Newfoundland Sausage Company butcher William Dray
When William Dray left St. John’s for the mainland in his early 20s, it was to pursue a career in the music business.
He didn’t envision literally learning how the sausage is made.
Fast forward a decade and Dray, alongside business partner and best friend of 17 years, Mike Elton, operates the Newfoundland Sausage Company, which specializes in homemade sausages made with all-natural ingredients and without any artificial binders, filler or preservatives.
But going into butchery meant starting fresh for Dray, who admits he knew nothing about the industry when he landed a gig hawking meat at Sanagan’s Meat Locker, a famed butcher shop in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
“My front of house manager was like, ‘you need to get this or we’re firing you.’ And no one had really been that direct with me,” recounts Dray, who studied hard to get up to speed.
Eventually, he proved himself more than capable and was recruited to Sanagan’s wholesale division, serving as a delivery driver often called on to help debone chickens or help break down an animal.
Before long, he approached owner Peter Sanagan about training to become a butcher.
“When I decided to do butchery, I walked away from music,” says Dray. “I just put it down and I was done. I think I was a bit jaded and exhausted with that hustle. It’s a real grind, it really is, and my hat is off to anyone who does it and continues to do it, but I was done.”
After five and a half years with Sanagan’s, Dray decided the time was right to come home and make a go of butchering in his hometown, so he reached out to Elton back in Newfoundland and the pair went on to found Best Kind Butchers, operating exclusively at local markets and pop-ups around the metro region.
And while the demand for their selection of hand-cut meats and homemade sausages regularly led to them selling out wherever they set up, unfortunately, the reality of being a full-scale butcher in Newfoundland caught up to them.
“I think I had ideas in my head of what it was going to be like and I had some things put me in check in terms of what you can do here,” explains Dray. “It’s not Ontario. It’s not Nova Scotia. So you gotta deal with that.”
After a short hiatus, the duo decided to come back with a narrower focus. Where Best Kind Butchers would do whole animals and different offcuts, the goal of the new company is selling good, quality sausages.
“It’s been incredible. We really streamlined our process and we’re really focused on a particular thing and people are loving them,” says Dray.
Unlike Best Kind, the new company has its own weekend storefront, ideally located in the former home of Noseworthy’s Grocery & Meats on Southside Road.
“It was serendipitous,” says of landing the space where Hans Noseworthy built a reputation as one of the most skilled butchers in St. John’s for several decades.
“He’s still doing moose and that’s no joke. I’ve broken moose, I’ve broken beef, caribou, all that stuff and moose is a beast. The fact he’s still doing at his age with his work ethic, it’s inspiring.”
On a quiet Sunday morning, Dray took some time away from sausage maker to answer the Telegram’s 20 questions.