Inside McCord Butchery: Better Meat, Better Meals with Sam McCord

What does it take to build a destination business that people genuinely love? David sits down with Chef Sam McCord, owner of McCord Butchery, to discuss a career shaped by curiosity, craftsmanship, and a willingness to embrace new opportunities. From international experiences to leadership roles and entrepreneurship, Sam shares the lessons that helped shape his approach to business, customer service, and community.

Here’s what we discuss in this episode:

🇫🇷 Global Training: Learning in New York and France

🎸 House of Blues: Building a corporate career

🥩 McCord Butchery: Bringing a vision to life

⭐ Quality First: Restaurant-grade products at home

🛒 Unique Experience: More than a butcher shop

🤝 Community Focus: Supporting local partnerships

Injured? Begin the process here: 

Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers: https://www.scottvicknair.com/

Car Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/car-accident-lawyer/ 

Truck Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/truck-accident-lawyer/ 

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/motorcycle-accident-lawyer/ 

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More Resources

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Scott Vignair, injured turnies, we fight for the win.

SPEAKER_05 0:06

What's going on everybody? Welcome to the Overrule Podcast brought to you by the Scott Vignair Law Firm. I'm your host, David Vignair, and we have a really exciting guest today, Sam McCord of McCord Butchery. Um I guess McCord Yeah, it's in Metrie. It's so close to the line. I'm thinking Lakeview because I lived in Lakeview for a while. Welcome to the Overrup Podcast, Sam. We're really excited to talk to you today.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Great, thank you. Yeah, it's exciting to be here. I'm looking forward to it and uh very exciting for everything. I appreciate everything you guys are doing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

Thank you so much. It means a lot to me. Um, I've been, like I told you before the show, uh harassing Miles for about seven months to get you on the podcast because it's there's not a lot of butcher shops in New Orleans, and I stumbled across my chords from a recommendation from a friend, and it's just such an awesome place, and the quality of the meats is so fantastic, and I go there, love everything in there and all the things that y'all have. You even have a lot of really high-quality produce. But I'm really excited to dive into it, Sam, and and reading about you and your wife before the podcast on the website. I was really blown away by your journey to coming to open McCords. Um so before we get to McCords, which we're gonna I want to talk a good bit about, could you maybe tell listeners a little bit more about like how your journey what your journey was to getting there? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

So um I'm from Indiana originally. So uh grew up in a small town, uh, 15 years old, uh uh wanted to go into cooking. Um so I uh started working at this a small French restaurant in uh Crown Point, Indiana. Um, and um it was just the chef, the French chef and I, Louis is his name, still talk to him. He's 92 years old. Wow. Um still still he's not cooking anymore, but he's still running along, works out every day, amazing guy. And it just kind of clicked. And I was going to high school, obviously, at the same time. And um then I'd be working on the weekends sometimes during the week if I could. And then, you know, it was it was the true French training where you will you started as a dishwasher, and if you washed the dishes and they weren't greasy and they were put away correctly and they were where they belonged, then you could move on to maybe um chopping the parsley or washing the lettuce, or you know, and you're getting trusted um very slowly um and you have to prove yourself, and you know, you're not getting paid much at all, but it really is just kind of the bare bones of starting from the ground up. Um the beauty of that is um, you know, I had no bad habits. So it was like whatever I learned, I learned from him. Um I mean I had other habits, but not in the in the cooking world. Right. So um but uh then um just worked it for several years and then um graduated from high school, and my brothers and sisters had all went uh had all gone to Indiana University, uh business, uh one was one's a doctor, the other one, and I'm just like here I come along, and I'm like Indiana University is not gonna offer anything for me in the culinary world. Yeah, so went back and forth. Um I thought, you know what, 18 years old don't know what I'm gonna do. So my parents were very supportive. So I went to Indiana for um a year and uh didn't really like it. I came home almost every weekend and worked in the kitchen at Louis. Um and uh then I decided I wanted to go into that field. And again, this is you know in the early 80s in a small town in Crown Point. It's like somebody wants to be a chef, it's a little bit strange, right? And everybody else is doing other things. So before the days of top chefs. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, there were no cooking shows. I mean, Julia Child, I think, was the show that you know um that we all watched, and and I remember that. Um but uh so then uh I came home for uh probably about a year um back Crown Point, and then I went to cooking school in Minneapolis. It was a French cooking school and a hotel, Hotel Sophie Tell it's no longer there. Um and I was there for about a year and a half in cooking school, and it was a similar thing, for classically French trained, where they had two chefs come over. There were only eight students in the program. Um we uh started from the bottom up again, you know, started with vegetables, then baking, then sauces, and everything else you can imagine, and um learned through French training of you know the old classic French uh recipes of beef bergen young, uh quiche Lorraine, all these kind of different things. Um really loved it. Um and then um my mentor Louis I came back, I finished cooking school, and I'm like, okay, now what do I do? You know, so he's like, Okay, well, you're gonna go to New York. And I was like, I don't, I don't want to go to New York. A little bit different vibe than Indiana. Oh yeah. I'm like, I was scared, right? So 21 years old, um he and I uh never forget this, you know, uh went out. Uh he picked up the phone in his kitchen, he called um this guy at Lakote Basque at the time. It was the third best restaurant in New York. Um had lucky had a connection. It was uh 55th and 5th Avenue, and he called him and they spoke in French and he said, Okay, hung up the phone and said, Okay, I got a job for you. I'm like, I was kind of hoping maybe he didn't want me, but so um terrified at this point. So go on talk with a family. Um fast forward a few months. He and I went to um to New York together, met uh the Jean-Jacques Rachou, um the chef, and uh he said, Okay, I have a job for you, I'm gonna pay you $300 a week salary. This is no joke. 19 So this would have been 1985. Um $300 a week. I have a house you can live in in Queens uh with some other guys. Um you don't have to pay for anything except for the utilities and um you know let me know if you want to start. And so arranged a date. Um my dad drove me out there. We um pulled up to this house in Queens, and I thought I was like didn't know where I was gonna live or what I was gonna do, and it was a little frightening, but I just kind of persevered through it and um so uh I I ended up you know taking the subway to work, I didn't have a car, I was single, it was great, you know, didn't make much money, but worked six days a week, it was fine. Um stayed there for um a little over two and a half years at Lecote Basque. And then um a friend of mine had a job opportunity at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City. And at the time it was like really one of the top restaurants, but it was a different vibe. It was more of you know, Le Côte Basque was true French, you know, classic training, and um Gotham Bar and Grill was more of a um, you know, Americanized version of things, but but Alfred Partelli had trained in France, so it was similar, you know, um French roots and things of that nature. Worked there for a couple years, um, and then went um the guy that I worked with at Le Côte Basque, one of the chefs, went to the rainbow room when it was reopening in 1987 or 88, um uh 1988, eighty or nine, um, and um it was the reopening of the whole and it was on the 46th floor and it was just this huge thing. And um so he was the chef there and he got me a job there and I wanted to go through an opening of a restaurant. I had never done that before as a learning experience. Yeah. He was kind of a mentor too, so he um you know he was telling me like, hey, you should go through an opening, and and you know, it's it's if you've ever been through an opening of a restaurant, it's it's not a lot of fun, but it is very rewarding and you can learn a lot. So um did that, and then um after four or five years in New York, I was kind of like, yeah, I kind of want to do something else, or you know, I mean New York was it was nerve-wracking, you know, a little bit. I didn't I made decent money, but I I was thought I can't do this forever, right? So call Louis. What do I what should I do now? You're gonna go to France. I was like, I don't want to go to France to keep going farther, right? I don't speak French. So he's like, no, you need to. Very quick. So um again, terrified. Although in New York, you know, kind of makes you tough, but I was like, I don't know. So and this is back, you know, this so this is the late late 80s. So in in France, they're still not speaking a lot of English and they don't like Americans too much. So anyway, he uh Louis had a a nephew that lived outside of Paris. He said you can stay at his house. Um and at the time it was the you had to have a um visitor's visa um that was easy to get. So it was like you could go over there for three months and you had to leave the country, even if it was just for two hours, come back in, but you couldn't work legally. So I was I he got me hooked up with a guy over there that I do a bunch of uh Michelin two-star chefs. So they um I went in and they said you can work in a what they call an estage. Um and so basically you work just like everybody else does, but you don't get paid, but they give you meals, right? I mean we had family meal for lunch and for dinner, which were like incredible. Yeah. Um but we all but but I was working in these restaurants. Um uh the first one was, you know, I think it was 45 seats. There were probably 25 people in the kitchen, 25 guys. Um, and they were all young, and you know, they they liked me because they were fascinated at an American being there. But then again, they always reminded me that I didn't know how to cook and they were gonna teach me. So um I did that. Um, the beauty of the Michelin star restaurants in France and in especially in Paris is they're closed on the weekends. Yeah, which is crazy. I was never used to that, right? Yeah. So I would just I stay with the friends. Some weekends I'd just uh mess around Paris. Sometimes I'd get on a train because you could do that then safely and easily in the amazing train system and travel across the country, different places. Um after three months, I was like, okay, I gotta leave the country. My parents were like, Are you gonna come home? They were kind of helping me out financially. And I was like, I don't think I'm ready to come home, you know. So I ended up fast forward to saying it almost a year. Um loved it and worked in uh that that you know that network took you from uh okay, you're working in for this guy at this restaurant, he's gonna, you know, you've been there for maybe two or three months. He said, Hey, why don't you go try working here? You'll learn some different things. So then it's kind of basically word of mouth, and they'll call and just you show up and they say, you know, okay, here's here's Sam. You know, he's gonna be working with you and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 10:47

You don't have to pay him, you just feed him.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Don't have to pay him pay. But but, you know, I mean, these kitchens were like extremely professional. Yeah. You know, um, everybody was serious about what they were doing. There was no talking during service, there was no music, there was no joking around. It was like you were focused on what you needed to do.

