Beyond the vast variety of steak or the breaded tenderloin, Lahody Meats Butcher Shop offers something more than meat to their customers – they offer character.
Behind the door of the house-built structure on the north side of Wheeling Ave., you can find Ron Lahody, the welcoming any member of the community to his butcher shop.
“Everybody says to move into a bigger building and expand this business,” Lahody said. “I won’t do it because this place has character. It’s the character, along with the dynamite product that make us so successful.”
The slaughterhouse and retail meat and grocery business was started by Lahody’s parents in 1965. Before taking the shop over in 1986, however, Lahody graduated from Ball State, completed a tour of duty in the U.S. Marine Corps and started Alaska’s first USDA slaughterhouse.
“I went out and worked out in the industry for six years and came back in ’86 and thought, ‘what am I going to do now?’”
Lahody also found himself interested in home remodeling. What started with just wallpapering developed into installing kitchens.
Even though he thought he was too old to “climb a ladder or carry big buckets of drywall” like he did when he first started remodeling homes, Lahody recently remodeled the entirety of his butchershop by himself. After doing everything besides the electricity work, Lahody says the shop has some “sweat equity” to it.
“I got back into the meat business and it’s been real good for me,” Lahody said. “I think it’s been good for the community because this shop has a lot of charisma and there isn’t any better meat than the meat from here.”
Lahody Meats gets their beef from Nebraska, pork from Iowa and lamb and veal from Wisconsin. The branded meat has been checked for hormones and antibiotics prior to slaughter and is then delivered to the shop in white boxes.
While they are known for their best-selling steak and combinations of meat, Lahody Meats also offers chicken, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables and other items in the market area between their produce windows.
The atmosphere of the shop is just as important as the meats are to Lahody.
“It’s really just a fun place to work,” Chef and butcher Matt Eikenbary said. “All of the customers are great and I kind of feel like Mr. Rogers somedays. Even the people that shop here are positive and uplifting.”
Eikenbary has worked at Lahody Meats for seven years cooking different brats, stuffed pork chops and other things that people can simply take home and pop in the oven.
“I enjoy the freedom I have here to be able to think of new ideas and express myself with food,” Eikenbary said. “It’s a great thing for the community and we also give back to schools and stuff like that, which is something that these larger stores and corporations don’t do.”
With his employees and the community behind him, Lahody will continue to run Lahody Meats the way his parents once did.
“When my folks retired, I was still a kid,” Lahody said. “I worked hard, but you don’t appreciate anything until you finally do it yourself. I wish my mom and dad were here now to see what a business this has become. But I just think, maybe they’re in heaven looking down watching.”
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