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Pulled from the Glen Park Parents Board mailing list, we came across this urgent plea for help. See, the recently opened Whole Foods is hurting small meat business Drewes Brothers Meats, located in Upper Noe Valley at 1706 Church. (If you don't know Drewes Brothers, you don't know meat; and if you don't know meat, may God have mercy on your soul.)
A member from Glen Park Parents, who goes by the name of "Spring," says:
For those of us who eat meat and live in Upper Noe Valley, I want to let you know about the plight of Drew's Bros Butchers. They have been decimated in the past three weeks by the opening of Whole Foods. They have had to cut back on staff hours and things are not looking good. While I am highly supportive of Whole Foods as a good addition to the neighborhood, (I really think we needed a grocery store in our neighborhood and...I am from Austin, although I am appalled at the founder's stance on healthcare), I hate to see that come at the expense of a SF institution like Drews.Did you know that they have been in SF for over a 100 years!!!?? They carry a wider variety of grass fed meets, local eggs, milk etc. Anyway, if you are a current fan of Drew's, please try to still support them, otherwise, we may lose one of the last real butchers in this city! It's cliche, but unfortunately true, "use it or lose it."
As many of you know, finding a good butcher is hard. To say the least. And while Whole Foods has a great butchery staff (say, unlike Safeway, where a simple question as to why a piece of Chateaubriand is marked down so low will get your the stink eye), the fine folks at Drewes, like their meat and poultry, are second to none.
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Drewes rules and WF fucking drools. I was just at Drewes on Friday and I'll be back either today or tomorrow.
I've had some food emergencies that have required a couple of trips to WF since they opened, but have had to hold my nose the entire time. Too bad I don't have enough guts to mouth off to the checkers, I think Mackey's words deserve to foster the kind of incivility in his stores that he stands for.
I wholeheartedly endorse this product and/or service.
Whole Foods is all hype and bullshit. I realize that in SF we reserve our hatred of "chains" to fast food places and anywhere that sells things for cheap, and just love to show off how liberal we are by going to (ahem) Whole Paycheck, but the fact is you can get virtually everything they sell there at local places, often the identical products, for far less.
I can walk down Irving St. and find better deals on fresh produce, baked goods, and more, and I don't even have to burn gas in a stupid ass Prius to do so, I can just walk.
The fact that San Franciscans love WF so much just shows how hypocrtical some of 'em can be. You can't have a cheap store with low cost daily staple items, but we all lose our shit for some Texas non-union chain that hates kittens and rainbows.
With apologies to Monty Python:
Well, there's egg and bacon,
egg sausage and bacon
Egg and meat
Egg, bacon and meat
Egg, bacon, sausage and meat
meat, bacon, sausage and meat
meat, egg, meat, meat, bacon and meat
meat, sausage, meat, meat, meat, bacon, meat tomato and meat
meat, meat, meat, egg and meat
meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, baked beans, meat, meat, meat and meat.
Only a vegetarian would spell Chateaubriand correctly.
Problem: butcher shop is losing business to mega-chain.
Solution: slaughter mega-chain customers and turn them into soylent green.
It's a win/win situation!
I think Drewes Bros. is great, and will be sad to see it go if they can't turn it around.
However, the addition of Whole Foods to 24th St. is really outstanding. I spend the same on food there as I did at the really awful Bell Market that was in its place before, but at least now I'm getting half-way decent product. I admit I'm shopping at Church Produce and Drewes Bros. less, but I don't have to drive/take the bus to go to Whole Foods (this is the liberal's paradox).
It's not a paradox, it's called being lazy.
Move to Cole Valley/Haight! I just moved in and have been looking for a place to buy good quality meats. I will be your best customer, I promise!!
Um, I'd feel worse for Drewes if they had better customer service, didn't up-sell the quantity of meat you requested, and didn't lie about what cuts are fresh vs frozen.