SPEAKER_05 11:04

You were like the media kitchen I thought of, at least locally, when you're describing this, is having dinner at Emeralds now that it's a totally a total a uh tasting menu, and and they have the glass front and you watch that kitchen operate and it's like wow. Right. Like they're in everybody is precisely in a specific thing, doing a specific thing. And so that's kind of the way I'm envisioning what you're describing, at least.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

It's exactly that. It's it's it's like a machine, you know, and when one part of the machine doesn't work, it throws off the whole thing. And you know, you're talking about like cooking vegetables to the order, and obviously, um, you know, obviously every all the meats got cooked to the order, but it was like the chef um was on the pass, they call it, where the food comes out, and it was carpeted so that there was nothing on the bottom of the plates when it hit the table, you know, there was no like grease or dirt or food or anything, and then you were wiping with cheesecloth and white vinegar the rims of the plates so there weren't fingerprints. If you put out a plate with a fingerprint on it, it got sent back to you. Wow, usually not very nicely, and you had to fix it. Filthy American. Right, right, exactly. And um, so while I was working, I thought I need to learn how to speak French. So I went to the Alliance Francaise in Paris um in the afternoons. So it was a long day. It was you know, get up, go do prep work, do the lunch service. Um, I'd go get a nice espresso, go to French class for a couple hours, go back. Um, I ate my meals there, which was wonderful. Um, and then I'd get on the train, go home, and I'd walk, you know, 15 minutes because I didn't have anything in this small village to these people's house. Finally got an apartment in Paris for myself, very small, but it's like New York, you know, everything's out, you don't really need a big place. Um and um so stayed there, and then I was you know just started to financially I had to like get back to where I was gonna make money again. Right, right. And so um, again, networking, the guy that I worked with at the Rainbow Room, he uh was opening the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. Um and at the time it was a really um neat concept. It was it was there were three restaurants and then um obviously hotel, and then on top of it were condominiums. Gotcha. So um it was you know it was a fine dining restaurant, a casual restaurant, a bar, and then banquets, obviously, and and all so it was another opening to go through. So we did that, we opened it, and then you also serviced the condominiums up on the top floors of you know different parties or dinners or things of that nature. Um wasn't crazy about Philadelphia, but I I liked the job and it was learned a lot, and um, so stayed there for a few years and then um moved to New Orleans. I always wanted to to come to New Orleans. So in 1991, I came to New Orleans and um got a job at the Royal Sinesta Hotel, and um I was running Begetz restaurant at the time, and um it was like coming from Philadelphia to New Orleans was like it was an adjustment, let's just say that. You know, you're in Philly and New York and everybody's go, go, go, and you come to New Orleans like, hey, you know. You know, and uh you go into the kitchen and I still tell us, you know, and they're like, uh, okay, can you go over there and get me the Earl? And I'm like, who's Earl? And they're like, no, Earl. I'm like and then somebody would say, no, it's oil. I'm like, oh yeah, okay. Classic. So I I got indoctrinated to the you know the lingo and the accents and everything.

SPEAKER_05 14:33

Um there's a lot of different ones, too.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

A lot of different ones. Um loved New Orleans, just I don't know, just felt right. It was, you know, this is a city that's just amazing. I mean, it's probably one of the best cities in the in the country, if not the world. But when when you're in the cooking side of it, people want to know you or are interested in you, and they also uh they like to cook, so you can have some really interesting conversations with people that you might not think you know, they might be an attorney, but they love to cook and they travel, and so you can have some really great conversations or dinners or things of that with them. So I fell in love with it. And then um so I was at Rosanesta for a few years. Um and then um another curveball. So this guy comes to town, he's the uh VP of ops for House of Blues.

SPEAKER_05 15:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

So uh he uh he he came to town and he was having dinner at the Rosa Nesta to be gays. And and he goes, Hey, what do you how long you been here? I said, No, I have a couple years, and he said, Okay, well, you know, um would you be interested in coming with us? And I was like, I don't know, you know. I mean, I'm fine dining and and you know, house of blues I thought of hamburgers, french fries, and yeah. Well, fast forward to the fact that I I ended up interviewing, um, it was another opening to go through. Um I was the executive chef, so it was it was kind of fun. Uh I had had some guys that I could bring with me, um, just took it as another challenge. And peep some people know this about House Blues, um, you know, when we opened, everything was made from scratch. You know, they were making we were making veal stock, we were making our own garlic mashed potatoes. It wasn't any kind of prefab stuff, uh all fresh vegetables, uh, you know, salad dressings were made from scratch, all this kind of stuff. So um so it was a another different aspect of uh, you know, not really there were some items on the menu that were, you know, like there was a fillet and there were some fish and the uh you know, cedar plank fish and things of that nature, but that we had a wood-burning pizza oven, we had a tandoori oven. Yeah. So there's some interesting things to learn, and and also the fact that um it was high volume. So, you know, if you can that's really the way in that a lot of places to make money is high volume.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

