Atlanta's First Farmer-Owned Butcher Shop Opens
Chop Shop, which claims to be Atlanta’s only farmer-owned butcher shop, opened February 19. The new store stocks fresh meats and poultry, including beef, pork, chicken and sausages; cheeses, eggs and local milk; fresh produce and more.
The store’s general manager, David DiCorpo, says sustainability and community are the business’s goals.
Chop Shop is owned by Riverview Farms in north Georgia, where the animals are raised. Riverview practices full-circle farming: “The land sustains the livestock and the livestock supports the land,” says DiCorpo. Riverview’s farming techniques exceed organic standards, according to its website.
Riverview partners with Pine Street Market, which processes some of the meat into assorted smoked and cured products. According to DiCorpo, Pine Street Market is a whole-animal butcher that “uses all the parts” and generates less than half a bag of trash each day.
Chop Shop applies its philosophy of sustainability to vendors of the store’s varied inventory of locally-sourced snackable items. “All the cheeses are from creameries who practice the same kind of farming. That’s part of sustainability, too,” DiCorpo says, adding the Chop Shop is “giving farmers and producers who do great things somewhere to sell their great things.”
DiCorpo plans to offer his patio to the community, once it’s built. Local pop-ups and incubating restaurants will be able to rent out the space, which will be free on Saturdays to farmers and food producers who are looking for more market time or who are not market members.
Chop Shop, located at 1366 Memorial Dr. SE in Atlanta, is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. For more information, visit ChopShopATL.com.
