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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.

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100% correct Sean. My last boss was (and still is) a retail venture capitalist. They mainly invest in businesses for a 5 year growth plan to sell on to megacorp , who have more money than brains, taking his (and fellow directors) tidy millions in profit (although he has stayed with Boden) . Nothing particularly wrong with that except these start-up retail businesses always target the same small number of high streets and of course the local income demographic must be ABs. It's all boringly predictable. Everyone else gets the likes of Greggs, Costa, Macs & the King ...

oh well - just another reason not to visit Crouch End.  Five or six years ago when Prospero's Books still existed, there were still good reasons to visit. Now I can't see any point.  If you want middle-class pleasures, Stoke Newington does them slightly better and slightly less aggressively and it also has better pubs.

There's no real reason not to try out this new venture, if that's what one finds necessary for a little retail therapy. And for most people at the moment a wee treat for the stomach is necessary therapy in these high utility bill times. In France this is seen as the reason for a new trend in patisseries ;

One explanation for the sudden rise of the pastry chef is as a consequence of the recession.

In these times of crisis, patisserie has become a relatively affordable luxury - compared say with going to the restaurant - says Sebastien Gaudard, one of today's up-and-coming pastry chefs BBC

The affordable (for some) food luxury, presented with a different twist, is what this Muddy Bootie thing is about.  

I was going to say how spot-on your prediction was, until I noticed the year! Hard to believe it’s been four years; at least we have to give them credit for sticking at it. It’s sad to see any business fail, but at least there are still a few butchers in CE.

"Why are they starting in one of the few areas of London that is still relatively well served by proper butchers?"

Exactly, also when they say:

"our products will mostly be packaged with the use-by date and cooking instructions, rather than out in slabs of meat."

I don't really understand what they're offering that is any different from a supermarket. (Except for the wine evenings obvs.)

 

The key thing for me is that it will be open late. The two independent butchers in CE often close before 5pm, although the one in the back of Budgens is good and open later, but with a limited selection. I'd prefer a branch of Baldwins of Green Lanes but you can't have everything.
Why are so many posts bitchy, superior and cutting.

welcome to the internet

Simple, Jackie, Crouch End envy. HoL is rife with it.
Hi everyone, thank you so much for covering this and for the comments. We know we need to be open to the challenging ones too, thank you for these. If I can tell anyone any more about this just give me a call or email (07811948503 miranda@muddybootsfoods.co.uk). M

Tried this after the film last night. Charcuterie and cheese platter lovely. The glass of red wine best I've had at a winebar in a long time, mind you I know sfa about it. I was with real wine buffs who had the white. They were impressed. The Ballards were nice too. We'll go again.

You might like it FPR. I don't think they serve sour grapes

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