Because were you were you like so at that time was it mostly cooking for what is the the private little club there? Is it called like the blue room? Oh, the foundation room. Foundation room, were you cooking for that group? Okay, gotcha. Okay. And that's like a lot of people who are in the foundation room before the show, they're having drinks and eating, right? Or right after. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

That was the um third foundation room. The first one was in Los Angeles when I opened that one. Gotcha. Okay. So um, but yeah, so then I stayed there and um and then worked my way up to uh on the corporate level, and it was VP of ops, so did some VP of training stuff and and um loved the company. I mean it was it was the culture that we had in that company. I still have friends to this day that I run into that I think just are still great friends. It just it was it was hard to describe, like you know, our our thing there was unity and diversity all as one, and and it was so great because it didn't matter what race you were, what you know nationality you were, what what what religion you like. It everybody respected everybody for what they were and they worked together, and that was what made that such a great environment. You know, and um it was like they took care of us, everybody worked hard, everybody got along. You know, when somebody would go to move, I'm gonna move my apartment, they would have like 30 people show up just to try to help them. It was just that kind of a culture it was you couldn't really describe. So um then the house boost got bought out by um Live Nation um in dec 2007, I believe. I stayed there for almost 15 years, and um and then it just kind of went sideways, you know. There it's the whole thing of well, we're gonna buy you, but nothing's gonna change. Okay, well, yeah, right. There's no more insurance, there's no more of this. So then the economy um crashed in 2008, and uh a lot of the corporate jobs they just they let us go. So I thought, okay, now what am I gonna do? I had kids in private school, I you know, it was used to decent decent income and then car payments. So um I had one of the our purveyors, uh company out of Atlanta, was looking for somebody to sell meat and seafood in New Orleans. Well, I had no idea how to sell. I didn't want to sell. You know, I'm like, I'm a chef operations guy. Yeah. So I thought, you know, uh and obviously pressure from supporting the family. I thought, well, you know, I need to uh I need to get a job, so I'll just take this job with them and then I'll look for something else at the same time. So I ended up coming on as a meet and seafood sales. Dis envisioning you were there much longer. Oh yeah. So I ended up hating it the first two years. Every day I hated up going hating going to work. But I we serviced all the high-end hotels and the restaurants, and we st and um in fact the uh my business now I buy from Halpern's. Um they're a very high-quality um meat and seafood purveyor specialty too. But um so I started to to earn commission, and then all of a sudden, how when you start making some decent commission dollars, it becomes a little bit more pleasurable. Yeah. So so um so I did that for 15 years, stayed.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Um just take it until I'm looking for another job 15 years ago. I know, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

And um then um all of a sudden around COVID time, um I I was we we were lucky. They we, you know, there were no sales for everything was shut down, but they paid us, they gave us our benefits, and so we were just kind of sitting around, but they kept us on board because they knew it was gonna come back.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

So um, and New Orleans is a very big market for this company because of all the different restaurants and the quality of products that people buy, you know, like Emeralds or the Link Group or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

And so I didn't see I saw a stat the other day. It's like New Orleans has more restaurants per capita per person than any city. It's crazy, it's insane, but continues.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, it's it's like we were talking the other night about going out to dinner, and it's like, where do you go? I mean, where do you not go?

SPEAKER_05 20:47

I you know, it's I actually saw a discussion with Ian McNulty the other day where it's like one of these food critics talking about like he was talking about Brightsons, for example, and how he's shocked that like a lot of people don't even know about Brightson's other person's like, yeah, they've even been to Brightson that crazy. It's like it's not really that crazy, and I feel guilty sometimes because like I haven't been a lot like to some certain places, but it's like it's just a lot of places to be to, right? Uh in a good way. But yeah, oh yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah. Um, I know it's crazy. So uh a friend of mine in Atlanta who had a similar background and one in Jacksonville, um, like they were chefs and then they were in sales, they opened um butcher shops.

