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Buster’s Butcher is a new entity in Memphis, Tennessee. Established to provide the community with the finest quality meats, cheeses, prepared foods, and more. A sister company to the beloved Buster’s Liquors & Wines, located right next door that’s been serving the community since 1954. We continue our tradition of providing exceptional customer service and superior selection, but now with gourmet foods.
Bringing together this respected local brand and our skilled butchers below, with whom none of this would be possible, makes this such a wonderful enhancement for our town and community.
And, that’s why there is truly no place like it in Memphis!
Head Butcher
Brad McCarley
Cheese Director
Lindsay Chaisson
Production Manager
Mitchell Marable
Co-Owner
Josh Hammond
Mascot
Ozzy Hogbourne
Co-Owner
Morgan Hammond
© 2023 Buster’s Butcher. All Rights Reserved. Website design by Spark Media.
Buster’s Butcher Shop offers bone-in ribeye on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
The Arby’s fast food chain insists that they have the meats.
But a truer claim now resides inside a narrow University District strip-mall bay that was once a Subway sandwiches location.
The new Buster’s Butcher has rib-eyes, T-bones, filets, tomahawks and Kansas City strips, sure. But also whole chickens, rabbits and ducks. Osso buco-ready veal shanks, boudin-stuffed quail and individually packaged confit duck legs. Bison and elk. Cold cuts from their house-prepared roast beef, tasso and city hams, and country pâté to imported-from-elsewhere pastramis and cured porks. Any manner of in-house sausages in pork, chicken and duck varieties. Meatballs and burgers. And if you really want to get fancy about it, there’s a glass-enclosed dry-aged case with the aura of an art installation.
Buster’s Butcher, adjacent to but separate from its parent, Buster’s Liquors & Wines in the University Center shopping complex at Poplar Avenue and Highland Street, is a 2,200-square-foot playground for carnivorous cooks.
Yes, they have the meats: Most are cut-to-order and sourced from Home Place Pastures in nearby Como, Mississippi, and Creekstone Farms in Kansas. The dry-aged case is entirely from Home Place Pastures. But they also have pretty much whatever you’d want to pair with those meats — from sides, soups and sauces to condiments, oils, spices and rubs.
A Buster’s Butcher Shop butcher slices veal top round on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
In-between, McCarley launched his own craft butcher and sandwich shop, City Block Salumeria, which operated out of the Puck Food Hall on South Main Street until COVID-19 essentially shut the hall down.
At Buster’s, McCarley is flanked (pun lightly intended) by staff from some of these prior stops. Mitchell Marable is production manager, overseeing all of the meats. Lindsay Chaisson is in charge of the shop’s extensive, impressive prepared foods program.
Some of the products at Buster’s Butcher may be familiar from those previous endeavors, as well.
Buster’s carries spices and chili crunch from Momofuku, but also sells jars of their own in-house chili crunch, the same that was used at Salt | Soy. The Spicy Italian sub available in the grab-and-go case — where a medley of familiar cold cuts such as soppressata, mortadella and city ham get an added zing from spreadable nduja sausage — is the same sandwich that was a sure shot at City Block.
And pre-packaged burger patties, available in a house blend, steakhouse blend or bacon-beef 50/50 blend are essentially the same as the ones that were so popular at Porcellino’s.
But McCarley has also drawn on those prior experiences in terms of narrowing the approach at Buster’s.
“I wanted to maintain the quality of what we did at Porcellino’s,” McCarley said. “And it’s funny, because we are doing a lot of things here, but we were doing so much in that building.”
Porcellino’s wasn’t just a craft butcher shop for walk-in customers.
Brad McCarley runs the shop, which had an unannounced soft opening last week and will likely hold an official grand opening next month. And he personally curates everything in it, from the meats and spices to a small collection of cookbooks for inspiration, ones you’d find in his own home.
“This is stuff I’d want to have both in my restaurant kitchen and my home kitchen,” said McCarley, surveying the shop.
