Despite record high prices of beef forcing some to consider alternative proteins, for the customers of Cleaver & Co. in Gwynneville, old habits die hard.
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Despite championing alternative cuts at the nose to tail butchery, Butcher Lachlan Kerr says getting customers to switch from scotch fillet to round steak is a difficult task, even when it's a quarter of the price.
Not wanting to waste any of the quality meat in store, Mr Kerr was on the hunt for an alternative location where less popular cuts could shine and also to give the Gwynneville shop some breathing room.
In 2020, the opportunity came up to lease the old butcher shop on Wentworth Street, Port Kembla, where Mr Kerr lives with his wife and business partner Jess, and there a solution to this conundrum was found.
There, Mr Kerr opened the Amos Adams General Store, and round steak is one of the shop's best sellers, albeit flattened and crumbed and served in a roll.
However, the Crumbed Steak Roll isn't the only product at Amos Adams that is about using the whole product.
Out the back of the store, Mr Kerr, along with brother Braden - a professionally trained chef - have installed a commercial canning operation.
The Amos Adams Canning Company uses the same philosophy as Cleaver & Co, high quality, ethically sourced base ingredients, handled simply.
The result is a range of pickles, as well as bone broths and other products using what would otherwise be a waste product from Cleaver & Co.
Instrumental in making this possible was a grant from the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund.
The $16,301 matched grant enabled the Amos Adams Canning Company to install a commercial grade kitchen, essential for the project to expand and employ more locals.
Mr Kerr says the application's success was down to the work of his wife Jess, and would in part enable the business to be part of bringing something new to Wentworth Street in Port Kembla.
"There's a bit of a cafe scene, a live music scene, and that's all tied up in the food scene," Mr Kerr said.
"We're a part of that but also a big part of our business is, there's a lot of workers around Port and they're looking for good food and reasonably priced lunches, and we're helping to provide that, plus creating a few jobs in the community."
Mr Kerr's business received the grant funding from the last round of the grant, in 2020.
Two years on, Wollongong MP Paul Scully is calling for the NSW government to open the next round of grant funding so that other businesses and organisations in Port Kembla can invest and employ in the community, just as Cleaver & Co. have.
"No one is helped by the funds sitting idle in a government bank account," he said.
"The funding needs to flow from Martin Place to Wentworth Street now."
With the fund's purpose being to support projects that revitalise Port Kembla for the benefit of the community, Mr Kerr said he hopes Cleaver & Co. and Amos Adams are able to provide a point of difference for shoppers.
"Butchery and food service are not particularly high profit industries, so a big part of my motivation comes from a place of nostalgia and a sense community," Mr Kerr said.
"I like that village feel, whether it's in Gwynneville or Port Kembla, knowing people, their names and having a chat. I like that old world feel that you get with a bricks and mortar shopfront."
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