SALT Meat Market flavors Castle Rock area

Colorado couple opens butcher shop focused on customer service and locally sourced meats

Over the last decade, old-school butcher shops have experienced a renaissance throughout the country, especially in metro areas. A community staple before the 1970s, the demand for whole animal butchery declined and supermarkets began pre-packaging their meat for sale to the consumer.

As mom and pop shops disappeared, the years-long transformation of the meat industries into giant corporations unwilling to provide details of their products — including origins, medications and/or even feed — caused a portion of the buying public to search for alternatives where service and transparency were valued. It was coined the “Farm to Table” movement, and it spurred a revival of the neighborhood butcher shop.

CSU BACKGROUND

Colorado natives Ralph and Jordan Hinton joined that revival by opening SALT Craft Meat Market in Castle Rock in late October of 2022. SALT is a throwback butcher shop where personal service is a priority, along with a laser focus on offering locally sourced meats. The Hintons both have degrees from Colorado State University in Animal Science — with Ralph focusing on animal nutrition and Jordan obtaining a master’s degree in meat science — and their formative years raising animals plus post-CSU years working within the livestock industries prepped them for their new venture.

“We helped different meat companies reach consumers through different marketing tactics and we were selling pork on the side to our friends and family,” described Jordan of the couple’s career status when they made the leap to small business owners.

Jordan runs the butcher shop while Ralph works full-time at Vitalix and manages a show pig operation of 25 sows in Elizabeth, Colo. Ralph’s background raising commercial livestock and the current show pig operation creates a direct source of quality local pork for SALT Craft Meat Market that large chain stores do not match.

“It really is fun to have someone come in and say, oh I have never seen a pork chop look like that before,” said Ralph about the product from their own carefully managed hogs. “They are big and the quality is really good. (Consumers) are not used to seeing that kind of quality of pork in this country. We always raised crossbreds and Yorkshires and Hampshires, but when we started the idea of the meat shop, we started raising Berkshires, as well.”

“I made Ralph start raising Berkshire pigs,” added Jordan with a smile at her husband. “Because Berkshires are kind of like the gold standard. Most of our Berkshires come (to SALT) and then some of the other ones that aren’t pretty enough to be somebody’s county fair pig… we will have that pork here, as well.”

Due to COVID mandates in the recent past, people began cooking more at home and consciously supported local businesses. The Hintons incorporated that desire to “buy local” into their own business plan by looking for quality meats as close to home as possible while keeping true to their values and industry experience.

“It was important for us to find the kind of people we wanted to partner with and tell their story,” said Jordan about the meats they sell. “We want to work with farmers and ranchers who are raising their animals sustainably and that are taking care of their animals and that we trust them and know they are doing the right thing.”

SOURCING LOCAL

As a result of that focus, a good portion of their beef is from Welch Cattle, which is about as local as anyone could expect.

“They run (their cattle) on all the open space in Douglas County,” explained Ralph. “We have cattle that are run through the shop that were born, raised and then grass finished in Douglas County and then sold in Douglas County.”

Further distinctions between the new crop of community butcher shops versus large grocery chains is a willingness the smaller shops have to go the extra mile in delivering top-shelf products. For example, all the beef sold in SALT is either wet or dry aged on premises a minimum of 30 days, which is a rarity in most chain grocers. In addition, the Hintons state their beef is classified as either “high choice or prime.” For options other than steaks, SALT creates on premises nearly all their seasoned meats. If you see beef pastrami or herbed poultry or pork sausage varieties; those items have been crafted on site.

“We offer something different than the grocery store,” Ralph said. “(The chain grocers) are not going to be able to track down something special or a cut that they don’t have. We can be more specific about what an individual customer wants. If it is something mainstream, like a ribeye steak, obviously we have that, but we can also sell something off the beaten path that they are not used to seeing. If you have a specific request, you can ask for something and we will go in back and find the piece that you need and we will trim and make it to what you want it to be.”

That small business agility has helped the Hintons experiment with items that have turned into pleasant surprises for the bottom line. Knowing their customer base desires quality and transparency but also fights full schedules every day, SALT offered sandwiches and meal kits to go that include their own meats and scratch made side dishes. Both ideas have been well received.

“Everything is made with our local meats and made from scratch,” said Jordan. “You want to feed your family something nutritious and wholesome, but you don’t have time to cook and don’t want fast food drive through.”

“We try to offer sides also,” said Ralph. “We can save you a trip to another store to get seasoned vegetables to go with (your main dish).”

CUSTOM MEATS

While SALT’s offerings are already popular with their customer base, a personal favorite of the Hintons they would like the wider public to experience is their custom pork sausage.

“We do different sausage flavors weekly,” said Ralph. “We keep the standards — Italian sausage, breakfast sausage — but we also do our own. We made a roasted green chili one when it was chili roasting season, and we did a beer cheese brat for October fest using beer from the brewery right next door.”

In today’s marketplace of faceless corporations uninterested in transparency or local sourcing, the recent surge of community butcher shops like SALT Craft Meat Market provide solid alternatives for consumers looking for personal service and quality meats with transparent origins.

You can also find SALT Craft Meat Market on their website at http://www.saltmeatmarket.com, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.