YORKTON - While not so long ago every community had a butcher shop processing meat for local farmers, and selling meats to townsfolk, today they are increasingly rare as a local business.
But for those in the Yorkton area they can roll west on the Yellowhead to find one business bucking the trend.
Located in a renovated building – itself a century old and once a meat locker – is Main Street Meats in Theodore.
Operated by the husband / wife team of Tyler and Kristina Nesbitt, Main Street Meats is very much an old-fashioned butcher shop.
They do on-farm butchering, they process wild game, meaning they can carve out the roasts and cut the steaks on a moose, elk or deer for hunters, and they have a smokehouse.
“We do in-house sausage, bacon, hams, smoked pork chops,” said Kristina as they set up their display at the Grain Millers Harvest Showdown.
Tyler added they use their own recipes, even for the smoked sausage.
While the basic recipe has been tweaked over time, he added they have one they and their customers like.
“It took us a few tries to refine it to perfection,” said Tyler.
Kristina then added they occasionally create small batches of sausage based on a new idea, always looking for what might prove popular with customers.
In terms of popular, the smoked pork chops might top the list.
Tyler said they are lightly smoked and the saltiness is at a minimum, and people like them.
Processing wild meat has been a good diversification for Main Street Meats. While it is a fall-based add-on, and dependent on the success hunters have, Tyler said they are typically busy with that part of the business each fall.
The couple came to the business via different routes.
While Kristina noted, “we both have a history with it,” it wasn’t exactly a direct connection.
“I came from the government inspection side,” she said.
Tyler grew up on a farm, but was actually working with concrete before taking the plunge to open a butcher shop.
They opened their doors in 2020 “right before COVID in January,” said Kristina, adding they weathered the pandemic and are headed to year-four now.
Now they focus on giving customers what they want.
For example they do boxes of meats that are popular, in particular for the holiday season.
And, while the storefront is open four days a week in Theodore, Kristina added “we deliver to Yorkton,” allowing customers in the city to go online to www.mainstreetmeats.ca place an order and have it brought right to the door in the city.
The store is open Monday, Wednesday to Friday from 10-3.