SPEAKER_05 21:25

So in Atlanta and in Atlanta, and in Jacksonville, Florida.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

And so um the guy in Atlanta I was we're still really good friends, and and he was telling me about it, and I was like, man, I kind of got interested in that. Because it always kind of had a creative side to me, with you know, like that sounds interesting. I wonder how you could do that, or you know. So he's getting ready to open, believe it or not, during COVID. Um, but it was actually kind of a good time because he could go slowly with it. But um so I worked with him in Atlanta when he opened his shop. He has a smaller shop than I do, it's about twelve hundred square feet, but it's very similar. I We share a lot of ideas and um uh and so I went and worked with them and I thought I really like this. I c I think I can do this, you know. It was like it's fun. It's not a restaurant. I'm gonna be open 10 to 6 30. I'm not gonna be open on Sunday, I'm not gonna have customers that are gonna be in there and have to have service staff and all these staffing things which are challenges now. Um people can get great products and take them home and cook them. People were after COVID, people started cooking more at home.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Learning how to cook, wanting to learn how to cook. Um and so um came back and started getting a business plan together and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know what a business plan looked like. I mean, I had a lot of financial background from House of Blues because we were, you know, we had to do a PL, we did inventories every week, we were, you know, we were very cost conscious and all that kind of stuff. So I learned a lot of those things that I could apply. And um, so I came across a friend, and um she used to work for Entergy and she um owned a um uh a Creel Creamery in Old Mattery. Yeah and I said I contacted her, just I didn't know her, but I knew through through a friend, and um and I I told her what I was gonna do, and and her and her husband were thinking about doing the same thing. So it was just kind of one of those things. So we started talking and and then we thought about going in business together, but we didn't. And uh neither here nor there, but she turned me on to Jedko, which um Jedco is Jefferson uh economic development company uh company, I think it's called I can't remember exactly what it's called, but um they helped small businesses in Jefferson Parish through some really um low-cost loans, a lot of um you know financial back uh backing, backing as far as like structure and uh strategy and things of that nature. So I um got with another person that they work with that to get my business plan together, and then you have to present that into a committee. And um I was really proud of the fact that there were 18 people on the committee and they unanimously voted and approved my my plan so I could get my loan. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

Um yeah, and I and I wonder like at the time, were there any the only other butcher shop I even knew of in New Orleans really was Peace of Meat, which has since closed, which it started as a butcher shop and then it turned into a restaurant. Um great restaurant, um, by the way. Um to the list, but they closed. And so I'm assuming all part of it was like there's a real need for this. Like there's not a lot of butcher shops in New Orleans that somebody can walk in and be like, hey, I want a really nice steak, or like y'all have like a lot of really nice seafood in the shop too, and some stuff that's hard to get. Even steaks like it's hard to get a hanger steak, like a good quality hanger steak, and y'all always have that in the place. So do you how much, if anything, I mean, not saying that it wasn't an amazing business plan. Where they're all like, we need a butcher shop. Right. Yeah. I think they wanted to be customers.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

But um, but yeah, it was it was because uh I guess my vision was I wanted to have people be able to buy restaurant quality food and cook it at home.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Because the people that the Pereirs uh suppliers that I use are the same ones that supply Emeralds and Link Restaurant Group and Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons and all the top restaurants in the in the in the you know, there's so many, you know, Clancy's and all the people that I sold to that I'm buying now from and selling to the customers, so you know you can have the restaurant quality stuff and cook it at home. So but then we I thought, you know, we need to take it a step further, we need to have some wine. So we wanted to cook have kind of a one-stop shop idea. Whereas to get a liquor license, so if somebody comes in and they want to have a couple steaks, we make some sides or ground potatoes, twice-paked potatoes, cream spinach, we have some of the like you mentioned, the fresh local vegetables that we really are in having a lot of right now in the season.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Um, you could grab a bottle of wine, you could grab a bottle of spirits if you wanted that. It's not a lot of sales on that, but um, or some cheese, um, you know, something out of the freezer, and then have the different things like you were saying, like sweetbreads and and hanger steak and um, you know, uh duck legs and duck breasts and duck fat. Yeah, all these kind of things. And then obviously the fresh the fresh fish one of the things that motivated me was Whole Foods used to be really good with fresh fish. I thought and I don't know what happened, but it just it's not the same anymore. And I saw that and I was kind of like, gosh, why not? You know, it's not that hard.

SPEAKER_05 26:42

I know. I was literally having a conversation with somebody the other day, so I don't know if you've been to Joe Patty's over in Pensacola, for example. I have not. It's this huge seafood market, it's massive, it's been there forever. And it's like, why can't we get like more places in New Orleans? Like, you just it it boggles the mind given our proximity to the Gulf. And like I know, like, for example, GW Finn's, like some of the fresh seafood that they get, they they buy that from like spear fishermen who are like spearing fish in the Gulf and bring it to the window at GW Finn's. Like, we have this access, why not? Like, I've always thought the same thing. So it's interesting that you said that as an aside, but uh it is because we're so close to the water, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

I know.

