Warning: Vegeterians may not want to read this.

I have not always been a meat eater. For 13 years I didn’t eat red meat, then one day while meditating at the Vedanta Center in Santa Barbara, I heard a distinct voice say, “Eat meat!” I opened one eye and peeked around the room. Ted sat next to me still meditating. A large painting of Sri Ramakrishna, a vegetarian holy man, looked down from the altar. No one else was there. I closed my eye and pondered.

Eat meat? Not what you’d expect to hear in a Hindu temple, but it was clear as a bell. So hmmmm. Okay. Well you might think I’m crazy, but for whatever reason it just felt right and from that day forward I began eating red meat again. Now I know why.

Sonoma County Meat Company. (http://www.sonomacountymeatco.com)

Not a Hindu temple for sure, but a totally other kind of venerable place if you are of the meat-eating persuasion. Sonoma county natives, Rian Rinn and Jenine Alexander have opened an artisanal, state-of-the-art butcher processing and retail shop in what used to be an old tire store in Roseland. Coming from west Santa Rosa, it’s way down at the eastern most end of Sebastopol Road, past the rusted Acme Wrecking Company sign, right near the Highway 12 overpass. A cute, sparkly little store in an industrial No Man’s Land.   

Ok Meaty Meat Lovers. You’ve just found Mecca. The aroma of sweet smoke greets you in the parking lot and once inside, Jenine’s rosy-cheeked street urchin face has you at “hello.” As you ogle the compact meat case (yes, you will be ooogling!), she chats about how she and Rian had wanted to open a butcher shop for over ten years. Rian’s credentials are long, including a stint at Michelin 3-star restaurant, El Bulli in Catalonia Spain. He can cook and he can cut! These people know what they’re doing.

Mesmerized by the meat case, you’re going to have a tough choice. Their bacon and hams are sweet, salty, smokey—in our opinion the best tasting we’ve had since before too much meat processing, too many chemicals, too much breeding for the masses, killed the flavor of a lot of meat. Coils of their lamb merguez sausages are spiced just right. Little crepinette balls mix lamb, beef and goat encased in a thin mesh of caul fat that melts into sizzly crispness in a hot pan. And their chorizo is done Spanish style, flavored to make you wanna take out your castinets. 

We love this place and can’t seem to stay away. Our freezer is now full of all kinds of meaty delights and we’re wondering how we’re going to eat it all—slowly and with great relish I’m sure!