Former Drewe's transforms into Baron's Meat & Poultry
Tara Duggan March 27, 2017
1of22David Samiljan (left), owner Baron's Meats of Alameda, talks with Kay Harnich-Ladd (second from right) talk at Baron's Meats of Alameda on Church Street as Samijan prepared the store for its opening on Monday, March 27, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
2of22David Samiljan (right), owner Baron's Meats of Alameda, talks with Manfred Schaub (left) after Schaub noticed Baron's Meats of Alameda at the location of where Drewes Bros. Meats used to be at the store a few hours before it opened on Monday, March 27, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif. Schaub remembered Drewes Bros. Meats from his childhood.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
3of22David Samiljan (right), owner Baron's Meats of Alameda, talks with Clemency Beale-Collins (center) who lives in the neighorhood and her mother Emily Barney (left) who was visiting from London, at Baron's Meats of Alameda a few hours before it opens on Monday, March 27, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
4of22David Samiljan (center), owner Baron's Meats of Alameda, talks with Clemency Beale-Collins (right) who lives in the neighorhood and her mother Emily Barney (left) who was visiting from London, at Baron's Meats of Alameda a few hours before it opens on Monday, March 27, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
5of22David Samiljan (second from left), owner Baron's Meats of Alameda, and Kay Harnich-Ladd (right) talk in front of Baron's Meats of Alameda on Church Street as Samijan worked at the store a few hours before it opened on Monday, March 27, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
6of22Owner David Samiljan twists fresh-made italian sausage into links at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
7of22Christian Werk, left, and Matt Ebling, prepare fresh italian sausage at the new Baron's Butcher Shop San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
8of22Owner David Samiljan chats with neighborhood resident who were curious about the shop's progress at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
9of22Owner David Samiljan preps a sirloin at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
10of22Owner David Samiljan preps a sirloin at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
11of22Owner David Samiljan displays one of the refurbished meat hook rollers in the refrigerator at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
12of22Owner David Samiljan displays fresh-made italian sausage into links at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
13of22Owner David Samiljan twists fresh-made italian sausage into links at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
14of22Owner David Samiljan hangs fresh-made italian sausage in the refrigerator at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
16of22Owner David Samiljan chats with neighborhood resident Jane Grasser, and her daughter Vivian, 3, who were curious about the shop's progress at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
17of22Owner David Samiljan touches one of the refurbished meat hook rollers in the refrigerator at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
18of22Owner David Samiljan chats with neighborhood residents curious about the shop's progress at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
19of22Owner David Samiljan chats with neighborhood resident Chris O'Donnell who was curious about the shop's progress at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
22of22Owner David Samiljan finishes prepping a sirloin at the new Baron's Meats in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, March 26, 2017. Baron's Meats of Alameda, owned by David Samiljan, is taking over the former Drewes Bros Meats butcher shop, which first opened in the 19th century. It's a community hub, and a historic location.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
David Samiljan is taking a bet that Noe Valley can't live without a neighborhood butcher shop, after having one since 1889 (or maybe 1888). Samiljan is opening a branch of Baron's Meat & Poultry in space that previously housed Drewes Bros. Meats until it closed in July, at which point it was known as California's oldest-living butcher shop.
Samiljan, who worked at Niman Ranch for several years earlier in his career, said the main criteria for buying meat is that the animals are never kept in confinement and should be organic or at least given vegetarian feeds.
He often carries local products like Mindful Meats and BN Ranch but unlike some high-end butchers, he doesn't have a strict local-only standard.
"The meat doesn't have to come from my backyard. I don't have a problem with pork from Iowa." He says that bringing the feed from Iowa to California has a bigger carbon footprint than bringing the meat to California.
The store will sell seafood and deli meats in addition to fresh meat and poultry and add sandwiches and salads after he can get the permits to prepare food in house, he says. He also wants to sell some groceries.
Samiljan has cleaned up and painted the space but it still has its old tile floor and meat and fish cases, which he plans to replace eventually. It's painted white with red trim, including its old meat racks which allowed butchers to transfer sides of cattle and other animals from the walk-in to the cutting area, which still has a door that Samiljan thinks was used to add ice blocks in pre-refrigeration days.
In back, there's an original stable that has since been transformed into a work space that houses a freezer with a door 8 inches thick, which Samiljan had to retrofit. There's another old walk-in in the back yard that he plans to turn into a dry aging room.
The meat counter at 1706 Church has risen from the ashes many times before. In October 1998, the San Francisco Examiner ran a front-page story, "Drewes Meats ends 109-year-run, finally closing its Church Street doors." But employees Josh and Isaac Epple jumped in just in time, buying from the owner and running it for almost two decades, though they struggled from the beginning. Things went downhill after a Whole Foods moved into the neighborhood in 2009. Then, in 2014, Josh died in a motorcycle accident, after which quality in the store slowly went downhill until it ultimately closed.
Samiljan is fully aware he's stepping into a long tradition, and many neighbors have already stopped by to check in. He's planning a opening party for the neighborhood April 1, when he's bringing in a food truck to cook some Baron's Meats specialties like his Black Dragon Tri-Tip (in a sweet-sour marinade) and marinated chicken breasts.
"We call em turn and burn," he said. "You come home from work, stop at daycare and stick it on the grill or in the oven."
Baron's Meats & Poultry, 1706 Church St. (at 29th Street), S.F. phone, hours TK. baronsmeats.com.
Tara Duggan
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A fourth-generation Northern Californian, Tara Duggan has written about food for The San Francisco Chronicle since 1999, starting out as a culinary intern in the Food & Wine department's test kitchen. She currently covers the restaurant and food industry, seafood, sustainable agriculture and food policy, all with a Bay Area focus. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, Tara also wrote The Working Cook recipe column, which appeared in The Chronicle for 11 years. She authored a cookbook based on the column in 2006 and has since written three other cookbooks, including "Root to Stalk Cooking" and "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee." Her writing and recipes have also appeared in the New York Times, Sunset and Food & Wine Magazine.
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