Husband and wife team Holly and Scott Scichilone will run a new butcher shop in the City Market. (Mark Leger/Huddle)
Uptown shoppers will be glad to hear there will soon be a new butcher shop in the Saint John City Market.
H&S Meats, named after Holly and Scott Scichilone, will fill the void left by Dean’s Meats, the only place in the market which sold fresh meat.
Scott says he hopes to carry on the legacy of Dean’s, which was operated by the Henderson family for over 80 years.
“It’s historic,” he said. “I’m doing everything to keep with those traditions, so I will fight tooth and nail to keep what Blaine (Henderson) and his family have done in this market.”
The Scichilones say they want to honour the tradition of Dean’s while putting their own stamp on the new store.
“We’re going to concentrate a lot on retail. We’re keeping with tradition, but we’re going to add that grab and go—let’s say you want a couple of steaks for you and your wife or you and your family. If you want us to grind it, you want us to cut it, we’re going to be here,” he said.
He also plans on adding a 12-foot tall cheese case, with a wide variety of local selection.
Scott says he has plenty of experience working with meats and cheese, after spending 18 years at Sobeys with its meat department.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to own my own meat shop,” he said.
“We grew up in Saint John…I remember Mum bringing us in here and going up and grabbing cheese. It was just iconic.”
Scott says he’s very passionate about what he does.
“Cutting meat especially is an art. If you know how to cut meat and you can present something that…gets to be satisfying for somebody else to eat, and is visually appealing, it’s like an artist with a painting almost, as silly as that sounds,” he said.
A new lease was approved by Common Council this week at the recommendation of city staff, who recognized the hole left by Dean’s when it closed early this summer—owner Blaine Henderson had health issues which meant he could no longer operate the shop that had been in his family for three generations.
“This opportunity provides citizens with a local butcher shop the ability to purchase fresh meat and poultry within the South Central Peninsula,” said the report. “This will greatly enhance the existing offerings of the Market by once again offering the Uptown core a full complement of grocery services.”
Scott says the Henderson family has been incredibly supportive of their efforts to re-open a new store, offering advice on a range of operations issues.
“Whether it’s advice on what things sold to helping us through the set up of the department. Just the day-to-day business. Blaine has been very supportive, as much as he can with what he and his family is going through,” he said.
H&S Meats plans to do a soft open next Wednesday, and have a grand opening later this month.
A version of this story by Mark Leger was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
