This Bradford butcher shop is looking to offer meat that can’t be beat.
Owners Martin Cotarelo and Nicolas Aguirre Acosta plan to fire up the grill and give away free mouth-watering barbecue accompanied by music and a DJ during the grand opening of Decano Meats from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 95 Holland St. W., Unit 6.
“When you have a barbecue, you bring people together,” Acosta said.
The store specializes in premium, fresh cuts including beef, pork, poultry and lamb, but also offers, sausages, pasta, spices and pre-made meals ready for the barbecue or oven, like their chicken and vegetable skewers.
They can even grind different cuts for different dishes.
That’s all thanks to their head butcher, Gustavo Castro, who also has experience as a chef and has worked in England, Italy, Spain and Argentina — a diverse range of experience which helps their food set a high standard according to Cotarelo.
On weekends, they even sell sweet pastries and Uruguayan doughnuts called biscochos.
The long-time friends and now businesses partners both have family roots in Uruguay, known for the cultural cuisine of barbecue known as asado, and where Cotarelo’s family raises cattle.
“There’s meat in our DNA,” he said.
In celebration of that heritage, a drummer is planned to perform traditional candombe music during the grand opening.
The shop also sells their own custom version of chimichurri dry seasoning from Uruguay with a secret blend of additional spices for a signature flavour.
“It’s like our Big Mac sauce,” Cotarelo said, adding that they also offer a fresh version.
Both also have backgrounds in construction and have been residents of Bradford since about 2015, but in that time have always needed to travel to Newmarket or beyond to find a butcher shop, which is why they decided to step up and meet the local meat demand.
“In every town there has to be a local butcher shop,” Acosta said.
Being specifically a butcher shop allows them to tailor their cuts and offerings to each individual costumer’s needs, and the partners are always happy to answer any questions about different meats, including where they’re from, how to best prepare them, what goes well with which and even what the animals were fed.
Those conversations frequently go beyond just food though, as the owners are happy to chat with customers about all sorts of things.
“We’re not just a butcher shop; we’re psychologists,” Cotarelo said with a laugh.
Thanks in part to $36,358 in funding from Bradford’s Downtown Community Improvement Plan (DCIP), and following more than $178,000 in renovations including flooring, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and more, the shop had a soft opening on July 3, just in time for the summer grilling season.
“We needed all the help we could get,” Cotarelo said, emphasizing how helpful everyone at the town was in making the renovations a reality.
So far, the duo said things have been going well, with the number of customers growing steadily as word of mouth spreads — likely helped by their display of grilling expertise at this year's Summerlyn Retro Street Party.
Cotarelo said the feedback has been mostly positive, and the few critiques they have received allowed them to make improvements, such as tweaking some prices and moving away from the deli table to focus more on the larger cuts and pre-made meals that are more popular.
They even have a signature carrot steak, named after the town’s Carrot Fest, which is a thin, tender cut of beef from the inside skirt, best for sandwiches.
For now, the duo are focusing on ensuring the quality of their existing services, but they also have ambitions to one day include a dine-in area serving steak sandwiches, and maybe even offer a delivery service.
Decano Meats is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information, call 289-936-3044.
