The Good Table | written by: PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | photo by: BAMBI RIEGEL riegelpictureworks.com
Owner and chef Peter Crawford at the butcher shop he opened in 2016 at 13 Grove Street
Luck is the residue of action. So says Darien Butcher Shop (DBS) owner Peter Crawford. He should know: He’s one of the hardest working guys you’ll ever meet.
But if your calling is conjuring the best quality food money can buy, as Peter’s is, it helps when that luck is fueled by a deep knowledge of all things food acquired at the apron strings of the top guys in your craft—Michelin-starred chefs at some of the finest restaurants in New York City, an advanced placement run through the New England Culinary Institute where you graduate top of your class, and one heckuva discerning set of palates on luxury yachts around the world.
That’s the background Peter, born and raised in Darien, brought home with him after years away at restaurants including Aureole, Bouley, Picholine and Oceana where he worked to build his repertoire with chefs such as Charlie Palmer, Cornelius Gallagher and David Bouley. Drawn by the lifestyle, he spent another pile of years cooking for the likes of Wayne Huizenga and his guests on private boats throughout the Caribbean.
But palm trees, trade winds and a cushy life aboard mega yachts take you only so far when your passions are as pronounced as Peter’s and the work days you’ve always known start and end in 11- to 14-hour increments. It is, after all, work that gives the chaise lounge its appeal.
“There was no meaning,” explained Peter. “I came back because I wanted to get to the next level.”
Peter is a chef, an artist and a born foodie—even when he may not have known it, back during those summer visits to the family lake house in Wisconsin and his grandmother’s from-scratch cooking—simple, honest food of best quality ingredients flavored by her second generation pioneer roots. He loved her. He loved her food. It struck a chord. As did the White Bridge Deli on the Darien-Rowayton border where Peter met his first “commercial” kitchen, slicing sandwich meat and working other odd jobs—at 9 years old, for $4 an hour.
“The easiest way to increase your value is
just to do something better.” –Peter Crawford
At 15 years old, he moved to Chuck’s Steakhouse—a Darien mainstay that ended its 46-year run in 2014. There he worked the grill, the salad bar and just about everything in between. By the time he got to culinary school, he had learned so much, he finished in one year, half the time it usually takes.
Like water and its level, our calling will nearly always find us—if we’re paying attention, which Peter finally did when he arrived for his Culinary Institute internship at Aureole in NYC. Before that, he cooked just because he always had and he was good at it.
“(Aureole) is where my passion for food was really ignited because there was a professionalism, a higher end product. You’re really trying to master your craft,” explained Peter.
The fact that he would master his craft was a foregone conclusion.
“The word ‘no’ is not in my vocabulary,” said Peter. “I find that if you start with yes, there’s the goal,” he continued, “and when you have the goal then you just build a bridge to it.”
That’s what happened in 2016, when he returned to Darien, determined to start a restaurant to bring the quality fare he’d learned to make to the town he loved. Turns out the timing was wrong for that but precisely right for giving Darien a dedicated butcher shop and the kind of meat he, as a chef, knew how to source—prime cuts found in just a fraction of all cows nationwide (as few as 2% by some measures).
His commitment to “yes” and to quality in all things food is why you’ll find everything in his butcher shop from the same cuts of beef, chicken and pork he bought for those top restaurants, to ground bison, ground elk, venison, quail, beef jerky (which sells out nearly as quickly as they make it) and more. And if you don’t see what you want, Peter and his staff will locate it for you.
“I get satisfaction out of giving (customers) exactly what they ask for,” said Peter.
Four nights a week, Peter offers up a five-course gourmet tasting menu at the Charles Underground, a reservations-only restaurant operating after hours at DBS
With the chef within not to be denied, Peter soon expanded DBS to include sides such as creamed spinach, pulled pork and potato salad, to-die-for sandwiches and the Charles Underground, a reservations-only restaurant that operates in the Butcher Shop after hours.
Offering a five-course gourmet tasting menu of the modern French technique Peter mastered earlier in his career, the Charles can accommodate up to 30 guests. Open Wednesday through Saturday, the restaurant is “underground” only insofar as how you learn about it—solely through word of mouth. You bring your own wine, choose the music you want and book if for private dinners if you have a party of at least 15.
Combined with a sense of community and a commitment to giving back that are as sharp as the knives Peter uses to ply his trade, it’s no wonder DBS and the Charles hit their mark so quickly after opening.
“The easiest way to increase your value is just to do something better,” said Peter. “It doesn’t cost anything to try a little harder, and if you just give someone what they want, you’ve got a business,” he added.
And what a business Peter has built.
Find the Darien Butcher Shop at 13 Grove Street in Darien or at darienbutchershop.com.
