The Local Butcher Shop

What They Do

The Local Butcher Shop offers home cooks the highest quality, locally and sustainably raised meat from their retail storefront in Berkeley, within a block of Chez Panisse.

Unlike a supermarket, the Local Butcher Shop purchases whole animals, allowing them to create custom cuts for customers and wasting nothing in the process.

Named one of nearly 100 essential independent butcher shops in America by Food & Wine Magazine in 2020, the shop carries hard-to-find cuts, housemade products such as pâtés, sausages, deli meats, stocks, stews, and dog food, and locally made spices and jams.

They also offer online cooking and butcher classes to the public.

Why We Invested

The Local Butcher Shop was founded in 2011 by Monica and Aaron Rocchino, who decided to exit the business to focus on their family.

The Rocchinos sold the business to a core group of employees who have now become worker-owners, just in time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the shop.

The Employee Ownership Catalyst Fund, launched in partnership with national nonprofit Project Equity, invested in The Local Butcher Shop to support the transition.

Project Equity helps business owners see employee ownership as an exit strategy and roadmap to resiliency. The organization provides hands-on consultation and support to make sure that they and their businesses thrive long after transitioning.

When employees become owners, they can help preserve good jobs and rebuild local economies.

Learn more about the transition on the Project Equity website and in this article in Berkeleyside.

Updates

12/22/2023 — Two years after the Employee Ownership Catalyst Fund closed its first deal with The Local Butcher Shop to support their transition to employee ownership, the fund closed a forgivable loan to provide working capital to the now worker-owned business.