By Jeremiah Sosa
Photos Courtesy of Block & Apron
Block & Apron, a recently opened mom-and-pop meat shop, is on a quest to provide quality meats from family-owned farms straight to the tables of North Phoenix residents.
Owned by Brent Michaud and Janine Williamson, Block & Apron, located just off Cave Creek Road and Rose Garden Lane, offers a wide range of food products. They sell not only the traditional meats like beef, chicken, pork, and fish, but also other products like cheeses, sauces, spices, and even candy.
A large part of their brand is the family-owned farms that they source their meat from. “We work with a lot of small companies, which we really like, because anytime you have a small company to work with, they’re in business because they do something very well,” Williamson says.
Some of the meat products that Block & Apron sources from the family-owned farms include grass-fed organic beef, pasture-raised chicken, Berkshire pork, USDA prime beef, as well as wild-caught red Argentine shrimp and Alaskan salmon. And even though Block & Apron just opened earlier this year, Michaud is no stranger to the meat business; he has been involved in the wholesale meat industry for over 20 years.
However, even after 20 years in the wholesale business, the idea of selling meats in a brick-and-mortar location had never crossed his mind—that was until he and Williamson had a revelation. “Over the pandemic we were starting to eat a lot of the meats ourselves, and we were like, ‘These are really good, why aren’t we selling straight to consumers?” Williamson says. “So, we made that happen.”
Another large factor that prompted Michaud and Williamson to open their store was the lack of quality meats that were sold in the North Phoenix area. “It’s just hard to find really good quality meat in the grocery stores anymore, so we knew there was a nice niche for a mom-and-pop shop,” Williamson says. “I think there’s so many families around here that are looking for that.”
Williamson’s assessment was right. “Everybody came in and they were so excited—they were so happy that there’s a new local business,” she says. “We’ve had so many people come back in since they discovered us and get more. We’ve even had several people post something online about their meal or something that they’ve purchased here and share it with other people.”
As for the future of Block & Apron, they hope to continue to build a strong online presence and branch out to delivering their products as well. “One of the ways we’re going to be growing our business is putting more emphasis on marketing the online business and making sure our website is in tip-top shape,” Williamson says. “We have some changes implemented in the future to grow that part of the business and hopefully have a wide shipping radius as well.”
Block & Apron is located at 20820 N. 25th Place. Visit blockandapron.com or call 602-612-3142 to learn more.
