The new butchers: A Southern revival

Across the South, more and more idealistic young men and women are picking up cleavers, said Hanna Raskin in Garden & Gun. No doubt they’ve recognized that in the journey of locally grown food from farm to table, the butcher is an important middleman. Look around many of the cities in the South and you’ll find them opening neighborhood shops “where the andouille is hand chopped, beef scraps are salvaged for high-end bologna, and it’s perfectly reasonable to request the jowl of a Red Wattle hog.” Or if they haven’t opened an actual market, they’re heading in that direction.

The Chop Shop Butchery Asheville, N.C. Owner Josh Wright and his staff draw “a steady crowd of rubbernecking locavores” by breaking down whole animals behind the shop’s glass wall. “Our philosophy is to bring transparency to meat,” Wright says. An on-site smokehouse is used for “everything from sausages and charcuterie to turkeys and chicken wings.” chopshopbutchery.com

Dai Due Butcher Shop Austin Jesse Griffiths’s so-called butcher shop is actually a nomadic farmers market stand. Its sausage menu “honors the area’s Cajun, Mexican, and German influences,” and two choices are made from one of the banes of modern Texas—the feral hog. daidueaustin.net

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Red Apron Washington, D.C. Come fall, Nathan Anda will have a brick-and-mortar location on D Street. Until then, he works the farmers market circuit, specializing in gourmet hot dogs in 10 flavors, including foie gras with truffles. redapronbutchery.com