OK, we’re just gonna admit if. Our erstwhile editor Steve Cavendish was totally enamored with the boys from Porter Road Butcher. In the six years since Chris Carter and James Peisker opened their first butcher shop at 501 Gallatin Road in East Nashville, Cav wrote a cover story about them for the Scene, picked them as a Writer’s Choice for Best Butcher, created a photolog about a trip to some of the farms that supply PRB meats, interviewed Peisker and Carter for one of the Scene’s first podcasts and wrote many other smaller pieces about Porter Road opening and closing a West Nashville location as well as the company's purchase of a slaughterhouse and processing facility in Princeton, Ky., so the duo can ensure the proper handling of their products throughout the animals’ life cycles.
So yeah, he was totally in the bag for Porter Road, but that’s not really a bad thing at all. It is just another demonstration of Cavendish’s nose for news and important developments, plus his taste for really great food. I remember dropping by Porter Road’s first anniversary party and seeing all the local and national publicity the small store had garnered in the first year and telling them, “You do know, guys, that this just doesn’t happen. This sort of attention only comes when the right people get together and come up with the right idea at the right time, and I really believe you all have done that.” Without the benefit of huge investors or a massive public relations effort, Carter and Peisker made a mark on the culinary scene in a very short time, and soon they found themselves invited as talent to food festivals around the country.
With this sort of recognition and acclaim, you’d think butchering was an easy gig and that Peisker and Carter just celebrate their successes by dining in great restaurants all over town while their staff of young apprentice butchers do all the work. You would be wrong. The two have never let up on the hard work that goes into connecting farmers to their final customers, including some of the finest kitchens in Nashville. They truly care about how the chickens, pigs and cattle that they process and sell are treated, down to the size of the animals' homes to the food they eat.
Purchasing a traditional slaughterhouse and converting it to a more responsible processing facility was hard work. Peisker and Carter realized their new employees would have to learn what the Porter Road ethos was all about, but it was important to the owners that the new folks felt like part of the family, a group that extends up the food chain to the farmers and ranchers and all the way to the chefs and neighbors who purchase the final products.
PRB's two owners spend much of their time commuting back and forth between East Nashville and Kentucky, even sleeping in a trailer they installed next to the processing plant to be able to wake up ready to work. A significant portion of their revenue when they first purchased the plant was processing deer that had been harvested by local hunters, but they eventually eliminated that offering to pay more attention to their own operation. Committed to whole animal butchery, Porter Road continues to look for ways to keep the processing plant busy and balance out the demands of the customers without wasting meat or resorting to purchasing boxed meat.
Their latest solution is a bold venture into the world of online butcher shops, with a new website at PorterRoad.com. Yes, there are plenty of other places to shop for meat online, including huge operations based around Midwestern cattle operations and other boutique sellers, but none of them have the sort of local connection to Middle Tennessee and Kentucky that the new Porter Road option has.
“We believe in the integrity of our products. Not everyone has a local butcher shop like ours in Nashville; that’s why we decided to take this business to the next level to provide fresh beef, pork, lamb and chicken to customers across the country. There’s a new revolution of chefs and home cooks who care about where their food comes from,” says Peisker. Carter continues, “What makes us special is the care we take to hand-select our farmers and how we treat the animals through the process. If they aren’t raised right, it can’t be delicious.”
All of the meat sold on the website is hand-cut by trained butchers, and all the beef is dry-aged in a special room for a minimum of 14 days to concentrate the flavors and increase the tenderness of the meat. The shopping website is cleverly organized around choices that make sense for the consumer. You can pick by the type of meat, beef, chicken, pork, lamb or combo boxes. Or you can make your choice based on how much time you want to spend cooking, from a gorgeous marbled flank steak that can be done in less than 15 minutes to oxtail and short ribs that can braise all day.
Porter Road suggests trying their Starter Pack to sample a variety of their products in one order. The Porter Road Starter Pack includes two dry-aged steaks, two pork chops, 2 pounds of dry-aged ground beef, 1 pound of bacon, 1 pound of country sausage and 1 pound of chorizo sausage, all for just $100. To guarantee peak freshness, all Porter Road orders placed before 3 p.m. Central Time are shipped the same day, Monday through Wednesday. Shipping costs are extremely reasonable at $5 for two-day delivery and just $10 for overnight. If you’ve ever made the trip across the river only to be disappointed that the PRB bricks-and-mortar shop didn’t have the cut you were looking for in stock, the convenience and ability to check their inventory is certainly worth the cost of shipping.
Meat is shipped fresh in a cooler, but not frozen. It arrives ready to cook, or you can put it in the fridge or freezer for later. Just the packaging would seem to eat up all their shipping costs, so clearly Porter Road is more interested in making sure that their customers receive fresh meat fast than in maximizing every penny of profit. The packaging is attractive and clearly labeled, and the products I have sampled have been universally excellent. Their website also offers tips and tricks for the home chef, as well as James’ and Chris’ favorite recipes and best practices.
This is an effort that the entire city should get behind. Not only are the products excellent and the convenience unparalleled, but PorterRoad.com is seeking to revolutionize the practice of how meat is raised, processed, butchered and shipped. After that heady first year of attention as the darlings of the national press, Peisker and Carter never wavered from their commitment when the work got harder and lonelier, when the days got longer and the commute expanded by hours. If they hope to prove that their model of ethical whole animal butchery can work and continue to provide products to restaurants and retails customers, they need this new venture to take off. Give them a try!
