A New Butcher Shop Brings Texas Wagyu Beef and a Killer Patio to the Park Cities

The old-school butcher shop revival has arrived in the Park Cities.

After Deep Cuts opened in North Dallas last year and Burgundy Pasture Beef debuted its retail outlet, Burgundy's Local, on Ross Avenue early this year, high-quality neighborhood butcher shops are looking like a very welcome Dallas trend. Now comes The Meat Shop, situated in an old house on the westernmost stretch of Lovers Lane. The Meat Shop is calculated to succeed: Not only does it sell meat, cheese and wine to go, but it serves sandwiches, has six beers on tap and offers a back porch with picnic tables and cornhole.

That setup, plus a high-end gas smoker parked next to the official-looking, Meat Shop-branded cornhole boards, suggests this isn’t an ordinary startup. The Meat Shop is affiliated with Rosewood Ranch, which stretches across four counties south of Dallas and specializes in wagyu beef. (If the name Rosewood sounds familiar, that’s because the family was involved in developing Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and the Mansion restaurant.)

The Meat Shop is a retail showcase for Rosewood’s wagyu beef, which could be just what the Park Cities is looking for. Beautifully marbled rib-eyes, strip steaks and tenderloins sit beside more affordable tri-tips and flank steaks, a generous assortment of pork and sausages, and a handful of cheeses such as Gorgonzola and cheddar washed in claret. We picked up a wagyu New York strip ($30/lb.), a link of venison-pork sausage ($12.60/lb.) and a couple of ounces of Toscano, one of a handful of Italian deli meats not made in house.

The New York strip made a delicious dinner, simply seasoned with salt and pepper and skillet-seared in plenty of butter. Indeed, with all the marbling throughout, the meat was meltingly tender and buttery although I accidentally left it in the skillet a minute too long. The venison sausage link had a nice peppery snap. (The pork is there to add fat content.)

Before going home with those meaty groceries, we also grabbed a couple of hot pastrami sandwiches to try on the back patio ($8; sandwiches range from $5 for pimento cheese on rye to $10 for the smoked steak). The house-made pastrami is smoky and thick-cut, the mustard is hot and the pickles are thick and nicely tart. Best of all, The Meat Shop has a pretty good collection of craft beers to drink with them.

Although the butcher shop is still in its early days — hours are quite limited, and the ordering process can be a little haphazard — The Meat Shop looks perfectly suited for its neighborhood. The patio is thoughtful and the steaks are drool-inducing. And, of course, only in Park Cities could it get away with serving $20 dog bones and $33/lb. foie gras brats.

The Meat Shop, 4410 W. Lovers Lane. 972-850-9959, meatshoptx.com. Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m. Sunday.