Ollie Harley opened the butchers in June and his partnership with Txuleta – meat supplier to Michelin star restaurants – means his customers have access to the some of the finest cuts.
Pride of place in the Oriel Place butchers is the gleaming £70,000 rotisserie grill where slow-roasted free range birds are ready for collection three times a day.
“We’re selling 90 a day at the moment,” Ollie tells me. “We thought it would drop off in August, but it’s been very steady – especially at weekends.”
Customers buy them for an “easy supper” or enjoy them at the pavement tables laid out with red checked tablecloths on the pedestrianised street.
Ollie says of the venture: “It’s been very hard work and we are still finding our feet, but it’s been great. The feedback has been amazing.”
He explains the concept is “traditional English butcher shop with a Basque twist”.
That might include specialist treats, like a cut of wild venison loin wrapped in spinach and his house-made Cumberland sausage meat.
A customer drops by to ask if he can get some rabbit, and Ollie urges: “Come in and have a chat.
“We are all about service. What separates us from a lot of butchers is it’s not just about grabbing a pork chop for tea, we discuss recipes and give advice on how to cook it.”
But most people come in for the steaks, which he explains hail mostly from retired dairy cows imported from around Europe.
The likes of Galician cows are put back out to pasture after retirement for four to six years.
“These older cows eat grass and grow lazy, and the taste is amazing,” he explains.
To prove a point, he hefts up a rib of beef encased in a rich, orange-yellow fat and points to a rib-eye with intricate fat marbling.
His beefburgers are made too from a mix of these Galician cows, rip cap and wagyu shoulder.
We took a couple home to try – along with two rib-eye steaks and seared them on the barbecue.
The teenagers raved about their burgers and I can vouch that the steak was not only rich, dark and meltingly tender but had the most incredible flavour – one of the best I’ve eaten and worth the bit extra.
Harley’s Butchery and Rotisserie is in Oriel Place, Hampstead. www.harleyshampstead.london
