Village Meat Market and Cafe announced over the weekend that it is closing on Dec. 29, but Czech Village won’t be without a butcher shop for long. Steven Prochaska, who owns the Sausage Foundry and Bohemian Grocer in NewBo City Market, will buy Village Meat Market and reopen it as Anvil Meat Market and Deli in the spring, the Gazette reported on Wednesday.
“We are going to still have some of the old Czech recipes, and also in-house cured and smoked pastrami, corned beef, bacon, smoked sausage and more,” Prochaska told the paper.
The deli will also feature hot and cold sandwiches.
Prochaska started the Sausage Factory in 2014, and opened its NewBo Market storefront a year later.
“The Sausage Foundry is a local sausage production and retail facility offering traditional and modern styles of fresh sausage and charcuterie,” its site explains. “We hand-craft premium, artisanal, flavorful sausage and meat products made from sustainable production methods.”
In 2018, he expanded his presence at NewBo Market, opening Bohemian Grocer, which sells dairy and other grocery items, with an emphasis on locally produced goods.
The Sausage Foundry will remain open after Anvil opens, although it will be focused on frozen products. Bohemian Grocer will close.
In a way, Prochaska is continuing a family tradition through Anvil Meat Market. He told the Gazette his great-grandfather once worked at Polehna’s Meat Market, the traditional butcher shop that served Czech Village from the 1920s until the flood of 2008.
It was the absence of a traditional Czech butcher shop following the closure of Polehna’s that inspired Lou Oettinger Thompson and Hugh Lamont to open Village Meat Market in 2011.
This time, the gap between when a meat market closes and a new one debuts won’t be a span of years. Prochaska said he plans to open Anvil Meat Market and Deli by mid-March, 2020.
