Meat+Poultry - September 2023 - 28

BUSINESS STRATEGIES
" We were doing everything the same way
up until coronavirus, and then everybody quit, "
Pope said. " We were still selling meat, but I no
longer had any employees that were willing to
come in to cut the meat. So, for a few weeks I
was doing it; it was kind of crazy. "
Pope was staying home with his three
young children while his wife was doing her
work-at-home job. He was going into the shop
before or after that to cut meat. This routine
quickly became unsustainable. The solution
was in Trimble, Mo., just north of Smithville,
Mo., which is a half-hour away north of KC.
" We started talking to Paradise Locker in
Smithville, " Pope said. " They were already
killing the hogs, so I just said, 'Guys can you
cut these up for us?' and they said 'yeah,
we can cut these up for you.' So, that was
step one. "
Local Pig rolled out a new
charcuterie board menu as
one way to adapt in an age
of people eating less meat.
works for many different kinds of people; the
price point is relatively low, and we're good
at putting out food quickly. All of those things
really made sense for me and City Market. "
The landlord even gave Local Pig money
to upgrade the space. " It was a very fortunate
place for us to land, " Pope added.
" We don't do butchering anymore, and there
isn't a funky food truck, " he said. " It certainly
came from the same place, but it's different and
I'm very happy that it's different. The way we
ran things in East Bottoms was not long-term
sustainable. We did not make enough money to
make it work in the long run, and the building
was built in the 1880s and it was not meant to
house a busy bustling, multi-concept business.
We were bursting at the seams there.
" It was the right move, " he said. " It broke
a lot of people's hearts. It was very romantic,
but in the long run it wasn't sustainable for us
to continue. "
COVID AND CO-PACKERS
On March 21, 2020, Kansas City Mayor Quinton
Lucas issued a " Stay at Home " order, requiring
Kansas Citians to stay at home except for
" essential activities " to slow the spread of
COVID-19. The order went into force at 12:01
a.m., March 22.
28 MEAT+POULTRY | 09.23 | www.meatpoultry.com
Pope and Kafka found a similar solution
for their beef at a different slaughterhouse. It
was a tough decision, but the business partners
slowly realized that the way they were doing
things had been romantic and interesting, but
it also was inefficient, and not necessarily as
high quality as what a federally inspected plant
could produce.
" A USDA plant is an impeccable work of
cleanliness, sanitation and amazing machines, "
Pope explained. " The health department
doesn't want us to use Cryovac. Once we
started doing that, my eyes opened up. We
inject our ham here to make ham, but when
I talk to the guys at Paradise and they tell me
about their injector machine compared to my
hand pump, I know it's a better product. It gets
a better cure. "
So, the partners started turning the Local
Pig recipes over to Paradise Locker and
Nadler's Meats, Wellington, Mo., about 45
minutes away from KC. They also worked
with a spice co-packer and then with a meat
co-packer to make the sausage, bacon and a
majority of Local Pig's deli meats.
" They make our recipes the same way we
would make our recipes, except they would
use those awesome machines, and Rollstock
and Cryovac, " Pope said. " They use the
industry standard machines that we don't have
access to - we don't have enough power; we
don't have enough space; we don't have the
licenses. It really dovetailed with the way that
we didn't have employees. "
Local Pig
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Meat+Poultry - September 2023

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