McCarley brings to Buster’s his deep experience in the Memphis food scene, having most recently been the chef at Salt | Soy on Broad Avenue and head butcher at Porcellino’s for the Enjoy A|M Restaurant Group
It was also preparing meats for all of its sibling restaurants. And it was a small-plates restaurant. And a coffee shop. And a bar. And a little bit of a bakery.
“It was a lot,” McCarley said. “I think, now, that the restaurant kind of took away from (the rest). From a business perspective, this is more manageable.”
Buster’s will have their own “core four” of house-made grab-and-go sandwiches: The Spicy Italian, a roast beef, a jambon-beurre (classic French ham and butter) and a turkey croissant. But they won’t make sandwiches to order, and there’s nowhere to eat inside.
But if there’s no dinner, there is theater: On a recent visit, an open counter at the end of the shop was a stage for the making of one of the shop’s compound butters. Behind that, visible through large windows on two sides, another employee was making meatballs.
Buster’s Butcher Shop butcher Mitchell Marable cuts a veal top round on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
It’s a shopping experience, whether you’re an ambitious home cook or want most of the work done for you.
And while I could tell you more about the meats, I got distracted by all that was going on opposite the butcher counter.
House-made products are the core of the business.
“The idea was, come to get your meat, then we have take-and-bake classic steakhouse sides, creamed spinach, twice-baked potatoes, potatoes au gratin, etc.,” said McCarley.
But that’s not all.
Pasta sauces (marinara, bolognaise) and soups (broccoli cheese, tomato) come in 32-ounce containers for $12-14. (I took the first of each home on a recent visit, along with a bag of the house-made meatballs, all excellent.)
There are other classic sauces (béchamel, veloute), gravies, salad dressings and spice rubs.
Those compound butters for also packaged for sale: Truffle, bone marrow, blue cheese and “steak” (essentially garlic).
Outside goods are a mix of locals and specialty products from elsewhere.
You can buy hot dogs, bacon and eggs from Home Place Pastures, Tom’s Tiny Kitchen brand pimento cheese and barbecue sauces from Bain, Melissa Cookston and Ballhoggerz, among others.
Buster’s Butcher Shop displays its wares in its glass-enclosed case on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Asheville’s highly regarded Spicewalla line of spices and seasonings are available, along with any manner of mustards, mayos, hot sauces, olive oils and more.
This is a specialty shop for serious eaters and cooks. It’s not a bargain shop, and the highest-end products are pricey.
You can get elk ribeye ($42.50 a pound) and foie gras torchon ($52.99 a pound) here. The cheese counter includes Spanish manchego ($37 a pound), British Stilton ($40 a pound) and Dutch gouda ($31 a pound).
But that’s not everything. Most house-ground meats — burgers and sausages — are in the $9-12 a pound range. The pasta sauces and soups are quite reasonable considering the very high quality.
You can go upscale or more basic. Plan to cook or just plan to eat. Or maybe catch some inspiration.
I asked McCarley about some personal favorites.
“I love the city ham, brined and smoked,” he said. “The barese sausage: pork and lamb, parmesan cheese, tomato paste, basil, parsley, some garlic. It originates in the town of Bari, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It’s just really awesome. Grill it and put it on a bun, but it goes great in sauces, too.
“The boudin-stuffed quail. And we just started doing the carne asada. One of our young butchers had worked in his family’s carniceria in California, and he just brought that up yesterday, and I said put it out. It’s really great. I really like the things my team has made. We give them license to do cool stuff.”
They have the meats, and pretty much any related cool stuff you can imagine.
Buster’s Butcher, 199 S. Highland St., is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays; and noon to 6 p.m., Sundays.
Have you been wanting to cook an elk tenderloin? Maybe make the classic French dish Lapin a la Moutarde? Or just looking for a lovely hand-cut steak?
If you weren’t sure where to find these specialty meats, look no further. Buster’s Butcher has about any cut of meat you might be looking for, as well as everything you might need to accompany it.
Buster’s Butcher at 199 S. Highland Ave. is a new butcher shop from the owners of Buster’s Liquors and Wines. It opened Aug. 18.
