Meaty Savoir Faire!

All my life the local butcher’s was practically the centrepiece of the shopping centre of any Australian town. My small town of 1500 people where I grew up had 2. They always had people in them and it wasn’t only a place to buy your meat, but somewhere to catch up on the local gossip and in my case as a child we used to bundle up newspapers and sell to the butcher, for them to wrap the customer’s purchase in. With the advent of the modern day supermarket these are rapidly closing not only in Australia but across the world. I was disappointed when arriving in Toronto after moving from Australia, that the stand alone butcher shop is practically non existent.

However the butcher’s of my childhood was nothing like Victor Churchill Butchers Sydney. This is high end, the best quality and of the most fabulous design. You could be forgiven that when walking into the place, that you were entering into anything else except a butcher. More like a ritzy gallery with the meat on display like works of art, this gets all the senses moving.


Window shopping at a butcher's might seem a little strange, but be prepared to stop and drool over all manner of meats. Not only will you be looking at the meat, but the store itself. The owners engaged Sydney-based Dreamtime Australia Design who’s many restaurant, bar and resort projects around the world combine traditional and modern elements in a deliciously layered and multi-textured way.

Gone are the traditional refrigerated cabinets and parsley dressed meats, replaced with a store infused with European style and modern, cutting-edge design elements. Rich timber wall paneling, timber beamed ceiling and Italian Calcutta marble stone floor, and Himalayan salt brick walls create the new interior of shop. Meat is interspersed with other objects such as those found in a clothing boutique or wine store to create a tableau that is constantly changing. Behind a glass wall on real wooden butcher blocks, the butchers cleave their way through the best cuts of meat, creating a performance show of sorts

So if you are in the mood for a piece of prime rib…….