The Meat House-Coolidge Corner

[chuck s]

It's open in Coolidge Corner on Beacon St. next to the post office. Nice, attractive place. Lots of samples. Meats look nice and are well displayed. They carry Boars Head cold cuts, North Country bacon, marinated meats, produce from Allendale Farm, baked goopds from Emily's, a nice selection of condiments and sauces. I don't know anything else about them, I have never been in one but it seems a nice addition to the hood.

[BobB]

We stopped in Saturday and were also impressed. One of the franchise owners personally gave us a tour of the entire store - they're clearly putting in an effort. I have to wonder what kind of volume they'll need to do though to maintain the current level of staffing - everywhere we looked there were lots of people not just manning all the counters but simply standing around greeting people, explaining things, even opening doors as you come and go. It's all a bit overwhelming.

We bought a couple of pounds of unmarinated steak tips to throw on the grill. There were none in evidence at the meat counter, just tray after tray of marinated tips, and the meat clerk didn't think they had any but he asked the same owner who gave us the tour and was assured that yes, they have them out back, and he soon brought us a nice bagful.

The odd part was when we got home and I opened the bag. Now, I know that there's no one standard cut used for steak tips in restaurants, but I was expecting to get what is usually sold around here as "sirloin tips".

Not only were these not that, they were a mix of cuts - about 2/3 of the bag was flat cuts like skirt or flank steak cut in good-sized pieces, roughly 4" x 6", and 1/3 was large (like 3") cubes that could have been round or loin or or even chuck for all I know. We cooked only the flat cuts Saturday night and they were excellent, unusually tender for skirt/flank and quite tasty grilled simply with salt & pepper (in fact I'm finishing up the last of that for lunch as I write this), but not exactly what I was expecting.

One comment re: the bacon - I don't know where you saw North Country bacon, I asked them where the thick-sliced slab bacon in the case was from and they said Hormel. Was the North Country pre-packaged elsewhere? If so I must have missed it. Frankly I wish they'd carry some really good stuff like Nueske's so I don't have to schlep over to Savenor's to get it.

[chuck s]

The North Country bacon was packaged and in the case along the back wall. I just had some of their garlic and cheese sausage and it was excellent.

[CarolinaGirl06]

I popped in on Saturday and was pretty pleased. My boyfriend and I were immediately handed complimentary packages of steak tips. The samples tasted good and the prices looked reasonable, though the cheese may be a bit high in comparison to Trader Joe's.

What I find exciting about this place is that is perfect for very small households. I live with a roommate and we normally cook for ourselves, and space is limited. So, it is nice to be able to buy one steak, or a third of a pound of ground beef, or one onion at a very convenient location. (I guess I could do this at the Stop and Shop, but I've never had a good experience there.)

There's one in my parents' town in North Carolina and my dad raves about it, so hopefully this new location will deliver.

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Trader Joe's
1427 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02476

[Chrispy75]

Just what CC needs, another chain. I guess as far as chains go, it could be worse.

[hotoynoodle]

who else can afford the rents there?

[drewames03]

Chrispy75 - Ok. CC certainly does not need another chain. However, with the arrival of the Meat House and a Kosher Butchery opening up on Harvard St, the neighborhood is being better served. I am pretty excited with these two new additions:)

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Meat House
655 Main St, Walpole, MA 02081

[Berheenia]

Stopped in and were impressed by the selection. They were very nice and this is definitely a good time to sample their wares. The meat prices were good and they said they trained the butchers in house. Lots of interesting condiments from small producers.

[VivreManger]

Marinated meats are a big cash cow, since the customer pays meat prices for cheap liquids and spices. They are not worth it.

Boars Head cold cuts, feh.

Allandale Farm, good.

Death to the Boars Head monopoly.

[Peter B Wolf]

The status of monopoli was/is only to thank for to all the ignoranti of great charcuterie.
A change of the name to "Bore's Noggin" might help

[Berheenia]

Not a fan of marinated meat myself. I was impressed by the selection of fresh meat- especially the beef but having just returned from WF I wasn't in the market for more meat but will definitely return. Also had been to Allandale for corn earlier but for an extra 10 cents an ear will probably save myself the trip next time. They also carried the fresh garlic from Allandale..

[lergnom]

Just FYI, but Allandale's corn is actually from Verrill Farm. They trade produce regularly and Allandale doesn't grow corn.

I'm not going to complain about a place that's mostly a butcher counter. We need more places that provide real food instead of pre-packaged.

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Verrill Farm
11 Wheeler Rd, Concord, MA, MA 01742

[Berheenia]

Very interesting. Is the garlic also from Verrill? It was the same small red heads we bought at Allandale. We plan to go back tomorrow, hopefully things will have calmed down, and check out the petit or junior sirloin steaks and grab some more corn and garlic.

[lergnom]

Allandale grows lots of garlic. Some they sell fresh, some dried. All the farms trade. Verrill sells Allandale, they both get certain squash from a farm south of Boston, etc. It's a good thing. Allandale is now farming land west of Boston for root crops like potatoes and beets, but on the farm itself they grow something over 60 different crops on a huge patchwork of small fields.