Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Arcadia Meat Market

For an increasingly educated—and hungry—consumer, armed with worldviews on climate change, ethics in food sourcing and environmental sustainability, choosing where to invest our dollars in food has become deliberate, if not instinctive.

In particular, to many, the quiet politics of where we purchase our beef, our poultry, our pork, has become as mindful of a shopping decision as the doctors we choose to see, or the schools we send our children to.

Nick Addante, a partner in Arizona Grass Fed Beef Co., and second generation butcher Luigi Paroli, an industry veteran since the 1970s, together saw a prime opportunity in Phoenix to help expand the conversation. More than to simply open another new butcher shop—they wanted to open a new butcher shop with conscience.

Say hello to Arcadia Meat Market, the purposeful, boutique butchery now open in the east Phoenix neighborhood by the same name. Helping to reverse a generations-long thinning of human-scale commerce that neighborhoods in more dynamic cities already enjoy in spades, Addante and Paroli are hoping their efforts will not only be successful, but appreciated.

“It’s all about bringing back trust and transparency, because I was raised on that,” Paroli says. “I’ve run butcher shops from Alaska to Manhattan and it all comes back to good, healthy, grass fed, pasture raised, organic proteins.”

Addante agrees. “All of our meats are free range and pasture raised and have never had any antibiotics or hormones, resulting in the best quality meats,” he says. “We believe that healthy animals raised in open pastures make for a healthier planet and healthier, happier customers. Our ranchers practice sustainable farming methods so their business may continue to thrive for generations to come.”

In addition to Arcadia Meat Market’s top-drawer cuts—beef, lamb, pork, poultry, among others—the whole animal butcher shop also sells sausages made onsite, fresh-ground meats, and small-batch broths to-go. A collection of equally prudent, curated sellables like Jacobsen Salt Co. salts, local pre-packaged Arizona Microgreens, and Mamma Toledo’s famous pies can also be found on rotation. Looking for customized or throwaway cuts? Extra broth bones? Call ahead—they can help.

In the age of sharing and automation, where brick-and-mortar retail grows disadvantaged, shoppers crave thoughtful, tailored experiences—incentives to forgo the faceless convenience of tech for a rarified sense of community. The food we buy, and where we buy it from, is no exception.

That’s the thesis Addante and Paroli are helping give rise to at Arcadia Meat Market. A dream long in the pipeline, it’s a tangible place that aims to do more. And, we should all be thankful for it.

GALLERY