Buster’s Butcher wants to be your destination for both a special dinner party, as well as a weeknight supper. Every attention to detail in anticipation for what a customer will need to prepare a meal has been considered.
The 2,200-square-foot store has 24 feet of refrigerated cases filled to the brim. Shelves of condiments ranging from imported aged balsamic vinegar to Duke’s Mayonnaise offer a carefully curated selection of items to enhance your meal.
Buster’s co-owner Josh Hammond said it’s something he had been thinking about for a while.
When the former deli space next door to the liquor store opened up, he decided to make it happen.
“The first thing I knew I need to do was find the right people,” said Hammond, as he relayed the story of calling his friend Ryan Trimm (who owns Sunrise Memphis and 117 Prime) and asking where he could find a butcher.
“Ryan recommended Brad McCarley, and after our first conversation I knew he was the right person,” he said.
McCarley, who most recently was the chef at Salt | Soy, has an extensive background in butchery. He was previously the butcher at the much-missed butcher shops Porcellino’s and City Block Salumeria.
Here are three things you need to know about Buster’s Butcher.
McCarley has sourced the best meats he could find at small farms from across the country.
Steaks are procured from farms across the United States, and as far as way as Japan. Cuts range from filets to tomahawks, and everything in between. French cut lamb chops and thick-cut bone-in veal chops are also in the case.
Pork cuts are from Home Place Pastures in Como, Mississippi. “Their shoulder won the Memphis in May World Championship this year,” said McCarley, adding they carry traditional cuts from this local farm, as well as some “off-cuts” that customers may not be as familiar with.
There is also an extensive selection of game. Expect to find bison, elk, rabbit and venison.
Duck and partridge are included in the poultry selection, as well as unique house-prepared items like Boudin-stuffed quail.
“We can get people whatever they want with a like notice,” said McCarley, jokingly adding they can even source camel if someone wants it.
A one-stop shop: Sides, cheeses and more
Buster’s aims to be a one-stop shop.
Along with your steak, pick up take-and-bake steakhouse sides like Creamed Spinach, Potatoes Au Gratin and Corn Souffle. There are even premade salads and a selection of housemade salad dressings from which to choose.
Garnish your steak with one of their steak butters — ranging from truffle to blue cheese to marrow flavored.
A nice selection of cheeses is available as well. Cut to order, the selection includes an assortment of soft, hard, semi-firm and blue cheeses.
Shelves are loaded with every condiment you may want.
“We have everything from high-end and awesome to everyday favorites like Duke’s Mayonnaise to Louisiana Hot Sauce,” said McCarley, adding the barbecue sauce selection features Memphis brands. “These are things I want — both as a chef and for my home kitchen.”
And don’t forget a bottle of wine. Pop into the liquor store for a suggestion on the perfect bottle for what you picked up at the butcher shop.
Get to know your butcher
McCarley has assembled a top-notch team of well-respected chefs and butchers.
“I couldn’t have picked a better team — from the people I am working with at the shop to the Hammonds,” McCarley said.
Two of his key team members have worked with McCarley before on projects.
Mitchell Marable, who most recently helped launch Paradox Cuisine’s charcuterie division, is behind the butcher counter. With the title “production manager,” Marable is in charge of cutting meats, as well as making specialty items like sausages.
Lindsay Chaisson has worked with McCarley in several kitchens, and is in charge of prepared foods and the cheese selection. “She is making everything from the take-and-bake items to the salad dressings,” McCarley said.
As he pointed to well-appointed restroom, Hammond added he plans for Buster’s Butcher to become more than just a neighborhood butcher shop. “We hope to one day also do butcher dinners in here,” he said, adding that is what is special about McCarley and his team. “They are butchers and chefs.”
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@
commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer. If you want to keep up with the tastiest news in the Bluff City — like the story above, sign up for our Eat Drink Memphis weekly newsletter for a hearty serving of stories on everything from restaurants to recipes. You can sign up here.
Buster’s Butcher
Where: 199 S. Highland St.
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday
