Graze and Gather butcher shop seeks to expand class offerings
Owners close Electric City Butcher in Santa Ana and move their education programs, workshops to larger Claremont site
Graze and Gather, a butcher shop in Claremont, celebrated its first anniversary in December, but founders Steve Sabicer and Michael Puglisi with partner Richard Lu plan to continue to expand the shop’s offerings with classes and community events.
After nearly a decade operating Electric City Butcher in Santa Ana, the trio have decided to close that location and move the butchery classes and hands-on demonstrations to their Graze and Gather location as well as expand the store beyond just meat products.
Both Puglisi and Sabicer live in Claremont and the opportunity to open a 1,000-plus-square foot brickand-mortar location there seemed like a logical expansion.
“Mount Baldy and the foothills is our backdrop,” Puglisi said. “It’s literally what we’re looking out at from the counter side of the butcher shop so as we’re cutting meat we’re looking at snowcapped mountains.”
The shop’s name is meant to represent the two sides of the shop — the side where people graze at products, and adjacent is the gather side — an education platform which is still currently empty.
“We’re excited to bring it to life,” Puglisi said. “Part of that will be talks, butchery classes, pop-up workshops, it’ll be an array of opportunities for the community to gather.”
Because the shop is located next to so many colleges, in addition to the hands-on demonstrations, the group plans to also do more traditional forms of education like talks with farmers and academics about environment, social responsibility, and agriculture.
“We want to elevate the discussion beyond just the proteins in the case and talk about how we can all really make a bigger difference in sustainable and regenerative agriculture because that’s really the solution here if we’re going to make a difference in how people buy, raise, and eat,” Sabicer said.
The team already has begun to do some events like smash burger pop-ups on Fridays from noon to 4 p.m.
Compared to the Santa Ana location, the Claremont one is even bigger with a 121/2 foot case with beef, lamb, pork, duck, chicken and four to six kinds of sausage. But it’s not just meats. The shop also features Di Stefano cheese made in Pomona, organic produce from Amy’s Farm in Ontario, herbs and other specialty produce from other urban farms and both fresh and dry pasta from local pasta makers.
“It’s right off Route 66,” Puglisi. “Just like how Santa Ana is a great drop-point from all the different freeways, where we’re located here in Claremont is a great way that we can connect with multiple towns and freeways.”
The fish program launched last year and will return this spring where line-caught, local whole fish will be broken down into fillets and other parts sold as well as the bones for fish stock.
“We have a display area where we butcher right in front of you,” Puglisi said. “It’s very transparent, just like ECB has been. We really kept that as our guide through our mission, staying connected and transparent. There’s no difference here.”