The Butcher Shop at the Lake
Owner: Chris Stevens
Location: Camdenton, Mo.
History of the business: “I’ve been here for 16 years,” Chris Stevens, the owner and manager of The Butcher Shop at the Lake explained.
“It was started 22 years ago by Gardy Glenn, the original owner,” Chris explained.
“We really are a family business in that my son, Christopher, and my daughter, Michaela, both work here and my other daughter, Dana, also helps out, keeping the books. I also have three granddaughters and a grandson.”
Services: “We do everything from farm kills to catering weddings, and everything in between. We do barbecues and picnics. There is no job too big or too small.
“We also do wildlife processing. We did 13,000 pounds of deer sausage last season but we process it differently than most others. They mix all the deer sausage together but with us, you get your own meat and deer sausage back. We don’t mix it with anyone else’s. What people like is I don’t say ‘no.’ I mean there’s no money in that for me,” he laughed. “We do lunches now, too. I have an 8-foot by 18-foot smoker and we smoke bacon and ham and we do ribs on Friday nights.”
Products: “Everything we do here is from scratch – the pies, breads and salads, like potato and macaroni salads, as well as 30 different flavors of sausage, breakfast sausage, smoked sausage, even gummy bear brats. And yes, gummy bears were harmed in the making of those brats. We offer beef, chicken, pork, elk, buffalo, a wide variety of meats. We also do lots of specialty items, like kabobs, chicken cordon bleu, and armadillo eggs which is a Cajun-spiced chicken breast with horseradish, jalapeño cheese and sliced jalapeños, wrapped in bacon. We also have red neck turtles, which is a bacon cheeseburger with a hot dog chaser in the shape of a turtle. The bacon makes the shell and the hot dogs are the turtle head and the legs.”