SPEAKER_05 27:20

And I and and one of the first times I went to McCord's, um, which is so cool about the concept that y'all created there, like I had told you before the show, it's like I was like, I never somebody's like, you need to go check out McCords. So I was just complaining one day at like a good butcher shop. I'm from Thibodeau. I don't know if you're familiar with bourgeois meat market. Like, I don't know if that was just me growing up, dad and me would go there, and it's like they're famous for their beef jerky, but they have great steak, they have good burgers, they have all these things, and so growing up having like a really nice butcher shop, like you kind of like, I wish I feel like I'm missing something. I need a butcher shop. So I went in and got like burgers, um, high quality burgers. I got the grabbed the brioche buns. I think I mentioned, I think you'll get the tomatoes maybe from Alabama or a few other places, but I bought some beautiful tomatoes. Grow the burgers at night, and everybody's like, these are the best burgers I ever had. And I'm like, it wasn't me doing it, it was the quality of the hamburger. It was just really high quality meat, which isn't always easy to find, you know. Um so how much of that goes into you sourcing the the really quality stuff? I'm assuming that's a big piece of it.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, it is. And and the thing is is that um one of our things um that we try to you know educate people on is like in the beef side of it, that you can have what we call grocery store beef. So what happens is the packer, you know, harvests the meat, and within probably five or seven days that those uh just say whole tenderloins come to the grocery store and then they cut them up into steaks and sell them. Well what the really good restaurants and uh butcher shops use is they we we age the meat and there's two two versions there's a wet age and there's a dry age. The wet age is just uh letting the product sit in the cryovac um in a safe environment and for 28 to 35 days on the shelf, and then you cut it into steaks. So what the a what that wet aging wet aging does is tenderizes the meat naturally with the enzymes, um increases the flavor, and it just has a better eating experience.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

And that's the reason that a lot of times grocery stores don't like to do that because that's an investment, you know? Yeah. And so it's gonna cost more. Um now we age some stuff in our refrigerator at the shop, but we also have some companies do that for us. But that's why we pay more for that, because they're having to sit on the on the product and they have to pay their suppliers within seven to ten days, but they're sitting on this stuff that for 35 days before they're selling it.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

And so the aging of the meat, the um we do all prime, so we have um the the the marbling is is a lot better. We beautiful steaks. Thank you. Um and then like then the other thing was the you know, the other some other things. Obviously, the fresh fish, so we get all the fresh fish whole. We um we have dry pack scallops that there's never been frozen. All of our fish in the case has never been frozen. Um the only thing we have frozen might be some lobster tails, which you have to do. Um but also the fact of um you know the pork. You know, uh we don't want to have pork that's you know, commodity pork, which is you know, God knows how that stuff is raised and and and and all that kind of thing and what what they're feeding those animals and pumping them with.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

So ours is on the all-natural side. We try to do as much local as we can. Um there are a lot of more local pork and chicken producers in Louisiana than there are beef, um, although some more beef people are coming up with grass-fed stuff that we're starting to carry. Yeah. And the chicken was the same thing. We wanted to have a great chicken, like not a chicken that's pumped with 20% of fluid, so that's all these antibiotics and stuff that's that's not good. So we have a farm in um that we buy from but through somebody in North Carolina, Joyce Farms. We do their fresh turkeys uh and the um Thanksgiving time on pre-order where they've never been frozen, they've been harvested, and then in a couple weeks you have them fresh, um, and you come, you order pre-order them and you pick them up. Same thing with all their poultry. It's just the eating experience is so much better. So it's not gonna dry out, but it's also just gonna taste better and also be better for you. Yeah. Um, and that's the thing is that you know, uh we we're discovering that we get a lot of 20-year-olds that are coming in looking for um a quality chicken. They're gonna pay a little bit more. It's not crazy more, or a better pork chop, or we have the raw milk from a local dairy that um is really a thing now. Yeah, I never knew it was. Yeah, they legalized it about two years ago, and um, we were one of the first to carry it. We get it delivered every week. Um, I visited the farm. Um, it it's all um sterilization is great, the it's been USDA inspected. Um, you know, it's very important to food safety. And um so those are the kind of things that really they're just endless things coming up that we can do, and that's what makes it.

