Hussey Butchers

I love this place.
I hope to see my dear friend Wayne (slow-​food aficionado, butcher, trained and certified chef) again soon.
While we have some truly spectacular butcher shops here in the Bay Area, I must say that the charm and authenticity of Hussey’s is on a completely different plane. I mean, you do have to actually board a plane if you want to go there, but it’s really a destination level butcher.
Their sister store, just down the lane a bit, Hussey’s Grocery doesn’t have a review written yet — but I’ll get to it. I was enthralled from the very first — there’s a truly Locals Only Pub that serves Sunday Roast with all the Fixin’s — one of Wayne’s brothers works the bar there and rotates in to Husseys as well.
There’s a third brother — I don’t believe I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance; most of my interaction was with Wayne.
First day in — he humored me: let me take video on an actual camera of him breaking down a beautiful cut of meat for my requested Steak Tartare. His knife techniques are surgically precise and beautiful to behold!
I also picked up three house made sausages: pheasant and plum, I believe — or perhaps it was pork and plum. Delicious — perfection. They practice whole animal butchery, and will graciously pause to fill a last-​minute order/​request or head back to the walk-​ins from a primal cut.
The butcher block is stunning — Wayne says they never stay ’round much because they’re sanded down daily as part of their food safety practice of course, and people just queue up to purchase them.
When you do pop by Hussey’s, you will note that their eggs are pastured and they do not refrigerate them. You can also carry parcels from the Grocery to the Butcher shop and vice versa on the honor system, and they’ll ring you up at either spot.
I miss it so much!

An old-​style neighbourhood butcher smack in the middle of Wapping. They have good free-​range pork available from Plantation Pigs, and you can always find good free-​range chicken here as well. The butchers (three of them!) are knowledgeable, as you’d expect them to be, and willing to help you by cutting, trimming, etc. to your request. Two of them are quite friendly, the third’s a bit grumpy, but he’s harmless. One slight nitpick: they put the meat away as early as they possibly can, so if you arrive within 45 minutes of closing time, you feel that you’re inconveniencing them, as they have to go to the walk-​in refrigerator to get your meat. But they always insist it’s not a problem, and I think it’s just a London practice (so they can close up as soon as possible and get home!)