Urban Butchers for a new generation

Heading to your favourite butcher for a piece of flank steak or a Frenched rack of lamb is hardly a new concept, but the tradition has become lost in the era of grocery store super centres.

Custom butchery of locally-raised meats is making a comeback, and the Urban Butcher is an evolution of the traditional 50s-style butcher shop with friendly white coats behind the counter.

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The Mission location has been a butcher shop for the past 40 years, under various names including 4th Street Meats. Second to None Meats took it over in 2004, and Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts came on as a silent partner in 2012 allowing for more renovation and a product expansion.

Until a few weeks ago it was still Second to None Meats, a neighbourhood butcher shop Calgarians have come to know and love, led by master butcher/operations manager Bob Choquette.

He's now joined by chef Lancelot Monteiro, executive chef at Cilantro, one of the CRMR restaurants and a staple of the Calgary food scene for the past 22 years.

New additions

They've completed a makeover, adding a lineup of fresh and frozen prepared dishes and crafted house-made sauces, spreads, pickles and preserves to the menu of well-raised and butchered fresh meats, handmade sausages from a generations-old recipe and cured deli items.

"After so many years in the restaurant business, Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts realized that they have certain sauces and other recipes that people loved, and we could jar them and sell them," says Monteiro.

The curry sauces come from chef John Donovan at Divino (the red pairs well with seafood; the green with chicken) and the heirloom tomato ketchup comes from chef Thomas Neukom of the Lake House.

The freezers are stocked with soups, tenderloin lasagna, lobster mac & cheese and Shepherd's pie — many of which were mainstays on the Cilantro menu for years.

Kitchen should not be intimidating

There are also pizzas — the actual ones Cilantro is known for, the thin crusts baked there (in the first forno oven in Calgary) then topped with wild boar sausage, peppers, basil and a mix of cheeses, or their famous combination of pear, pesto and gorgonzola.

Pizzas are $12 and take 10 minutes to bring to life in your own oven.

Monteiro and the rest of the team at Urban Butcher believe the kitchen should not be an intimidating place. While sourcing ingredients for your meal, you should be able to request custom cuts and ask questions about preparation.

He collaborated on glossy recipe cards that are stacked among bottles of imported olive oil, tiny tins of green peppercorns, boxes of Maldon salt and jars of grainy mustard and other preserves.

"Our ultimate goal is to make it easier and inspire customers to cook at home," says Monteiro.

"Starting with these recipe banks, hopefully, eventually we'll have hundreds."

They also plan to launch a YouTube channel featuring how-to cooking videos.

Meat still on the menu

Like Second to None, Urban Butcher still serves the best cuts of ethically raised meats — AAA Alberta beef, pasture-raised pork, free range, free run and organic poultry products and deli items from their own smokehouse.

All their meats are sourced from local ranchers, including Broek Pork Acres, Thunder Creek Pork, Ewe-Nique Farms, and their own Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, where they raise bison and elk just southwest of Priddis. Urban Butchers can even do caribou on special order.

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There are eggs from Maple Hill Farm and fresh veggies from Broxburn Farm.

"We're getting to the point where you can come in here and walk out ready for dinner," Monteiro says.

You can find Urban Butcher in Mission and Willow Park Village.

Watch for a third location to open in June at Granary Road, a new public market five minutes south of Highway 22x, which will house over 40 local vendors along with a 150-seat licensed restaurant with an outdoor patio and 60 seat rooftop lounge, onsite greenhouse, four-storey life-sized ant farm and kids' active learning park.