Great Barrington — Jeremy Stanton built the best burger in America, according to Forbes Magazine. But he’s not done; he and his wife Emily are now in the midst of building a small food empire.
The Stantons opened The Meat Market on Stockbridge Road four years ago, and now they are adding a 55-seat restaurant, Camp Fire, to the attached space next door, where Ena Cafe used to be.
I stand with Jeremy in the unfinished space that smells of fresh-cut wood and paint, asking him how this could possibly be up and running in a week. But Stanton, who is famous for cooking naturally raised meat over a fire for his company, Fire Roasted Catering, appears to have his own flame constantly lit.
“Everyone says I’m not being realistic,” he told me. “Why start now?”
Well, once Stanton explains his food and eating philosophy, one can see that everything will be just fine at Camp Fire next Wednesday. That’s because, he tells me, he’s in the business of buying good healthy animals from local farms, and cooking their meat the way it tastes best. That doesn’t involve a lot of fuss over presentation; it’s about “the whole process of your food.”
And Stanton thinks we should see the way it gets onto our plate. You can sit in The Meat Market and eat that famous burger, among other classics, but you’re also gonna be reminded that you are eating an animal. Stanton says people love this connection, even if they are sometimes surprised to see “a whole half a pig or a whole lamb.”
“Not everyone is used to that edginess,” he says of the slabs of meat — and strapping lads with butcher knives — all visible at the Market. “But my experience is that everybody is enticed or amazed.”
So much so that Stanton is building on the success of that small dining operation in which he “celebrates” a transparency about food.
“There’s so much damage to animals by not showing it,” he said. “The notion that we don’t have to see the cost of the McDonald’s burger; the cost to health, the animal, the environment…We’re so allowed to buy that burger and not have to deal with it.”
Stanton is inspired by his travels, where he looks for what is original and simple. “I’m not ever looking for the norm,” he said.
On a recent trip to Lockhart, Texas, he found a masterpiece: A simple smokehouse where briskets are smoked in boxes lined up on the floor. He showed me a photo of a similar smoker a friend built for him to use out back near the grill and spit area, where he’ll smoke brisket, chicken and ribs for Camp Fire.
Prized and versatile local chef Thomas Lee will preside over “American classic” food in an open kitchen, with a similar principle as The Meat Market’s “see your food.” Stanton says he’s carrying forward the “exposed cooking style.”
“I’m hiding some unpleasant parts, but you can see them a little,” he told me.
Local carpenter Steve Crump was there doing some finish work when I popped in. He built dark teal-painted booths, and thick wood counters with rounded edges. Stanton wants the place to feel like a “roadhouse.” He wants it to be family friendly, and on that note he plans lots of outdoor seating in the large side yard, and a “kid menu” that the adults will be just as happy noshing from. “I don’t like kids’ menus,” he said. He also plans to build a small stage in the yard, and leave room for lawn games.
Stanton hasn’t had a drink in four years, but there will be a bar and cocktail menu that his staff will sort out. True to form, his liquor license hearing is Monday, two days before opening.
He smiles over this. “We’re busy,” he says.
And there is more. The next day, Emily, a veterinarian, will buy the Bilmar Small Animal Clinic in Great Barrington. The two will also open a second Meat Market location in Hudson, New York at Hudson Anchor, a 6000-square foot Chelsea Market-like affair with multiple vendors. That location should be up and running by April 2017, he said.
They are also in the process of buying 45 acres in New Marlborough, where they live, to create a Silvopasture for rare Ossobaw pigs and disease-resistant chestnut trees, in which the pigs will be finished on chestnuts. Both have been threatened by disease and are making a comeback, and Stanton says this is where it all “comes full circle.”
“It’s an outlet for a well-raised meat business intended to care for animals, and resurrecting an American nut and feeding it to a naturalized American breed,” he said.
He talks about Peter Kaminsky’s book, Pig Perfect, which tells the fascinating story of the Ossobaw pigs and how they were almost eradicated from a Georgia island to prevent their diseases from spreading, until some were spared and bred to be disease free.
So Stanton will have 50 of these pigs at any given time, which translate to 100 cured hams every year.
Don’t worry, he told me, “the rest of the pig gets to be turned into tasty treats.”
