Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Outlaw meats
Daniel Broeckel is ready for customers at his new shop, Outlaw Meats.
After almost 30 years sitting vacant, the old butcher building in LaCrosse is back in business with Daniel Broeckel returning to offer custom farm-to-table services.
“We are putting back into the community that raised me,” he noted.
Broeckel was born and raised in LaCrosse and grew up cowboying.
When he started a family he realized he could not support them by cowboying.
While in college he took a job at a butcher shop in Walla Walla and has continued in the field for nearly nine years, seven of those spent at Garfield Meats.
After working in Garfield, he went to Mountain View Custom Meats in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
His own shop has been in the works for about a year and a half, and it was at Mountain View the name for it came around.
Broeckel was talking to a co-worker about his own place, going over name options when the other man suggested “outlaw” to go with the tattoo on Broeckel’s right arm and it stuck.
Broeckel added people might argue and say it is just his personality that inspired the name for Outlaw Meats.
The new home of Outlaw Meats was the long-time home of the local butcher shop in LaCrosse. Broeckel believes the shop dated back until at least in the 50s, maybe earlier, and that the last year of operation was 1988. The building sat vacant until Broeckel’s arrival this summer to update and refurbish it.
He originally thought he would have to pretty much level the building and start over, but once the walls were off, they discovered it still had good bones that should last the rest of Broeckel’s lifetime.
He spent about six months working to get the building back together to open. Broeckel worked in Kahlotus over the summer and in his free time went to LaCrosse where he did about 90 percent of the construction work.
Originally, he had not planned to do smoked meat because of the expense of a smoker. Then he found one in the price range he wanted and bought it.
“A lot of the equipment I got was sheer luck,” he said.
The building came with a big saw, freezer and cooler units, but the rest Broeckel installed.
Outlaw Meats finally opened Nov. 11 after delays in waiting for inspectors to make the trip to LaCrosse to give him the green light.
“It was a very soft open,” he noted.
With the start of the new year, the business is full-time work for Broeckel. He provides slaughter and butchering for beef, hogs, sheep and goats. Already, the cooler is three-quarters full with animals in Davenport and Ritzville on the calendar. He said he is still in the process of getting his feet under him, figuring out his schedules and the timing of when his wife, Kelli, and mother need to come help wrap the meat.
“It’s a learning curve right now,” he said.
Broeckel said his favorite thing is being around the people who raise the animals, talking to the ranchers and getting back the feel of when he was cowboying. He also gets to be creative on the other end side of the process.
“I like playing around with different recipes,” he said. Broeckel said a lot of smoking seasonings start out with a generic recipe and he adds or tweaks the ingredients. He has already won some jerky competitions, a German sausage contest and has the goal to win some bacon and ham awards.
The Broeckel family moved to LaCrosse in October. Kelli opened a hair salon in the location formerly occupied by Jeannine’s. She also has a salon in Rosalia, both named Twisted Mane. They have two children, Rowdie Jo, 8, and Beauhannon, 5. Broeckel said Rowdie Jo enjoys going out to the ranches and farms with him, and Beauhannon wants to help cut the meat. They used to have their own cattle, but sold them a few years ago and are now slowly getting back into it.
“The town has been very receptive,” Broeckel said of re-opening the butcher shop.
Down the road Broeckel may become licensed to butcher game animals, more than likely as a filler, depending on how busy he gets with area fairs. He has no intention of doing any fowl. Eventually, he may have a little retail with some smoked meats, ground beef and a few other cuts, but those will be geared mostly toward customers and is still in the works.
“I won’t keep that much on hand,” he said.
Outlaw Meats travels up to 150 miles from the shop to do on-farm slaughters. That ability to travel and draw from a larger radius area is one reason Broeckel was able to locate in his hometown. Anyone wishing to book an appointment can call the shop at 509-549-MEAT.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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