The staff look more like bartenders than the butchers of my childhood. One day, I’ll pluck up the courage…
First, the whole foods store shrank to half its previous size, then, in the premises it had vacated, the renovation work began. At first, I thought we were about to get a physiotherapist or a chiropractor: the space seemed somewhat medical, and in the window hung two neons that looked, unlit, like they might be a couple of human spines. But when they were finally switched on a few weeks later, all became clear. In fact, the neons are stylised meat carcasses. It seems there’s now a groovy new butcher at the end of our street.
Naturally, I was triumphant about this at first, a feeling that only grew when I Googled to find out more. Stella’s is, apparently, the younger sister of Hill & Szrok in Broadway Market in Hackney, a shop I’ve never visited – I left that part of London in 2004, before its swankification was complete – but which is, according to one source, London’s best butcher by day and a restaurant by night. Stella’s, too, may one day expand to include a “tartare bar”, but for now it is a purveyor of meat from small herds (tick) and a supporter of sustainable farming (tick, tick).
