ABOVE: With a large variety of product in stock, Welcome Meats Co-Owner Troy Fritz showcases four doors worth of frozen meats ready for purchase.

WELCOME – Welcome Meats has been designated as a cut above the rest, being named by readers as the Martin County Area’s favorite butcher shop.

Welcome Meats co-owner Troy Fritz said they get their retail meat from Southern Minnesota Meats, which gets meat from farmers across southern Minnesota. Fritz said there’s even a local farmer who has begun supplying his meat to Southern Minnesota Meats.

As a butcher shop, they process meat for a wide range of people.

“Farmers and hunters,” Fritz said. “We do restaurants, churches, schools. We try to help them out with their concession stands and everything else. It’s a small community, and you try to help out as best as you can.”

Some of their most popular products include pork and hamburger patties, standard and gourmet, Philly balls, ham balls and meat sticks. Fritz said sometimes popularity can be seasonal, like with their hams during the holidays.

When it comes to working on new products, Fritz said he keeps his eyes and ears open.

“Internet, a lot of word of mouth,” he said. “I like to eat. Everybody likes to eat, and I have certain things that I like. We talk it over with our employees. A lot of them haven’t made the shelf just because they didn’t taste so hot, but a lot of them do.”

One recently debuted item that has made waves with its customers is a Ponderosa patty.

“That’s a pork patty that’s got garlic, onions, a beer seasoning mixed with it, and then we added a bunch of other seasonings,” Fritz said. “The hot stuff seems to sell, trending upward. Everybody likes a little hot stuff.”

It’s not just locals who like Welcome Meats either.

“We’ve had people that come back for family reunions,” Fritz said. “We’ve had people from Pennsylvania that go out to the West Coast have to stop here to pick up stuff, and people from Washington. We’ve had everybody all over the United States.”

As for their busiest seasons, Fritz said it differs depending on whether people are buying products off the shelves or getting their meat processed.

“Busiest days coming up are holidays,” he said. “Deer hunting, we honestly just got done with our deer. It takes us about 10 months to do the deer process. We get about 8,000 pounds of deer trim in, and you get your own deer back here. We get Central Iowa, northern Minnesota. We get people from South Dakota bringing it.”

Right now, Fritz said they are in the process of upgrading some of their equipment.

“We just put a new freezer in, putting all new cooler systems in,” he said. “We just added a new display case out there. A little bit at a time. My wife and I have been trying to, but everything’s a little expensive, so we just got to do what we can do.”

While they feel solid about where they’re at currently, Fritz said they’re always looking to ensure what people want is on the shelves at all times.

“You don’t want to run out of product,” he said. “When somebody comes in here, because they come here to buy something, you don’t want them to drive all the way here and not have anything on the shelf.”

In being recognized as the area’s favorite butcher, Fritz said it all goes back to everyone who does the work together.

“We try to make this a family-oriented place to work,” he said. “We want to treat it like family. I think that brushes off on when the people come in here. It makes it feel like ‘Hey, you can talk to us,’ and it feels good. It makes you happy, all our hard effort is coming forth, everybody can see.”

For more information, visit welcomemeatsmn.com/ or call 507-728-8670.