Red Table Meat of Minneapolis will close at the end of the year

Red Table Meat Co., which has been supplying local and national restaurants, wine bars and cheese shops with artisanal salumi from Midwest-raised heritage pigs for the past eight years, will close at the end of 2022.

But the Twin Cities' charcuterie needs will not go unmet.

Erik Sather, of Lowry Hill Meats, will take over Red Table's space at the Food Building, in northeast Minneapolis, where he will open a new meat processing operation.

Red Table founder Mike Phillips announced the closure Thursday on social media, citing high costs behind the labor-intensive product.

"Unfortunately the cost of creating a high quality product that is extremely labor intensive has become more and more prohibitive as the price of labor has risen and retailer, staff and consumer needs have changed in the last couple of years," Phillips wrote.

"We want to pay folks what they deserve to make and still create a product that is very authentic and valuable," he continued. "In current times many retailers are telling us that they can no longer afford the labor to have someone stand behind a counter and take care of our products. The increased demand for sliced, packaged salami was something that we have always battled for a number of reasons, but it seems that we have come to an impasse."

Red Table is one of the anchor businesses in Kieran Folliard's Food Building in northeast Minneapolis, along with Baker's Field Flour & Bread and Alemar Cheese Co.

"Mike was instrumental" in the creation of the Food Building, Folliard said in a statement. "His raw talent as a chef and salumiere, work ethic, and standard to which he holds the quality of his product, farmers, and the treatment of animals, has elevated all of us here at Food Building."

Phillips began his foray into the art of preserved meat at the long-departed restaurants Chet's Taverna and Craftsman. His reputation for making the best pâte and introducing diners to the pleasures of pork rillette quickly spread. When he decided to leave the restaurant business, he delved deep into the study of salumi making, traveling to Europe to learn from the best before coming home and launching the company that would become Red Table. At its peak, the company shipped to some of the most lauded cheese shops in the country.

Phillips will help with the transition to a whole animal butchery and processing company, overseen by Lowry Hill Meats' Sather.

The new facility will produce raw cuts and finished products, such as cured salumi, and will process beef, lamb, goat and pork from local farms. The meat will be available for purchase in a new meat case in the Food Building's market, as well as in restaurants and shops in the Twin Cities.

For now, Red Table products are still available in stores around the Twin Cities (find them at redtablemeatco.com) and at Kieran's Kitchen & Market in the Food Building (117 14th Av. NE., Mpls., 612-354-5093, foodbuilding.com).