“Connecting good, old fashioned service with quality product,” is how Kristin Tombers, owner of Clancey’s Meats and Fish, describes her small Linden Hills shop. She opened Clancey’s five and a half years ago, maintaining the location’s long history of butcher shops, and utilizing locally sourced products.
Most of the shop’s meat is locally sourced from Minnesota farms such as Hill and Vale, Hidden Streams, Wild Acres, and Au Bon Canard. Clancey’s also aims for environmental responsibility in their seafood sourcing, preferring suppliers such as Coastal Seafoods and The Fish Guys.
In addition to carrying steaks and chops, scallops, and mussels, Clancey’s also carries “rarer ingredients” and accommodates custom requests. Some of the stranger requests received were for pig pancreas, pig blood, and hog hearts. (Remind me not to accept an invite for dinner when pig pancreas is on the menu.)
Custom orders and cuts are possible due to the shop’s practice of buying whole animals from their suppliers. In doing so, they help the producers by not leaving them with un-choice cuts of meat, like many retailers do, that could possibly go to waste.
“[All the staff] has food backgrounds,” says Tombers. “Some are chef trained, but all have restaurant background and experience. We all have a passion for food and cooking with good, raw product.”
This foodie background is heavily leveraged, as most of the prepared and partially prepared foods that Clancey’s offers in their deli cases are made in-house. Deli salads, sausages, duck confit, several varieties of stock (veal, beef, lamb, and chicken), and even headcheese, all scratch-made from local ingredients, are kept readily stocked.
Clancey’s staff is helpful and knowledgeable. I’ve had a few special requests for ingredients and cuts myself, although none dealing with blood or pancreas, and found them inquisitive about my recipes (you might recall my cassoulet experience) and ready to help with anything needed.
I love this place. The staff is super friendly, and knowledgeable. I’ve called in advance before they get a whole hog, and my order has been ready to rock an fabulous the next day. I’m usually in there for at least half an hour when I go. It’s a great place to get creative and pick up on some awesome insight.
Oh how I wish I lived closer to this place. I wish I had my great-grandmother’s recipe for Norwegian blood sausage so I could take Clancy’s blood availability.
Yeah, Clancey’s is insane. Because everything there is so good nobody seems to talk about their sandwiches, which are crammed with everything under the sun…pure genius. not to be missed.