Edgewood Butcher Shop Plans to Hold Classes, Events at Outdoor Kitchen

More details have emerged regarding Chop Shop, the new butcher shop from Pine Street Market’s Rusty Bowers and hog farm Riverview Farms opening in the Edgewood neighborhood.

Bowers and his partners have set up a GoFundMe page to help offset construction costs involved in the shop’s outdoor patio and cooking area. They provided potential contributors with insight into what to expect from the shop, which will be located at 1366 Memorial Drive SE.

Chop Shop will include a large patio with a 1500-square-foot area equipped with tables along with grills and smokers where cooking demos, dinners, and talks will be held to “emphasize the promotion of up-and-coming chefs, farmers, and food crafters.”

Bowers and Riverview Farms have worked together through Pine Street Market since the butcher opened his first shop in Avondale Estates in 2008.

“We’ve worked hard to establish our infrastructure,” Bowers states on the page. “A farmer-owned store is the logical next step – a little culinary, meat-driven mecca.”

Farmer Wes Swancy’s father Carter started Riverview Farms in the 1970s in Ranger, Georgia, an hour north of Atlanta. It’s now owned by Swancy and his wife Charlotte, along with his brothers Brad and Drew. The farm often has a tent at Atlanta-area farmers markets; including Freedom Farmers Market at the Carter Center on Saturday mornings.

“Riverview has so many long-time relationships with customers, especially in the Grant Park area,” Charlotte Swancy continues. “Opening a store to better serve our existing customers makes sense.”

Bowers and the Swancy’s are hoping to raise $20,000 for Chop Shop. As of publication, they had raised $3600 since beginning the campaign on Friday morning.