Continuing the tradition of a local family-owned butcher
Dinner time at John Edwards’ family table is a particularly delicious affair.
Westside local John, his wife, son and daughter all work together at Edwards Family Meats, a classic street butcher in the heart of Newport.
“We are proud of the products we sell and eat them at our house all the time. In fact, we taste-test everything before it goes into the shop,” chuckles John. “Cooking at home often inspires new ideas for products too. ”
John grew up in Riddells Creek and started his apprenticeship working in a family friend’s butcher’s shop in Footscray. He now has over forty years of experience as a butcher in Melbourne’s west, spending fifteen of those years managing the Mason Street butcher’s shop when it was owned by Eddie Kowalski and named Eddie the Butcher.
When Eddie decided to retire after more than twenty years in the business, he asked John and his family to take it over. Since February 2021, the butcher’s shop has been known as Edwards Family Meats.
“I developed an interest in making small goods after learning the craft from Eddie. Together we won many awards for our hams and sausages.”
JOHN EDWARDS
“The opportunity to take over the business was a perfect fit,” smiles John, “I know a lot of people in the area, I enjoy the one-on-one customer relationship that you have from owning a local business and I appreciate the independence of owning my own store as opposed to, say, working at a supermarket.”
As well as renaming the business, John and his family have updated and modernised the fitout and introduced new products, with different varieties in the cuts and more value-added products.
Having said that, their best-selling products are still the ones that their long-standing customers know and love.
“I developed an interest in making small goods after learning the craft from Eddie. Together we won many awards for our hams and sausages.” says John, underneath a sign emblazoned with the words ‘Victorian Sausage King’. “So we are famous for our small goods.”
All of the small goods are made on-site, from the homemade cabana to the cheese kransky, the Strasbourg meat to the frankfurt sausages.
John’s vision for Edwards Family Meats is to expand the product range, which includes grass fed beef and free range chicken, while maintaining the old-fashioned traditions of a high-quality family-owned butcher.
“The shop has been around since before the Great Depression and we have loyal customers who travel from as far as Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and Point Cook,” explains John.
“There are now lots of young people moving into Newport. So I’m hoping that Tommy, who works for me now, will take over the business from me one day in the same way I took over from Eddie. That way we can keep the tradition going.”
