Spotlight on J’amy Owens of Bill the Butcher
CEO J’amy Owens readies the meat shop for opening.
By Janette Turner
“Bill the Butcher is all run by women,” said J’amy Owens, CEO of the meat shop set to “soft open” in Edmonds on Jan. 20. Owens wrote the business plan in 2006 and is about to open her fifth store, although that shop has taken longer than expected to make its first sale.
“We paid rent for two years,” said Owens today during a break from preparing the shop. “Two years – that’s how much we care about opening in Edmonds.” With new refinancing and the final bit of improvements, the company is about to sell grass-fed beef from the “butcher altar,” alongside a sandwich station with meat sliced-to-order in front of the customer. The sandwiches will be “Carnegie Deli and Zabar’s” level, said Owens, whose favorite item in the shop will be a “good rib eye that is grass fed and grass finished.”
Grass finishing is important because “all cattle are grass fed,” said Owens, “until they’re not. When they go to the feedlot, those other cattle get genetically modified corn to gain 3 pounds a day. While all our cattle are fed grass all their life, and there are no antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides. If you want that, you can eat meat from Safeway.”
The shop will offer beef, poultry, lamb, pork, shop-made sausages, pastrami, smoked turkey and artisanal waters from around the world. Oh, and that point at the beginning that Bill the Butcher is run by women – well, get ready for a female butcher. We don’t know her name yet, but maybe she’ll let you call her Bill.
Bill the Butcher — very glad to have you in Edmonds. May we have many beef-related transactions in the future!
Maybe we can call her Billie?
About time !!!
Days and Hours of operation?
Hi Melissa – I wanted to hop in to answer your question. Bill the Butcher Shops are traditionally open seven days a week, 12pm to 7pm.
Also- we all respond to ‘Bill’ or ‘Billie’ regardless of our legal name.
We look forward to meating you soon.
Terri Ann Johnson, aka “Bill”
Social Media & Community Manager, Bill the Butcher
How exciting to have you a part of our community…WELCOME!
Who is the beef supplier?
Hi Melissa,
We work as much as possible directly with Pacific Northwest farmers & ranchers for our meat, and that means a number of smaller farmers & ranchers like Nelli Farms in Duvall, Wa who have provided us with Berkshire Pork raised in pasture, and some larger ranches like Long Valley Ranch for pasture-raised grass-fed beef. There is and will be some variance week to week, or month to month, our butcher team will always be able to answer where every cut in our case came from though.
Terri Ann Johnson, aka “Bill”
Social Media & Community Manager, Bill the Butcher