NEW TO TOWN: THE BERLIN BUTCHER SHOP

We love nothing more than featuring a new business in our community and today’s highlight is The Berlin Butcher Shop located at 101 Williams Street in Berlin, MD. Having opened only seven weeks ago, business owner, Lisa Hall, says that the positive response from people within the community is overwhelming. So, we asked Lisa how this all began. Lisa tells us that this has actually been a dream of hers for the past four or five years because a traditional butcher shop has unfortunately found its place on the “near extinction list” in terms of business models.

“For years, shoppers have been pushed further and further to chain stores because they didn’t have any options. Five years ago, people were really becoming more conscience of where their food came from and today, it is more so than ever,” Hall told us. “I didn’t have a butcher, but then I met Matt at the Food Lion here in Berlin. After meeting Matt, everything just started to fall into place.”

Matt DiPietro, Butcher for the Berlin Butcher Shop comes from a very long line of small business owners and butchers. Believe it or not, Matt is actually a 4th generation butcher. His great-grandparents owned a store in upper New York and the entrepreneur bug stayed in the family, carrying down to Matt’s grandfather and father. Featured in the Shop are photos of Matt as a teenage boy helping his own Dad in their family store, along with a newspaper clipping of his great-grandparent’s store from the early 20th century. Matt moved to the area about ten years ago to help a friend open a bar in town. After staying with that business for only a year, Matt ventured out into town and began bartending and meeting more locals. When the manager position at the Food Lion became available, Matt jumped at the opportunity that he already knew he could do well, thus meeting Lisa Hall in the process. And the rest, they say, is history.

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