Our Story

Hind Quarter Meat Co. was founded in 2021 as a pop-up delivery service, selling shares of whole animals from local farmers. Over time our offerings expanded to include custom dry-aged beef, exciting flavours of handmade sausages and burgers, and much more. Hind Quarter has won the CommunityVotes Barrie award for best butcher shop 2 years running in 2022 and 2023, despite not having a physical location for customers to shop at. While our e-mail newsletter service was well received it has always been our ambition to open a full service butcher shop- and we have finally made that dream a reality!

The store is conveniently located at the corner of Mapleview Drive W. and Veteran's Drive. We have a large selection of fresh meat available daily, using all the same suppliers and farmers we have partnered with over the past 2 years as a pop-up business. We've expanded upon those offerings to include more exciting things from specialty producers, with a local focus whenever possible as we strive to consistently provide you with all the elements for a memorable meal, time after time. We also have a full line of in-house prepared meals, soups, sauces, and side dishes.

We're on a mission to provide the community with delicious food of uncompromising quality, great service, meticulous attention to detail and transparent sourcing. We'll see you soon!

A MESSAGE FROM ONE OF OUR FOUNDERS

A question I get asked all the time is- how did you become a butcher? So… let me tell you my story! As a young man I found work in restaurant kitchens and honed my cooking chops in fine dining establishments in Kingston, Picton, Whitby, and Toronto. At a lovely French bistro in Kingston I worked under the watchful eye of a truly outstanding chef who had apprenticed in Toronto under the world famous Susur Lee. Here I learned some basics of butchery for the very first time. It was our sous chef’s job to do the butchery and he hated doing it … but I absolutely loved it! So I offered to help as much as I could. I cut steaks and stew beef, French cut lamb racks, prepared beef tenderloins and prime ribs, and cleaned lots of fish! I would often stay long past my shift’s end without pay to learn this seemingly secret art. After a fashion and plenty of training I was allowed to take over the butchering for the restaurant and I began to consider the idea of butchery as a career.

I moved to Toronto in my early twenties and managed to land a job at one of the city’s best high-end butchers. It was here that I truly fell in love with my craft. My first taste of real dry aged beef was an intoxicating, life changing moment. It was an amazing feeling- to taste something the way it is meant to; food treated with care and respect and diligence to create the best quality possible. The precision and speed and attention to detail was riveting. The commitment to avoiding waste and the respect for the animals and the farmers who raise them instilled a deep sense of pride in the job that I do.

Over 15 years later I still get excited when I am about to cut into a piece of beef that I've been aging, and I am still pushing to find ways to improve my skills and come up with new and exciting ideas! I still find myself thinking at night about what delicious things I might be able to find time to make tomorrow.

In the days of cheap, factory farmed, supermarket meat our connection with butchers and farmers has been somewhat lost. At Hind Quarter we love making that connection with our customers, and we encourage you to contact us at any time with questions you may have about the farming, processing, cutting or cooking of meat.

Best regards,

Jack Clarke

Founder, Hind Quarter Meat Co.