Quality meats and customer service.
The Berlin Butcher Shop, located in Berlin, Md., opened its doors to the public a few months ago. Since taking over the old Rainbow Florist shop, the business has brought the old school butcher style back to the town.
Lisa Hall, owner of the small business, is no stranger to Berlin. When she ran into Matt DiPietro, the business plan began to fall into place.
“I live here, I was on the council and I’ve been planning this for about five years because I didn’t have a butcher,” Hall says. “I met Matt, and he doesn’t want the business aspect of it so I’ve given him a place to cut meat.”
Matt DiPietro and Lisa Hall on the opening day of the butcher shop (Photo: Berlin Butcher Shop)
DiPietro is a fourth generation Italian butcher. Growing up in upstate New York, his great grandfather, grandfather and father all owned butcher shops and he spent most of his childhood in those shops.
“It’s a dying industry — there are big grocery stores and a lot of the meat is flash frozen,” Hall says. “At our shop, we’re able to provide custom cuts and custom orders.”
The business owner recalls a time when she was just a young girl and due to a lack of storage, there wasn’t freezer capability.
“People bought their meat every day and that’s what we are doing again,” Hall says.
The butcher shop is a full service shop providing fresh cut meats, homemade sausage from the DiPietro family recipe, chicken, Boar’s Head deli, cheeses, spice blends and rubs.
Cowboy Chops at the Berlin Butcher Shop (Photo: Berlin Butcher Shop)
Not only is Hall trying to bring back the way it once was, she is doing it in an environmentally conscious way. The butcher shop doesn’t use plastic or Styrofoam— strictly paper bags, twine and paper boats.
The town of Berlin is known for supporting its neighbors, which is one of the reasons why Rayne’s Reef is serving the shop’s hamburger meat. In the future, Hall would love the business’ products to expand into other local restaurants.
“Our motto is we’re service and quality meats and that’s what we want to do,” Hall says. “We want to provide a quality source of meat, we want people to come in and have good costumer service and get the meats they want.”