If they can't up their game and stay in business, even with all the pro-local/anti-whole foods sentiment in San Francisco, they need to brush up their resumes.
the "maudlin crybaby" thing doesn't suit you; try asking for exactly what you want. it's not hard.
Try the stuffed pork chops and the meatloaf! YUM. A little pricey but just shove either in the oven and dinner is done. They also have an amazing selection of sausages.
We've shopped at Drewe's for years and never been disappointed.
Drewes is great. The quality of the meat is great and while they can be a bit gruff, they are usually very helpful. I like having WF in the neighborhood (and because I am not quite so loony left as Greg, I can shop their without being a hypocrite), but I still buy all my meat at Drewes -- for the simple reason that it is better quality there.
Note to non-meat eaters:
Drewes Bros. also has a great selection of fresh fish, and their beers are always cold.
Between Church Produce and Drewes Bros., Upper Noe residents have very few reasons to head north to Whole Foods.
fish IS meat
don't get too bent out of shape, the point was to post a foursquare link.
I used to shop there until I had a pre-Thanksgiving bubble clash which provoked the owner brothers to bite my head off.
We have been coming to Drewes ever since we moved to the city years ago. We can always rely on Drewes for thanksgiving turkeys, weeknighht quick meals (thank heaven for stuffed porkchops), slab bacon and more. We're organizing a FB fan page for anyone who wants to join. We'll be posting articles now, but be on the lookout for special announcements, events and updates as they occur - come join your neighbors here: http://bit.ly/SaveDrewes
Bogus. They are not failing because of Whole Foods opening a few weeks ago. I rarely shop there because they aren't very friendly, they rarely have any specials, and they don't have any new ideas.
They should offer ready-to-cook meals, ideas and recipes, limited or seasonal specials, wine tastings, community/charity tie-ins -- all the things Whole Foods is great at. They should also offer free weekly delivery -- by foot or bike -- to Noe Valley residents. Lots of things they could be doing (like fixing their Web site, which isn't working right now). I want them to succeed, but I'm not surprised that they're not.
This is my buddy Josh, who I used to work with as a cook many years ago. He's doing fabulously at the exact same thing: http://www.grassfedmeat.net/
Love Drewes. Always have, ever since I was a little kid and they used to give me bologna and American cheese when my mom was purchasing her goods. I go there to get most all of the meat I eat.
It's old school and I never need anything that they don't have. I have always gotten excellent advice about how to cook things,
too. I'm glad that Stellings is there; I liked the stand-alone store, but with Veteran's gone, it's great to be able to get the emergency six-pack.
I am also just generally distrustful of getting all my groceries in one place (plus, Whole Foods means that money goes whizzzzing out of the local economy), but that was my years in France perhaps. I guess that may explain why I can patiently take real-life service (with its flaws) instead of highly polished fake smiles.
Between Drewes, 30th St Produce, Canyon Market, The Cheese Boutique, Alemany Farmers Market, Rainbow, I don't see why you would have to go to a corporate grocery store.
[X-posted from Noe Valley and SF Weekly]
Love Drewes. Always have, ever since I was a little kid and they used to give me bologna and American cheese when my mom was purchasing her goods. I go there to get most all of the meat I eat.
It's old school and I never need anything that they don't have. I have always gotten excellent advice about how to cook things,
too. I'm glad that Stellings is there; I liked the stand-alone store, but with Veteran's gone, it's great to be able to get the emergency six-pack.
I am also just generally distrustful of getting all my groceries in one place (plus, Whole Foods means that money goes whizzzzing out of the local economy), but that was my years in France perhaps. I guess that may explain why I can patiently take real-life service (with its flaws) instead of highly polished fake smiles.
Between Drewes, 30th St Produce, Canyon Market, The Cheese Boutique, Alemany Farmers Market, Rainbow, I don't see why you would have to go to a corporate grocery store.
[X-posted from Noe Valley and SF Weekly]