Edible Blue Ridge Fall 2022

MOVERS & SHAKERS

On the Block

Lisa Archer

Jesse Feldberg

WORDS

PHOTOS

Yard Bull Meats opens its doors and forges relationships

Above: Tyler Thomas (left) & Elliot Orwick (right), Marbling on Buffalo Creek Beef Denver steaks. Opposite page: Top round, Breakdown.

S Strolling down Crystal Spring Avenue during the lunch hour, linden trees line the sidewalk, the smart facades of businesses beckon, and people bustle into specialty food stores to pick up sandwiches and salads. You’d be forgiven for mistaking this charming block for a street in a busy city — perhaps Richmond or even a neighborhood in Brooklyn. However, this stretch of shops is found in Roanoke, Virginia, and its newest addition, Yard Bull Meats, a nose-to-tail butcher shop, couldn’t be more pleased with their location. “This neighborhood has been great to us. The amount of excitement we’ve received, not just from our neighbors but from Roanoke and even Salem at large, has been very encouraging,” says TylerThomas, Executive

Chef of The River and Rail Restaurant and co-owner of Yard Bull Meats.

ACharlottesville native,Thomas moved to Roanoke in 2016. Having spent years honing the craft of butchery at Stock Provisions (formerly JM Stock), he looked to how he could open his own butcher shop while simultaneously leading the kitchen at The River and Rail Restaurant. “I grew up with gardens, on a farm, eating what the land provides, so that knowledge has always been a big part of me. When I moved here, I was blown away that there were more local farms than restaurants,” recalls Thomas. Long-time Roanoke residents may remember when family-run O’Brien Meats used to supply the Valley with fresh cuts of local meat, once having

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