Dinner is a butchers shop: Here's what to expect
Taking a stand for quality meat
The multi-course feast begins with a welcome to Naše maso. We walk in on a Friday in the early evening, when the shop is a classic pre-weekend bustle. We weave our way around the line that stretches from the counter to the outside, we weave our way through the waiting guests and take our seats at a round table in the middle of the shop. Here, two of our fellow diners are already waiting patiently.
You might be surprised at how many people the shop can hold. But the round table is suspended from the ceiling during the day and is only taken down for special purposes - like today's banquet.
As we take our seats, Luke the butcher explains to us all how the evening will unfold. "As part of the dinner, you will have unlimited beer, wine or soft drinks. Take whatever you like in the fridge behind you. You can choose between lemonades, juices, red and white wines and you can also tap your own beer," he encourages us.
In addition to Navrátil's slivovitz, we taste gin, which Naše maso has created together with the Garage22 distillery - thanks to the ingredients used, it has been given the name Špek & Horseradish. Eventually, a full number of us gather at the table and dinner can begin.
Before Lukáš brings us the first of four courses, we take a look around and meet the other guests. We all quickly engage in conversation and we don't even mind that we've never seen each other before. There is a relaxed atmosphere throughout the space and we couldn't miss it.
In the meantime, we observe the hustle and bustle of the butcher shop. Customers take turns at the counter like a treadmill, buying supplies for the weekend's cooking, from steaks to hams to bacon. The wait staff attends to everyone with care. Our eyes soon turn to the first course, which is a plate full of cured and fermented hamspork and beef. There's fresh bread and pickles to nibble on, both of which you can buy at the butcher's shop to take home.
"You'll always find the best of what's on offer. For example round ham hock, rolled pork flank, beef bresaola or a low roasted pork chops. We get our hams from our main supplier Amasa, where they stick to traditional Italian methods when it comes to cured hams," explains Lukáš. "They first salt and season the meat with spices. After a few weeks, it is rinsed with wine, which cleans the surface and promotes fermentation. The meat is then hung to dry and wrapped in a natural casing - the cecum - which regulates the drying process."
Bresaola (round shoulder of beef) is flavourful and ideal for wine. The meat is marinated in a mixture of salt and spices dominated by juniper, rosemary and cinnamon. It is then cured for 2-3 months.
Low roast beef is salted, rinsed with dry red wine and, after drying out, smoked with cold smoke. It is then dried and after 3-4 months it is ready to be enjoyed.
Pork flank is marinated in sea salt and a mixture of spices with a predominance of garlic and thyme. The brining takes three weeks, after which the slab of flank is rolled tightly and left to dry for at least eight months. The result is bacon that is both spicy and tender.
Round ham hock (top and bottom shawl) of the rump is again rubbed with a mixture of salt and crushed black pepper and after three weeks the meat is rinsed with dry red wine.
At the same time, Lukáš explains why Naše maso sells and serves only Czech meat (except for Japanese wagyu), that they don't have to ship the best meat across the ocean, but that we have it here in our country. So they approached breeders of traditional Czech breeds and together they perfected the procedures in breeding, diet, slaughtering and processing of the animals. As a result, they supply us with excellent aged beef, succulent pork and premium sausages."
The pork comes from the black-pied pigs from Přeštice. Their meat has a specific taste thanks to its high fat content, is beautifully tender and smells nice. Beef, on the other hand, comes from the Czech Fleckvieh cattle. Friendly farmers raise heifers and steers for Amaso so that the animals are sufficiently fattened and develop intermuscular fat (marbling), which makes their meat particularly succulent.
Star of the evening: the rump
It doesn't take long to bring out the second course - a huge portion of butcher's tartare. "We prepare the tartare a little differently than you might be used to. We use only eight ingredients: beef hind leg, eggs, cucumbers, onions, mustard, pepper, salt and oil," Lukáš enumerates. To this he brings us dry-toasted bread, and of course garlic.
We eat slowly to savour every bite and also to leave room for the other delicacies that await us. If there's one thing we can recommend, it's this, to come with an empty stomach and a big appetite!
After the tartare, the third and fourth courses - steaks. The steaks on offer at the Butcher's Dinner vary depending on what's on the counter at the time. And to let us know what we can look forward to, Lukas will soon to show you the steaks that are about to be grilled. As we soon realise, this is the crème de la crème of the whole menu - although the very best is yet to come.
"I've got a neck and chuck chop, aged sirloin, brisket and an elderflower tip for you. The meat goes through a process in Amaso - dry-curing or aging, or wet-curing.,' explains the butcher.
What exactly does this mean? At Amaso, whole quarters, loins and high ribs with bone are dry-cured for at least 50 days. This brings out the flavour and evaporates some of the water. Although this results in a loss of volume, it produces perfectly tender and succulent meat.
"As for the wet process, the lots are boned, vacuumed and left to age at a constant low temperature for 21-40 days. The maturing time is different for each part of the meat, depending on the coarseness and length of the fibres," Lukáš tells us.
We all take turns scooping pieces of meat onto our plates. The steaks here are prepared on the grill and seasoned only with fresh pepper and coarse salt to bring out the flavour of the meat.
The biggest surprise of the evening is definitely the pork neck. "It's so tender and incredibly juicy at the same time," we agree at the table. The pork neck from the Přestecký pigs is beautifully marbled with fat, so it will never dry out. And we can see why it is the most popular grilling pork on our counter!
They grill the pork chop with the bone in, and that's also because the bone conducts and holds the heat well during roasting and grilling. It's more challenging to grill such a batch so that it's cooked through equally everywhere, but when you do, the meat has a more intense flavor!
But soon the other pieces of meat get dusty too. The blossom tip is very tender and yet distinctive, the bib is very juicy thanks to the strong blood circulation. Ideal if you like a strong, even 'bloody' taste of meat.
We are happily puffing away, replenishing our drinks and now and then we hear from some of us phrases like: "Yum, that's good!" And we have no idea that the biggest bomb is yet to come...
The best for last
The fourth course is also steaks. Although the butchers can't tell you exactly what they're going to prepare in advance, know that it's the best of what the location has to offer. We got the rib-eye steak, for example.
Rib-eye is definitely the most famous, the most photogenic and, for most meat lovers, the most delicious steak. The meat has an oval shape with a fat eye in the middle, which is why it is also called rib-eye. And because it is located between the shoulder and the sirloin, on the higher part of the back behind the shoulder blades, it has earned the name high sirloin. This is just a real steak!
Even though we're all reaching our limits, we know we just can't leave this meat here! Lukas takes wonderful care of us all night long. Finally, he brings us a piece of wagyu beef to show us. That's what they get here from the Czech Republic - from the Krontorads in Sloupniceas well as from Japan, from the Torikai Chikusan farm. It's not on offer every day, but we recommend you try it when you come here!
After dinner we all say goodbye and leave with full bellies. Whether you're a meat lover or just like to discover exceptional experiences, this is an evening you'll remember for a long time.
