Saturday, September 12 was the culmination of a week-long customer appreciation sale celebrating Ready Meats’ 80th birthday. Employees gave away free hot dogs. Above, a youngster learns the careful art of ketchup application from a more seasoned hand. (Davis Steen)
For the last 80 years, Ready Meats, 3550 Johnson St. NE, has been providing Northeast and beyond with locally sourced, high-quality meats. In that time much has changed about the meat industry, from consolidation to regulation. But for owner Dave Anderson, Ready Meats has stood the test of time. “I don’t know if we’ve changed too much,” he said. ”It’s still a focus on quality over quantity.”
The butcher shop was founded in 1946 by the brothers Jack and Dan Ready along with business partner Arnold Carlson. The business was first located at 22nd and Johnson. Longtime customers may remember the moose head which hung above the meat counter. It was removed to comply with government regulations.
Three generations later, family members of those founders still work behind the counter. The business is now run by owners Dave Anderson and Ryan Nalezny, both of whom began first working in the store before becoming owners.
A display case with meat ground in-house and pork cuts that the butcher shop carries. (Davis Steen)
The top question Anderson gets from customers is: “Where does your meat come from?”
Unlike big-box grocers, Ready Meats doesn’t work with large meatpacking companies. The scale of large meatpacking companies allows them to receive and supply meat from around the continent. In practice, this means a cut of meat in your local grocery store can come from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away.
That is not what customers find behind the counter at Ready Meats. The store has always aimed to “keep meat local instead of going all over the place,” Anderson said.
Ready Meats sources meat from farms across Minnesota and the Midwest. Working with farmers who raise cattle or pigs on farms rather than feed lots is important, Anderson said. “You know how it’s fed and what it goes through to get to you,” he said.
To supply its beef, the store works with a co-op program with farms from across southwest Minnesota. “You can taste the difference,” Anderson said.
Ready Meats also makes a wide range of meat products: They grind their own beef, smoke their own bacon and make their own sausage, brats and beef sticks.
“Everything we do here is pretty much in-house,” Anderson said.
Shoppers at Ready Meats were greeted over the last two weeks by a collection of prizes for the giveaway that included grills, coolers, meat packages and gift certificates. A different sale was held each day to commemorate the Northeast institution that began during the post-war Truman era. (Davis Steen)
Some of the recipes for these products, like the store’s brats, come directly from the Ready Brothers and have remained unchanged since the store’s founding.
“Some recipes go all the way back,” Anderson said.
Other recipes, Anderson has created and honed himself, with the cheddar brat being a particular point of pride.
While the store doesn’t have a specific date for its anniversary, Anderson chose September 8-12 to celebrate the store’s 80th birthday. That week, the store held a drawing for prizes, gave away hot dogs and held a sale each day to show appreciation for its customers.