Locally sourced, collectively owned: the Underground Food Collective

Taryn Grisham
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 02:35:34 +0000
Community, butcher, Meats, restaurants, Underground

If you are what you eat, shouldn’t you know where your food comes from? If so, what could beat getting all of your food straight from the farm?

Farm-to-table is a new model for growing food that has increased with the continuous cultivation of small markets and sustainable farms. One Madison company’s true soul lies in the importance of knowing where food comes from and how it is presented to its consumers.

Texan brothers Ben and Jonny Hunter had dreams of one day owning their own restaurant where they would be able to show their passion for food. After opening Catacombs, a small coffee shop on the UW-Madison campus in 2001, the Hunter brothers gathered a group of their friends who were equally passionate about food and started cooking and running a small catering business on the side.

During this time, they started to get a feel for the sense of community that surrounded the food industry. They got to know their farmers by having a one-on-one relationship with them and learning where their food was coming from.

“It’s really the best food you can get when you know exactly where it [comes] from. A lot of the stuff was just picked from the garden that day that you’re serving that night for lunch or dinner. I think [the Hunter brothers] really enjoy that relationship that you can develop with the farmers,” says Jerry Traczyk, general manager at Underground Meats, the salami-making facility of the business.

The brothers drew inspiration from working with small, local farmers, sustainability, the sense of community in food and the importance of knowing where your food comes from. This inspiration caused their small catering operation to expand and turn into their very own farm-to-table, locally sourced food catering company, which ultimately birthed the Underground Food Collective.

“Some of the people that were involved in [Catacomb’s said,] ‘Hey, let’s try to do some event-based stuff,’ [which included] everything from catering to a lot of fundraisers and nonprofit [work] to doing pop-up dinners. That’s kind of the origins of [Underground]. Since then, we’ve definitely become more of a traditional food group in the sense that we have these stand-alone businesses like Underground Butcher, Underground Meats and the restaurant,” founder Jonny Hunter says.

The Underground Food Collective (Underground) operates four separate businesses that cover every aspect from food production to food sales – Underground Butcher, Underground Catering, Underground Meats and Forequarter Restaurant. Though each business has its own identity and role within the company, the collective aspect creates a great working relationship among all employees, despite their different focus areas.

“I think the whole idea [of being a collective] has always been [that] it’s not based off of a single person’s identity. It’s very much recognizing the work that the group puts in and trying to celebrate that versus just a single person’s contribution,” Hunter says.

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Unlike most butcher shops, Underground Butcher brings in whole animals rather than pre-packaged sections of meats. Each week, Underground brings in one whole cow and anywhere from six to 10 pigs. Bringing in whole animals allows Underground to produce cut-to-order meats for their customers.

“If they’re looking for a certain type of roast, we can cut it right there on the spot. Or if they want a thicker steak, we can cut that on the spot for them too. We’re working with the whole animal and also doing our own sausage production right behind the counter,” Traczyk says.

Underground Butcher sources more than just beef and pork. They also have a selection of lamb and goat products in their store. By working with a dairy goat milk cooperative in southern Wisconsin, Underground buys male goats that would normally not be raised because of the high costs needed to feed and take care of them. With these goats, Underground is able to make one of their most popular salamis in the store, goat salami.

Another unique quality of their butcher operation is its position as a micro-business, doing much more than selling meat products. Underground has a food-processing license, which allows them to make their own preserves, pickled vegetables and candied nuts. These products line the shelves of their shop after being made in-house. The vegetables they use come straight from the farm to be pickled and they also use certain fruits to make preserves and jams that have become increasingly popular as well.

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Underground Catering uses farm-to-table style catering techniques but puts its own little twist on it. They are dedicated to using farm-fresh vegetables and animals in all of their dishes.

