The moment you’ve been waiting for is here: the everything-food-and-drink list to end all lists. We’re undertaking a rather ambitious project—a year-long endeavor that lays out our flat-out best picks of the most exceptional culinary experiences in Denver and Boulder.
We’ll cover the usual suspects: tacos and ramen, for example. Pizza and burgers, too. But think of this as the Herculean version of Denver and Boulder’s gastronomic universe. Over the next 52 weeks (give or take), we’ll post 104 different lists, wherein we’ll give you the lowdown on the very best neighborhood restaurants, bottle shops and butchers, food festivals, pop-up dinners, industry nights, cooking classes and kitchen stores, chef counters, spice shops and cake shops, Cuban sandwiches, Chinese hot pots, and even the best food from truck stops. Who knows? We might be compelled to feature a fantasy-filled list of strip club grub that goes beyond thighs and breasts.
Bur first, as a prelude to that, let’s praise the six best butcher shops in Denver and Boulder, all of which bust out thighs and breasts and bring their own brand of strip to their meat-centric empires of cleavers, blood and beasts.
1. Tymkovich Meats {6911 Washington Street; 303.288.8655}
“Do you shop here a lot?” I asked a woman, who was deep in thought while surveying the rows of brothel-red steaks at Tymkovich Meats. She quickly snapped back to reality, lapsing into a multi-minute spiel about her unwavering commitment to this old-school butcher shop, a family-owned meat emporium that opened in 1952. “I won’t buy my meat from anywhere else,” she declared. Not sure I can blame her. Far from the maddening crowds, and bereft of pomp and circumstance, Owner Tim Tymkovich’s homage to flesh is the kind of butcher shop that bleeds blood. From the steers and pigs suspended on hooks in the shadowy meat locker to the display case strutting hanger steaks and flank steaks, crimson New York strips and rib-eyes, pork chops and pork butt, house-cured prosciutto and some of the best cut-to-order, hickory-smoked bacon on the planet, you’ll want to spend your last penny here.
All told, Tymkovich carries upward of 175 meat products, notwithstanding suckling pigs, fresh fryer chickens (delivered every Wednesday), wild game, including racks of elk, quarter sides of beef, and sausage-making necessities: casings, seasonings, beef fat, and pork fat. His sausage selection (Polish, German, Ukrainian, Swedish potato, chorizo, and more), all made in house, is beyond impressive, as are his affordable prices, which extend to the 14 different meat bundles he sells to the public. Bonus: The shop struts a huge collection of Savory Spice Shop products, including rubs.
Another thing: The service is beyond reproach—and so is the transparency. If you want to get up close and personal with the carcasses, or the craft of sausage-making, Tymkovich is more than happy to give you a tour.
2. Edwards Meats {12280 West 44th Avenue; 303.422.4397}
I grew up on the west side of Denver in Applewood, not far from Edwards Meats, a working-class butcher shop that my mom introduced me to right around the time she figured I could grill a burger without a forewarning to the fire department. Now, decades old, it’s still one of the most prominent meat markets in the city, best known, perhaps, for its exceptional housemade sausages that are packaged frozen and come in every guise: Belfast bangers and Irish bangers, andouille, Louisiana boudin, elk brats, Wisconsin beer brats, pork-and-leek breakfast links, lamb sausage, and dozens more.
The butcher case, a splay of backyard barbecue beef cuts (some prime), plus chicken, pork, fresh sausages, and several different variations of bacon, is pretty legendary, too—and the butchers don’t bat an eye if you ask for custom cuts. Still, one of my favorite perks of Edwards is the fact that it parades a section dedicated to offal: beef kidneys and beef hearts, buffalo tongue and kidneys, lamb hearts and pork trotters. Oh, and if you’re prowling for duck fat, Edwards has that, too. And like Tymkovich Meats, there are several animal part parcels—frozen and fresh—that range from a poultry package to a 100-pound “jumbo freezer” stockpile that’s a $515 feast of steaks, rump roasts, ribs, bacon, sausage, ham, chicken, pork chops, and ground beef.
3. Blackbelly Butcher {1606 Conestoga Street, Boulder; 720.479.8296}
Hosea Rosenberg and Nate Singer’s objective was to amplify their full-scale, whole animal butchery program when they unleashed Blackbelly Butcher—the meat retreat and sandwich spot adjacent to Rosenberg’s Blackbelly Market—earlier this year, and they’ve accomplished that, and so much more. The shop, potently scented with things like bacon aromatherapy, is a populous of dry-aged steaks and off-cuts, pork, chicken, housemade sausage, house-cured prosciutto, legs of lamb, terrines, pâtés, house-roasted deli meats, and scrapple. Scrapple!