SPEAKER_05 32:06

Yeah, it's it reminds me a little bit um completely different kind of place, but it similar kind of concept. Like if you've been to Keefe's in downtown, the little wine shop, yeah, and they just source so many different things from so many different unique places that you couldn't really find anywhere else. Right. And so I can just tell listen you talk about it as like it's really neat that you've taken like a butcher concept, and like, of course, like it's all about the meat and the fresh seafood and the high quality things. Like when I go in there, I see you cutting it up, and I'm like, they're like he's in the zone. Like they're you and your butcher, like y'all are really like in the zone, and like the meats are all great, the seafood's great, but it's just so neat how y'all have layered in. I'm assuming your wife's had an impact on that too. I know she works with you in the company, layered in, like, hey, there's some different bourbons, there's some different wines here, there's some different condiments in the fridge, and so many different things. Like, you could really spend an hour kind of just digging around in there and looking at, oh, this is neat. Just specialty things that I can tell you put a lot of passion and heart and time and energy into sourcing to layer on to the base foundation of it being such an amazing butcher shop, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yeah. I mean, it's just like, and I uh have such a great team that's very small team. It's uh we have a woman named Rachel in the front. She's been we've worked in the restaurant industry all over. She knows everybody, but she she takes ownership over it. She's one of those people that finds the work, you know, and she and she orders all the wines and she tastes the wines and brings it to me. And and of course, you know, I kind of have to sign off on everything, but it makes sure we're making money. But I give them a lot of freedom. I mean, I don't micromanage my staff at all. Like I let them run with it, yeah. You know, and then they become they have ownership into it like the other day. Um, and then I've got Jesse and Robert in the back, you know, a 72-year-old marine guy that can just work circles around me at night and day. It's crazy. Um, and Jesse's a private chef. So he, you know, like the other day, we had some extra tenderloin tips from the ends of the tenderloins that we cut the fillets out of, and he smoked them and put them in a little pan with some uh uh with a mushroom sauce and garlic mashed potatoes, and somebody comes in and you've got dinner ready to go home. You know, I'm getting hungry. So, but that's what also makes it fun, you know, and like, okay, we got baby back ribs, they're not really selling. Well, okay, we got a Traeger, let's smoke them, you know, and put them out there. And because prepared foods also are a big thing now that with you know, a lot of a lot of families, both parents are working, yeah, kids are at school, then they're running to soccer camp, they're running to dance, they're running to do something. They need some, they don't have a lot of time. So on the weekends, we see more of the we're gonna buy porterhouse steaks or tomahawks or cowboys, but during the week we see a lot of um prepared items that we make. Everything in-house, everything from scratch. Um, you know, we we we're very careful on, you know, allergies and things of that nature, but you know, soups and um our leftover salmon scraps, we smoke and we make smoked salmon dip, you know, and it's like so really nothing goes, not much goes into the trash for the fact of saving money, but also that's the way we were all trained. We're all classically French trained. So it's like, you know, going back to the days of being in the French kitchens, you know, the the chef would walk by the trash can that you were next to, looking in it and pulling stuff out, going, okay, why did you cut two inches off that piece of zucchini versus a quarter inch when you're wasting it, you know? And some of that's a little much, but yeah, but that's really a great way to run a business because we don't waste anything. You don't waste anything.

SPEAKER_05 35:28

Yeah, and it's just it's interesting listening to your whole backstory um and your journey to opening up McCords. As an outsider, I see it all in the shop. But I didn't understand it before learning more about you and understanding how it came about. Like I see it all in the shop in a very like beautiful, mixed mash, creative type of way, if that makes sense. Like, especially from the standpoint of like not micromanaging and giving your team autonomy to do different things, it kind of all just comes together. And it all doesn't make sense, but it does if it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

It does you know, and and the thing is you gotta find what makes people happy. And and I was lucky enough to work in great places and and four great people that taught me how to manage people. It's like, you know, Robert, he's you know, he can do anything. He's probably he's probably knows the most about all sides of cooking than anybody I've ever worked with. Like, he can make pecan pies, and when he makes his pecan pies, he puts um uh bananas in his um crust. And you know, who would have thought of that? Yeah, it's like it's crazy. People are like, why is this crust so good? Well, and he makes all the cheesecakes and he makes prolines and he makes but he can go make the sausages and he can cure the bacon and he can smoke the rip. I mean, it's just and then he can cut the steaks and and he's and all of us are very like you you've been in the shop, but we we pride ourselves on how clean and sanitized everything is, and everything has its place. And again, that comes from the French training. Don't don't put the ladles over here today and over there tomorrow because this is where they belong. And the beauty of a staff, and and and just so grateful every day I wake up, is like we all do the same thing without even talking to each other about it. And um, and it just clicks, and and I make sure I take really good care of them and make sure that they know that they're very important to me, but also just let them run, let them have some creativity because people love creativity. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 37:19

I think it's funny, I think of the some of the do you think I I view some of the fence posts along your journey being like the classically, you've talked about the classically French training being in the shop. You talked about House of Blue is that culture, you saw good culture, and now you put a good culture in your shop. Yeah, and then you went and sold seafood and and meats, and now you have a vendor to source that high quality stuff that you have in the shop. So it's it's amazing how looking back right in life, like you none of this seems to make sense at the time, but all of that piece of your journey along the way really created McCords and is kind of, at least from my perspective, meshed into the fabric of the shop. So um to everybody who hasn't been to McCords before, um could you tell them a little bit about where to find y'all? I'm assuming y'all are on social media and all the things, opening business hours, any like type of pre-order specials or stuff you'll have coming up for the summer, anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yeah, the best way to really um see what we do every day is Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Uh Instagram and Facebook. Mostly it's Instagram. We'll we'll we do a few posts a week, um, and then we'll do a bunch of stories during the week uh or during the day that'll be like, okay, today we have steelhead trout from um Scotland. And um, why do you want steelhead trout? Well, this is why where it comes from cold water, it's all natural, it's not farmed, this you know, just tastes like salmon, looks like salmon type of thing. And then so Instagram, um you you could always call uh and special order stuff. Like we we do things that along just for an example, along Easter, we do a lot of pre-orders on lamb legs and lamb racks. But you can call me today and say, hey, I need a I need a lamb leg for Friday. I'm having a bunch of people over. Okay, just give me a two-day notice and we'll get it for you. You don't have to buy ten, you can buy one.

