Kettle Range Meat plans to open second butcher shop in Elm Grove at former Subway restaurant

Kettle Range Meat Co., a butcher shop on Milwaukee's west side, is adding a second location in Elm Grove — just three years after opening.

Kettle Range plans to open its new store at 13402-13404 W. Watertown Plank Road, according to information disclosed Tuesday by the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp.

That location is a former Subway restaurant.

Kettle Range specializes in meats that are free of antibiotics and hormones, from pastured animals raised in Wisconsin. The butcher shop dry-ages its beef, and it sells pork from heritage breeds of hogs.

The proposed store, operating as Kettle Range Mill Place LLC, is seeking a $270,000 loan from MEDC, a nonprofit business lender.

That loan would help finance the $300,000 project, which includes renovations to the Elm Grove space as well as buying butcher shop equipment and supplies. 

"We’re going to pretty much do everything we do in our current retail location," Kettle Range founder Mark Bearce said of the planned Elm Grove shop.

Besides meats and sausages to be cooked at home, the store would sell state cheeses, charcuterie, sauces, spices, rubs and prepared meal kits.

If all goes as planned, the Elm Grove butcher store would open in midsummer, Bearce said.

Kettle Range opened its first store, at 5501 W. State St., in 2016. It has 12 employees, with the new store expected to add seven employees, according to MEDC.

"State Street is going to continue to be our central processing facility," Bearce said.

Carol Deptolla of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.