Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Crouch End Dixy Chicken Makes Way for Butcher Tailored for Chattering Classes
Muddy Boots founders Miranda and Roland Ballard (PIcture: Daily Telegraph)
The Daily Telegraph has reported that the founders of an independent burger maker Muddy Boots are planning to launch their own chain of butcher shops with the first opening in Crouch end in February 2014.
Their plans come in the aftermath of the couple's refusal of a mass-market partnership with Tesco.
The pair are spending £80,000 refitting the Dixy Chicken shop in Crouch End over the next six months.
With this chain of new shops, the Ballards plan to bring back the traditional high street butcher shop, with a modern twist. “There will be no hanging carcasses and blooded white,” Ms Ballard told the Telegraph. “This is a modern meat shop.
“We’ll have longer opening hours, and we’ll serve wine and charcuterie in the evenings. We’ll have a fresh lunch menu every day and our products will mostly be packaged with the use-by date and cooking instructions, rather than out in slabs of meat. We’re not actually competing with traditional butchers, we’re competing with the supermarkets”.
So, it looks like the battle of the coffee shops is going to be joined by a battle of the butchers in Crouch End.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by vaneska on
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I have hopes for the the new Cult Women opening this weekend, however.
v
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Good luck to 'em I say, a new independent business setting up on a high street that is thriving rather bucks the national trend. Plus a shop that dares to compete with the supermarkets deserves a little respect too, surely?
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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There's already quite a good independent butcher in Crouch End - Freeman's almost opposite the Haelan Centre, who do free range and some organic meat, plus great sausages and the only bacon that still has rinds on that I can find. I wonder whether ,with all the supermarkets, CE can really support another butcher, although if their marketing is anything to go by, they'll be well out of my price range, rather like Gail's bakery.
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2 butchers actually - there's Morleys as well (but yes Maddy - I always used to buy my bacon there but I notice they've now changed it to rindless - so no more!) but if anyone else wanted to open a shop 'with hanging carcasses and bloodied meat' then I'd be all for it. Gails is another on my ignore list, it's only virtue being that it has put into use a long-derelict prime retail site. After all, you can buy the bread opposite in Waitrose if you really want.
I would find it pretty disturbing if kebab and fried chicken shops found themselves unwelcome or unable to sustain a business in Crouch End and conversely, I wouldn't want them on every street corner. The idea of Crouch End becoming like Hampstead or Highgate or one of those Cotswold towns without an Indian/Chinese takeaway is not something I would want to entertain. There needs to be something for everybody, within reason. As already posted, I respect businesses that endeavour towards excellence. That Muddy Boots enterprise just screams bullshit to me.
v
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Permalink Reply by Cecilia on
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well at least they opposed Tesco - unlike Harris + Hoole, which will never count me among their customers.
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True - and I feel the same about H&H. But if they have a goal of opening 50 shops as I'm sure I read in the full article, there must be investment coming from somewhere, no?
v
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sure, but why sell out to Tesco? When all Tesco is doing is just trying to make themselves look good, as I am sure they don't give a t*ss about independent shops. The same happened to Euphorium Bakery, which now "boasts" concessions in a couple of large Tesco stores.
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"a modern meat shop"
What a load of pretentious bollocks. £3.50 for 2 burgers?
What's wrong with a slab of meat? (unless you are a vegetarian of course)
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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Can they not just build a fence around it [crouch end] and stop poor people from entering?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt this couple have ever done a days butchering in their sweet young lives. More likely they've done an MBA or marketing course and have identified a 'niche' and a 'demographic' to exploit. They will build their 'brand' and then sell out to Megacorp in four or five years for zillions. Resisting the embrace of Tesco (for the moment) is probably part of their marketing strategy to convince us they are 'passionate' about their product. Why are they starting in one of the few areas of London that is still relatively well served by proper butchers? (Morleys, Freemans, and I would include the butcher in Budgens).
As for "we’ll serve wine and charcuterie in the evenings" , is this the Crouch end version of Fred Kite's (Peter Sellars) socialist Utopia in I'm all right, Jack - "Ahhh, Russia. All them corn fields, and ballet in the evening!"?
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