Shopping center beefs up with meat shop

A gourmet butcher shop chain has opened its first Charlotte location in the Village at Robinson Farm, a food-oriented, farm-themed shopping center that opened last year at Rea Road and Williams Pond Lane, near Blakeney and Stonecrest.

The Meat House sells premium beef, poultry, veal, lamb and pork, Boar's Head deli products, proprietary marinades, cheeses, fresh produce, bread, side dishes, desserts and pastries, and other gourmet foods, in a format intended to evoke a neighborhood butcher shop. It also sells more than 100 varieties of wine.

The owner of the Charlotte store is Virginia Meehan, though the chain was founded in New Hampshire in 2003 by a pair of best friends. The company has expanded in the last two months with locations in six states - Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and California - with plans for further growth in the months to come. Its first N.C. shop opened in Cary in January.

The Meat House arrives a few months before another upscale specialty food shop is set to join the south Charlotte scene - Clean Catch Fish Market, scheduled to open in midsummer in the Tranquil Court mixed-use development on Selwyn Avenue in Myers Park. That store will specialize in responsibly fished and caught seafood, with what it says will be greater variety than supermarkets offer. It's aiming to offer weekly tasting demonstrations and classes on how to prepare, cook and pair wine with seafood, and will also sell prepared seafood items, wine, beer and organic produce.