SPEAKER_05 39:07

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah, all the time. And that's really what makes it fun too. And then somebody will come in and be like, okay, well, um uh so we're so anyway. Anyway, we're located right uh in Jefferson Parish, right on the Orleans Parish Line. Right. So we get a lot of uptown customers, luckily, um, because you can just come down New York State, get off at West End, you're right there. And obviously the bulk of our customers are from Mettery, old Metary, Lakeview, Mid City. Um and even the North Shore, people go on on their way home. And um I'm in the CBD.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

I've come over, it's easy to get there. Yeah, I just jump off of the Lakeview exit and zoom right around right there. But a bing, bada boom. Yeah, I usually stop at Dornac's too and make it a two for one.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Right, exactly. My favorite store. I always sneak in there and go and be like, oh, what are they doing? I'm sure they did some of those. Um but yeah, and and I think the other thing is is like I have people, I have 60-year-old women, 60, 70-year-old women coming and going, okay, well, I want a cowboy steak and I'm gonna um either sous vide or I'm gonna reverse sear it. And can you tell me what I was like, I don't think you need me to tell you what to do because I'll let you know what you're doing. But that's the fun thing about it, is we can get into these conversations about, oh, I never thought about that, or hey, you know, we'll give cooking instructions or we'll give not merely instructions, but ideas to people. Hey, what do I do with this? Hey, this is what I did, and we have pictures of things that we show people. Um and and really if you can kind of get people to understand that you could do this at home and have a great dinner, and it's not that hard if you just follow a few steps and and and you're into it, and a lot of people are. And um, and again, the younger crowd is is really fun too because they're one of the they're more they're more adventurous, you know, they're they're out there. But I tell you, like our older clientele is is fantastic, they're just they're you know, they're they're so well traveled and they know so much about food and they're coming in. And some guy comes in the other day, he's like, I know it's probably a weird question, but can you get me fresh truffles? And I'm like, Yeah, black or white. And they're like, Oh, well, I said, Well, I don't think whites in season, but we can get you black. Well, how long do you need? And I said, two days. He's like, Oh wow, I'm like, Yeah, and but then again, that's what's so much fun about it. And um it just we really like to make people happy, you know. That's the whole thing. It's just I like people to come back and and they'll come back and show us a picture or they'll they'll tag something or post something and tag us, and like this is what I do with something I got last night on McCords. And it's very flattering, but also it's like it's really happy for them that they just were able to have a great meal for their family or their friends and and enjoy the things that are out there. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:30

Well, that's amazing. I think that's why it's been a successful venture for you, is is partly because not to be presumptuous, but a lot of different reasons. But part of it, I think, is like, man, everything you're saying is not just like cool and the a good thing to do, and I can see how much you enjoy it, but it's good business, right? Like you help somebody source a rack of land, maybe you're not gonna make a ton of money on that land, but they develop a relationship with you, and then they want to understand the store more, they come back, they buy more things, and that's kind of what the business is all about is just relationships. So it's really just an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us and uh really enjoyed being able to um talk through this with you. Um if there's one last thing you want to let our listeners know about McCords, um, I want to just throw that out there. Anything else you want to say about the shop? Uh everybody, like I said, like you said, you can check them out on Facebook or Instagram to see their updates um during the week, any specialty items. But anything else you wanted to throw out there about the store?

SPEAKER_02 42:24

No, we're we're um venturing into more of these um the local side of it now that we've gotten established. Like we have a woman that makes bone broth from us called um Mother's Broth Mother Broth. Um so she makes this amazing bone broth from local chicken bones and local um beef bones. And then we have somebody else that we we carry two different local coffees. Oh wow that um applied arts and uh cherry coffee, and then we'll have uh wine tastings um on uh we post them so usually two or three a month, we'll do a wine tasting like on a Friday or Saturday. We'll have some snacks. We had the Brightside Oyster guy in there on last last Friday. Um so we're really trying to tap into some of these people that are doing different things very cool locally and selling their products, and again, it's not a big moneymaker for us, but it's also something to support fellow local businesses, and also um it just creates another relationship.

SPEAKER_05 43:14

So absolutely amazing. Okay, well, thanks so much for being here. Really enjoyed chatting with you about the place. When am I I love the spot and not just saying that because you're right here, it's just a really neat spot. And thanks to all of our listeners, it's been another amazing episode of the Overrule podcast brought to you by the Scott Vignair Law Firm. If you live in the New Orleans area, you've got to go check out McCords. We're gonna have all the links to their website and all the social sites in the podcast linking. And thank you so much for listening along. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

Scott Vignair, agreed attorneys, we fight for the win.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

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