The carcasses, suspended from hooks in a visible, glass-enclosed meat locker, are procured from a trio of animal-conscious purveyors, including Boulder Lamb, Carter Country Meats, and McDonald Family Farm, which provides the pigs. Singer—the designated butcher scholar—along with his apprentices, break down animals on a butcher block in full view of onlookers, a front row seat, if you will, that gives spectators the opportunity to witness true craftsmanship.
Bonus: Join Blackbelly’s Meat of the Month Club to reap the benefits of the butchery’s labor of love. For $99, subscribers get a haul: dry-aged steaks, sausage, one-half of a custom terrine, ground beef, a custom rub or marinade, and, for good measure, a Blackbelly cooler bag.
4. Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe {3326 Tejon Street, 303.477.6328 and 3350 Brighton Boulevard, 303.477.6328}
My introduction to butchering a pig came courtesy of Kate Kavanaugh and Josh Curtiss, the resolutely passionate couple (both in business and in life) responsible for gracing Denver with this extraordinary butcher shop that originated in Highland and eventually branched out with a second location at The Source. Their shops, a juxtaposition of modern day swagger and old-fashioned philosophies—ideas like strengthening land stewardship, cultivating personal relationships with farmers and ranchers, and insisting on sustainability—are a young breed of blood-and-guts meat markets that are changing the way people think about environmental ethics, burdens, and obligations surrounding the meat industry.
Their shops (the one at The Source showcases a windowed room of carcasses that squarely faces the center of the marketplace) are beautiful to behold, and at the center of them all? Mint-quality meat exhibits that go far beyond your primal cuts. Here, there are oyster steaks, thin spheres of tender flesh webbed with thin veins of fat (a quick sear in a cast-iron skillet and you’ve got breakfast); Denver steaks, which may sound like a PR ploy to market the Mile High City, but are, in fact, tender, beautifully marbled cuts of fat-flecked beef from the chuck that yield remarkable flavor; and green chile-marinated hangar steaks. Engage with the ridiculously knowledgeable staff and make sure to pick up a couple of bone marrow butter cubes while you’re there; they add sizzle and a luxurious richness to everything they touch.
Every so often, Kavanaugh and Curtiss offer classes and butchery events at The Source, and if you subscribe to the shop’s e-newsletter (you can sign up on the website), you’ll be the first to know about store specials and discounted prices on meat bundles.
5. Carniceria La Guadalajara {5185 West First Avenue; 303.937.7132}
Carnicerias (the name translates to “butcher shop” or “meat market” in Spanish) dot the streets of Denver, but when it comes to choosing the best, I’m firmly in the Carniceria La Guadalajara camp. It’s an exotic, adventurous, and sometimes mysterious odyssey into uncharted territory, and if your Spanish language skills, like mine, are a little rusty, navigating the butcher counter takes a bit of patience. Still, this is where I go when I’m searching for pork feet and neck bones, entraña, an Argentinian skirt steak, ropes of chorizo and longaniza, adobada de puerto, and carne al pastor. Custom cuts are available, and all the butchery is done in house; if you’re lucky, you might even witness the butchers expertly breaking down a cow head. Insider tip: Tucked inside the back of the carniceria is a taqueria, which dispenses excellent tacos.
6. Marczyk Fine Foods {770 East 17th Avenue, 303.894.9499 and 5100 East Colfax Avenue; 303.243.3355}
Several years ago, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Pete Marczyk, co-owner of Marczyk Fine Foods and his renowned butcher Jimmy Cross, hosted a butchering demonstration, which involved dismembering a bison carcass. It was a riveting performance by two men who take the business of butchery seriously—a sincerity that extends to the meat counters at both Marczyk locations.
Committed to humanely raised meats (and sustainable seafood), the butchers source much of their antibiotic and hormone-free beef and pork from Niman Ranch, their poultry from Boulder Natural Meats, and their heralded Blue State turkeys (a Thanksgiving exclusive) from a farm in Bennett. The butcher case, a gorgeous pageantry of fresh sausages, plenty of pork cuts, and steaks—including filets, bone-in Kansas City strips, and dry-aged rib-eyes—also pimps Niman Ranch hot dogs, ground beef, ready-to-cook burgers, and applewood-smoked bacon. The markets happen to create amazing sandwiches, too—plus there’s a swarm of local products, including some lovely cheeses.
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