A Cut Above, Beyond

By Elise Franco

efranco@vindy.com

Austintown

Name your favorite

cut of meat, and chances are you can find it at The Meating Place.

The 28-year-old store at 4282 New Road is one of the area’s few independent butcher shops, and many of its regular customers said it’s the only place they buy their meat.

Charlie Millosin of Austintown said he’s been shopping at The Meating Place for at least 10 years.

“I like the meat a lot better than other retailers,” he said. “It all seems much fresher. ... I just keep coming back here.”

Millosin said he comes into the shop often and usually picks up cuts of prime rib and baby-back ribs, and he said the homemade meatballs are his favorite.

“I think it’s all fantastic,” he said. “And the meatballs — well, you can’t beat those.”

Co-owner Tom Rochford, who opened the store with longtime friend Jack Weaver in 1982, said the business is his life and seeing his customers satisfied is a priority.

“The store is everything to me,” he said. “I’ve made a good living, good friends and good customers. It’s all been very good to me.”

Bill Locketti of Austintown said he is one of those satisfied customers.

“It’s the only place I shop,” he said. “It’s the best.”

Rochford, who has worked in the grocery business since he was 18, said though he’s 74, he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I don’t know what I would do without the store. I’d probably be dead already,” he joked. “No, but I’d be lost.”

Ray Harnevious Jr., a 23-year employee, said the store carries every type and cut of pork, chicken and beef, as well as ground veal, homemade jerky, sausage and meatballs and eight to 10 varieties of fish.

“We have everything in meats — chuck roast, steaks, pork chops, ground meats,” he said.

Harnevious said the New York Strip steak, which is priced at $5.50 for a 12-ounce cut, and ground meats are the most popular.

“All of our meats are ground in-house,” he said. “Our customers always know where it’s coming from.”

He said that because the majority of the business comes from meat purchases, most of the fish is sold frozen, along with the meatballs, pasta sauce and soups.

Rochford said the shop averages about 100 customers each day, but lines wrap around the small store during holidays.

“At a store like this, you have to have good customers that will keep coming back,” he said. “That’s what keeps us open.”