Startup Spotlight: Nadolski's Butcher Shop

Jonathan Nadolski came up with the idea of opening a butcher shop after moving to Goochland County in 2005 and seeing a void in the marketplace.

"I felt like there was an opportunity," he said, referring to the number of people moving into the county. Goochland's population has grown to about 20,000, according to the latest estimates available, up from 16,863 in 2000.

Nadolski opened Nadolski's Butcher Shop in January 2009 in Courthouse Commons, a new shopping center along state Route 6 across from Goochland Courthouse.

"There was a lot of traffic up and down Route 6 where the shopping center was being built," he said, explaining why he chose the location in Goochland, which Forbes magazine recently ranked as one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S.

The butcher shop, the only one in the county, according to the Goochland commissioner of the revenue's office, specializes in hard-to-find cuts of meat, such as seven-bone chuck roast, petite café rib steaks and tomahawk rib-eyes, as well as fresh fish and seafood.

The store also sells wine, beer and cheese selections; seasonal local produce; and homemade pancetta and bacon that has been cured and smoked in-house.

Since opening, Nadolski has seen an average increase in sales revenue of 20 percent each month. This February's sales were up 80 percent over last February.

"Our March figures are about the same as last March," he said. "We had an explosive month in December when it comes to sales revenue."

Nadolski has been working in the restaurant business since he was 15. He was the chef at La Petite France before it closed in June 2008.

"I learned to be a chef by working in the trade," he explained. "I actually went to business school and majored in finance."

For a while, Nadolski held partand full-time jobs in restaurants at the same time he was working in the financial-services industry. He now owns a home-based brokerage at which he brokers different insurance and financial carriers.

When he first opened the shop, Nadolski had only two display cases and one shelf of meat and fresh fish. Since then, he has added two cases, a walk-in cooler, prep tables and several pieces of equipment, such as industrial grinders and a band saw. He expanded his selections by adding beer and wine in May and then cheese and imported butters.

He started butchering meats after local farmers began selling him steers and hogs. He carries some local lamb, ducks, chickens and veal as well. Other meats include rabbit, pheasant, quail, squab and turkey. He offers oysters, mussels, clams, Scottish salmon, scallops and soft-shell crabs in addition to fish.

"I try to get as much seafood from local waters as is possible," he said. "I get a lot from the Carolinas."

Most of Nadolski's growth comes from word of mouth. He also sends out a monthly e-mail newsletter to 1,000 people.

"We get a lot of people from Pennsylvania, New York and the Midwest that grew up around a butcher shop," he said.

Henrico County residents Kyra Newman and her husband, Jon, look to Nadolski for his expertise.

"Jonathan truly believes in taking care of his customers," Kyra Newman said. "Last fall . . . we hosted a pig roast in our backyard. Jonathan sourced a fresh local pig for us and personally drove to Woodstock to pick it up. He then took care of the final butchering to prepare the pig for the smoker."

Jesse Rabinowitz, who lives in Rockville, frequents the shop because of its "high-quality selection of meats and seafood."

He also likes the store's atmosphere.

"It's like 'Cheers,' where they know who you are," he said. "I am constantly asking questions about how to prepare things that I haven't cooked before. John is an encyclopedia. He makes it very simple."

Goochland resident Jennifer Taylor buys most of her meat at Nadolski's shop. She likes his working relationship with local farmers.

"That increases the confidence in the meat you are serving to your family," she said.