Meat+Poultry - January 2020 - 85

erman master butcher Uli Lengenberg
has attained a great reputation for
his meat products in Seattle and
around the United States. His business, Uli's
Famous Sausage, delivers on quality, taste and
authenticity.
He truly looks the part of a German
butcher, at 6'6 " in height, a strapping 260 lbs.,
and sporting a mustache reminiscent of his
homeland. But to know him is to realize the
love and heart he puts into each of his 50 different meat items, which make him a standout
in the industry.
His family was in the restaurant business
and he recalls how his grandmother, a home
economics teacher, was fastidious in her
meal preparation.
" She was a master housewife and fussy on
the right way to handle food. When I was a
young lad, she put me in the kitchen...and kept
saying 'Let Uli do it...he knows what to do.' "
Now at 61 years of age, Uli has never
forgotten the lessons learned about food from
his grandmother. Born and raised in the region
between Cologne and Frankfurt, Germany, he
apprenticed at small butcher shops in the area.
When he had an opportunity to work on and
complete his master butcher certification at a
spice company in Heidelberg, he did.

GERMANY MEETS SEATTLE
Uli wanted to travel and see the world. He
worked to set up a meat shop in Taiwan
where he plied the trade for 12 years before
moving to the US with his wife Jean. Uli's
Famous Sausage opened its doors at Seattle's
popular Pike Place Market in May 2000, with
a retail sausage shop and later added a casual
dining restaurant called Uli's Bierstube.
Because of its high volume, inspection
officials wanted Uli to move the processing
area to a separate location. In 2008, he found
a former food production plant just minutes
away. He remodeled it into a 4,000-sq.-ft. plant
with a complete fresh sausage kitchen under
USDA inspection.
" Seattle is very much a high-tech area with
communications and aerospace companies like
Boeing and others employing a large number
of German workers, " Uli explains. " Opening up
a shop making those Old-World style products
was a natural thing for me.
" The older customers who wanted to shop

for German-style sausages were there and still
represent about 40 percent of our retail business. Now about 60 percent of those coming in
are younger and they like these fully flavored
sausages, but they also like chicken-based
sausages, which now account for 60 percent of
our product line and sales. "
In 2014, Uli bought his own warehouse, and
transformed it into a state-of-the-art sausage
production facility.
The new facility offers more cooler space,
separation of cooked and fresh product, and
plenty of room for his two Handtmann stuffers,
smokehouse, bowl chopper, spice and seasoning mixing areas and storage.
Uli strongly supports local
livestock producers and tries to
source his meat supply from the
area, but also finds it necessary
to buy raw product, including
chicken, on the commodity
market. He insists on meats that
are all natural, without unnecessary antibiotics and is an avowed
no-fillers advocate.
" Every product should and must have
its own distinct personality, " he says. " My
customers do not buy my sausages because of
price. They buy them because they are great
products. Every one of them is made with
dedication and caring. I believe in the proper
amount of spices and flavoring and I mix them
myself. Some companies get very stingy on
their use of spices. That reduces the flavor and
lowers the quality. That is not me. "
Uli says that the greatest compliment he
has been paid comes from some of his customers who buy his sausages and advise him that
he should go back to Germany and let those
wurstmeisters know what they have seemed to
skimp on in modern day production.
" I don't know that that's in the cards for
me, " he responds. " There are many fabulous
butchers and sausage-makers in Germany. I
can only speak for what my values and taste
and quality expectations are to me. It is the
quality I can't be stingy about. "

Born and raised in
Germany, Uli Lengenberg
offers his customers a
variety of Old-World
style German sausages.

GAINING NOTORIETY
Uli's sausages have become so renown that they
are served at Seattle's Century Link Field, home
of the NFL Seahawks. Catering companies can
serve them in the Verizon Lounge or in the other
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