After an Eight-Year Run, Red Table Meat Company Is Closing

After eight years in business, Red Table Meat Company announced on Instagram on October 21 that it will close at the end of the year. A long-time tenant of the Food Building in Northeast Minneapolis, Red Table made waves with its artisanal salamis, hams, and mortadella when it opened in 2014. Briny, peppery, and marbled with the creamiest fat, the Red Table meats are a local favorite for sandwiches, picnics, and charcuterie boards.

Owner Mike Phillips wrote that the reason for closing boiled down to a high cost of labor (producing traditional dry-cured meats is very labor intensive), growing demand for sliced, packaged salami, and the shifting needs of retailers, staff, and consumers. The rising cost of labor has posed challenges to restaurants across the country, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

“We want to pay folks what they deserve to make and still create a product that is very authentic and valuable,” Phillips wrote in the post. “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.”

In the new year, Lowry Hill Meats’ Erik Sather will open a new meat processing operation in Red Table’s current Food Building spot. Expect cured salamis as well as butcher cuts of lamb, beef, and other meats sourced from local farms.