Hawthorn Meat Store – Over 90 Years of History
The late 1800's saw the opening of Mr W McGowans Unley Meat Store complete with delivery horse and cart in the heart of Unley.
McGowan expanded his businesses and Stanley Watson (employed by McGowan) was chosen to open what is now known at the Hawthorn Meat Store in Egmont Terrace, Hawthorn in 1918 starting a continuous Watson family connection with this business for the next 68 years.
Stanley John Watson joined his father in the business and went on to take over the store ,working with his son David from 1950 through to 1986. The Watson family had by then established a flourishing business throughout these years serving the Hawthorn suburb and surrounding areas and supporting many sporting and social pursuits that were held in this thriving community.
In 1986 Russell Fleet who had been operating a butcher store on Belair Road, Hawthorn, bought the business from the Watson family and continued on the Watson family tradition of providing quality custom cuts of meat to the long held customer base and enjoying considerable success.
However in 2004 health issues forced Russell to sell his business to local butcher John Field who continued to manage the store in company with his son Anthony through to August 2007. By this time Hawthorn Meat Store was more than ready for a revival of its fortunes and attracted the attention of Darren Klippel a young butcher looking for a challenge and opportunity to enter the retail butcher business.
The Hawthorn Meat Store was extensively renovated, sensitively using a blend of new aged tiling and refrigeration units to not only ensure high standards of hygiene but also assure that the store retained some of its yesteryear charm and continuing to enhance its partnership with the other shops in this heritage Egmont Terrace shopping strip.
Due to the GFC and other tribulations, Hawthorn Meat Store had to re–locate to a more convenient and visible location to keep the business trading into the future and to keep it from just becoming a piece of history.
226B Belair road site was found and through planning and preparation, a full fit out with lots of blood, sweat and tears, working the Egmont tce shop during the day and preparing the belair rd store at night, the change over happened very efficiently.
Today the team's hard work and enthusiasm is being rewarded by a growing customer base who are once again enjoying having a quality butcher store back in operation on the edge of Hawthorn, building on that tradition of community service that has been occurring here for more than 90 years.
Hawthorn Meat Store recently won 5 awards at the 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner & Awards, picking up 3 Gold Medals (Ham, Smoked Chicken & Bacon), 1 Silver (Bung Fritz) & 1 Bronze (Beef Jerky).
Come in and try these award winning meats, ready to take home today!