Carnivore, Oak Park’s farm-to-table butcher shop, is looking to its fans for help.
On Feb. 15, Carnivore, located at 1042 Pleasant St., posted on social media that business has been hit with a 66% decline in the past year and a half. They are restructuring their offerings and hours and reaching out to the community for help getting back on solid footing via a GoFundMe campaign.
When the butch shop opened 12 years ago. the concept of farm to local butcher to table was, not new, but had a virtuous appeal. The COVID pandemic actually boosted the business too. Everyone was staying at home, cooking. No vacations or outings were sapping away extra income.
Then came the aftermath.
“After everything reopened in August of 2022, meat prices doubled,” Erik Williams, owner of Carnivore, said. “And they’ve almost doubled again.”
Managing in a volatile food market hasn’t been easy.
“We’ve certainly made some mistakes,” Williams said. “Our margin for error is very thin. And so anytime that we screw anything up, it hurts. We had a bunch of maintenance last year that hurt us a lot.”
Rob Poe, who worked at Carnivore on and off over the years, has returned to help. According to Poe, staff turnover is another thing that has hurt business.
“Customer service has faltered a little bit,” Poe said. “Special orders weren’t necessarily filled on time. We’re getting back to where the most important thing is the customer and high level of service with pinpoint accuracy.”
He said that what customers want to buy has changed. More ready-to-cook meals and being able to provide ingredients in store for a full meal is important moving forward.
The goal of the GoFundMe campaign is to raise $45,000.
“About half of it goes to our vendors,” Poe said. “We’re late with several vendors and there’s a huge list of deferred maintenance.”
“I’m a little weird about the free money thing,” Williams said. “That makes me really, really, uncomfortable. None of us are here for free money. We’re here to work.”
That being, said there are realities that must be faced, according to both Poe and Williams.
“We have a ton of regulars who are in here every week, every month,” Williams said. “Those people are our bread and butter and I’m so grateful, but I’d also like to hear what we’ve done wrong from outside eyes – what people are looking for, what they’re not looking. Our community building has been such a huge part of it. And I just would love to hear from them.”