The Start of Butchers Headquarters...
This whole journey started with my parents Ramiro and Eloisa. My parents both migrated to Los Angeles over 30 years ago from Tlacolula de Matamoros in Oaxaca, Mexico. My fathers side of the family had been working with pigs for over 20 years, and my mother's side of the family had been working with beef for over 30 years! What was originally a 6 month visit to make some money eventually turned into a permanent stay with 4 active businesses; 3 Carniceria La Oaxaquena meat markets and 1 restaurant; Maria Sabina Oaxacan Restaurant.
Sadly, we lost my father in July of 2021, at the height of my IT career (yes, I was in the IT field). I was climbing the ladder from Tier 1 tech support all the way up to IT Manager and it was looking good. I had a decent salary working comfy hours all from home. I thought my family's life was on a steady path; my wife and I had two girls and were expecting a new addition. My father was ecstatic to know what his third grandchild was going to be, obviously always hoping for a boy. But unfortunately he left us before we could find out ourselves & didn't get to meet his grandson, Ramiro.
After learning what it meant and what it took to be a father, I couldn't let my fathers 20+ years of hard work go down the drain. I saw how my parents went from selling Oaxacan goods out of an Astro van to having a few small businesses (more on that later). I spoke to my beloved wife and she had my back, I quit my job and got to work on the family business.
My loving father would always tell me "I came to this country to give you a future, and not for you to be just another butcher." And now I chuckle at the memory "just another butcher" he would call himself... "Just another butcher" with four businesses and a beautiful home for our family. I understand where he was coming from, but he sold himself short.
My father educated me on cuts, on our Oaxacan traditions, and taught me how to run a business. But he wouldn't teach me how to cut Tasajo, or carne asada. He wanted me to continue my IT career and get to my IT Director position. But I knew I had an idea and I was going to execute it one way or another.
Another one of my dad's sayings was "if you're going to do something, do it the best you can. If not, don't even worry about it" and I knew I had to educate myself more on all this if I was going to be the best. So I started to learn more about specialty beef programs and what real "restaurant quality meats" were.
There was lots of talk about U.S.D.A Prime meats in other Carnicerias recently, but very few people know how deep that goes. And there I went down a rabbit hole (maybe I'll post something else about that as well). Just how I taught myself computers via Google and YouTube, I started learning more about beef and different meats. After weeks of research, and a vendor annoying me at the way he spoke about the new "high quality Prime beef" I was selling, I realized that there was a complete lack of Carnicerias carrying real restaurant quality meat, all the other Carnicerias are selling commodity beef with maybe a couple select cuts from a specialty farm. But nothing like great butchers such as McCalls, Standings or Gwen’s.
And that's how I got the idea for Butcher's Headquarters. I wanted HQ to offer nothing but the best meats while elevating my family’s Oaxacan offerings, and I knew it would be a challenge. Especially after seeing the cost of programs like Creekstone Farms and Niman Ranch, I understood why no other Carniceria brings those kinds of meats in. But I like a challenge.
After a little over a year of working with my mom and having a bit of a hard time with our different ways of working, especially when it came to the programs I wanted to bring in, my mom decided she wanted to try something new. So she gave my wife and I her slowest shop to see if we could do something with it, and man are we proud of what we've done!
We only bring in quality programs, primarily Creekstone Farms for our prime beef, Jidori Chicken, Duroc Pork and different kinds of Wagyu from different parts of the world! We are committed to quality and transparency, so we are the only Carniceria in Los Angeles that can tell you where every single piece of meat comes from, the genetics, care, feed; essentially everything you want to know about your meat!
After seeing what we're doing my mom is now giving me her main shop to take over. There we’ll have everything from fresh meat to fresh sandwiches and meals! We'll be posting more about that as everything is ready! This is all thanks to your support! We hope you enjoy everything we have to offer!