Meuwly’s
10706 124 St.
587-778-7615
meuwlys.com
No delivery listed
Mon. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Sat. to 5 p.m.)
Closed Sunday
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Lunch for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $17.50; loaded $30
By Graham Hicks
In the good ol’ days, foods weren’t gussied up with trendy names.
“Charcuterie” was simply called cold cuts. “Prosciutto” was cured Italian ham. “Salumi” was salami.
But in the good ol’ days, cold cuts were limited to Schneiders garlic sausage, Maple Leaf baloney and vacuum-sealed slices of wet ham.
While the butcher who makes cold cuts is now a “charcuterie master” and any small independent food processor is an “artisan”, what’s available today by way of locally-made cold-cuts is so much more interesting and varied than in the past.
For which Edmonton owes much to Meuwly’s two “charcuterie masters”, Will Kotowicz and Peter Keith. (A third partner, Glenton Tan, handles the business end.) Through Meuwly’s, the deli-meat duo have introduced a new range of “charcuterie” meats to the city.
The bricks-and-mortar side of Meuwly’s on 124 Street is a day-time restaurant, a charcuterie-specialist butchery, a delicatessen and a local food-products shop.
A thriving wholesale/catering division supplies other restaurants with charcuterie meats. Its direct-to-consumers “Secret Meat Club” is well-established.
Meuwly’s reputation is such that a store-front is not needed. It’s street visibility is limited to a door right beside the Northern Chicken restaurant. You enter, descend the stairs to the modern, airy, clean, well-lit restaurant/deli/shop/butchery. But it’s still a basement.
The multi-faceted operation is intriguing. Behind floor-to-ceiling glass is the industrial kitchen where primal meat cuts are prepped. Simple lunch ingredients – breads, soups – are made from scratch.
Behind the lunch counter space, behind kitchen blenders and grinders, are interior windows looking into the meat-curing room. The primal meat cuts, having been fermented, pickled and smoked as per specific recipes, hang for as long as a year to cure.
Behind the cure room glass, another haunch of ham looks near-ready for the eating.
Down the other side of the narrow space are shelves stocked with locally-produced kitchen goodies – olives, olive oil, spice rubs, condiments, honey. The kind of goodies you might buy for Christmas stocking-stuffers.
Meuwly’s multi-faceted subterranean food space.
At the back are five to six lunch tables – about 20 to 30 seats. The lunch operation is the epitome of efficiency – a choice of three sandwiches on home-made bread – when we visited, it was a rosemary-herbed ciabatta. One is a rotated deli meat of the day, the second with three styles of cold-cuts for $9, and the third is vegetarian for $8.50. Two flavourful homemade soups are available for $6.50, or $13 for a soup/sandwich combo.
Meuwley’s lunch is a take-out operation that can be run by one employee, with the eating-in option. The sandwiches are all pre-made and pre-wrapped just before lunchtime, so freshness and quality do not suffer. Naturally, the generous portions of in-house deli meats are among the best in town. For a hot sandwich, the sandwich is unwrapped and toasted panini-style.
Meuwley’s is an innovative presentation of an “artisan” specialty product. You can drop in for a delicious, inexpensive lunch in pleasant if windowless surroundings, admire the curing meat haunches, buy excellent cold-cuts for the week to come, pick up gifts for foodie friends and plan to buy an entire cured-meats charcuterie board for future at-home parties!
FOOD NOTES
Shane Chartrand, executive chef at SC’s in the River Cree Resort, never ceases to amaze.
A proud First Nation Cree, he is forever embarking on culinary adventures that incorporate soul, spirit and culture – not just proteins, carbs and starches.
Vancouver TV production house Black Rhino Creative invited Shane to star in an episode of the Telus Optik TV-commissioned Red Chef Revival TV series. He jumped at the chance and was sent to explore the cooking and culture of the Nisga’a Nation a few hours sailing north of Prince Rupert.
Red Chef Revival is compelling TV. Chartrand does a fine job describing his own thoughts at absorbing the rituals and way of life of another indigenous culture, including recipes for seal. The cinematography is often breath-taking. At the end of the episode is a fascinating look of the long-intertwined Japanese, Chinese and Nisga’a culinary traditions found in Prince Rupert.
Chartrand’s Red Chef Revival Episode 3 can be streamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GCm8IiRXaI