Unlike most catering companies, they have no set menu, but rather look to the customer to choose their own dishes based on the event they are holding. Typically, they offer suggestions on plates they’ve created in the past, including a charcuterie plate and meat and cheese plate made with their self-produced meat products. Charcuterie is the art of curing meat and it encompasses all types of meats from ground sausages to cured hams. Underground seeks to serve up-scale food at its catering events that customers love.

“The clients kind of have an idea of what they want for food and I think that that’s what sets Underground Food Collective, as a catering company, apart. We kind of bend over backwards most of the time to make whatever somebody wants for their wedding,” Traczyk says.

Underground stays true to its dedication to the farm when running its catering operations as well. Something that sets them apart

In addition to this catering option, Underground also has some of the farmers they work with help make food for the catered events by bringing them in to their catering facility. These farmers bring in some of their own recipes as well, which adds to the uniqueness of the Underground catering program.from more traditional catering companies is that they use animals from their clients’ farms to make the catered dishes. Traczyk recalls a time when a couple that got married asked that Underground make their wedding meal with pigs from the couple’s farm.

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The production of dry-cured salami and dry-cured whole muscle products is the trade that sets Underground Meats apart from any other meat business in the state of Wisconsin.

Though it is often confused as being the same business as the Underground Butcher shop, both operations are housed in separate facilities. Underground Meats uses old world techniques to produce dry-cured salami and whole muscle cures.

While their butcher shop works with a variety of meat types, Underground Meats focuses more on sourcing pigs. Traczyk works with five small family farms located around the Madison-area that produce heritage breed animals for the business’ use.

Rollercoaster Farm in Darlington is the biggest farm that Traczyk works with. The couple that owns this farm raises Tamworth hogs for Underground. A Tamworth hog is a heritage breed-type of animal, which means that its lineage can be traced back centuries to when this type of hog was initially bred. These animals are special because they have not been crossbred or genetically altered in any way. Underground Meats uses these animals to make a small amount of fresh sausage (like bratwursts), but mainly uses them for their salami production, which takes place in the salami-making facility.

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Underground is no stranger to the restaurant scene. After a fire destroyed Kitchen – Underground’s first attempt at a restaurant – in 2010, the owners took a brief hiatus from that component of their business. June 2012 brought Forequarter, a restaurant that provides an intimate neighborhood hangout with an emphasis on serving local food from local producers.

“It’s a nice, small restart to Kitchen that uses an innovative, modernist approach to food while showcasing Wisconsin produce in every dish we create,” Underground Butcher employee Sam Kanson-Benanav says.

Kanson-Benanav is a 2011 graduate from UW-Madison. He has been with Underground since graduating from college, starting off as a line cook while Kitchen was still in operation. More recently, he has joined the team at Underground Butcher. Kanson-Benanav enjoys the learning curve that comes with working in a business like Underground.

“My favorite thing about working with Underground is all of the new opportunities to learn and try new things. We’re always encouraged to try new things because you never know how great something could actually turn out,” Kanson-Benanav says.

The menu at Forequarter is filled with a variety of dishes that probably would not be found at an average restaurant. According to Peter Baisden, the current host at Forequarter restaurant, popular dishes include the rainbow trout served with lentils and pickled radishes or quail served with a curry leaf pudding, black sesame tahini and summer squash or sweet potatoes, depending on which vegetable is in season.

Forequarter works closely with a number of farms to ensure that their produce is always fresh, and with the Underground Butcher shop to get some of its meat products. A unique aspect of this relationship between businesses is that customers of Forequarter can actually stop by the butcher shop after a meal at the restaurant to take home a replica of the pork loin or steak they may have eaten for dinner.

While serving their dishes farm-to-table style is important, Forequarter also puts an emphasis on their expansive cocktail menu. The bartenders at Forequarter put a lot of time and energy into handcrafting all their own liqueurs and tonics. These options are also constantly changing.

“We reprint our menu every other day. Some dishes will come on, some dishes will come off; some drinks will go on, some drinks will come off,” Baisden says. “I think we’re the first ones in Madison to really successfully bring the seasonality into the cocktail side of things.”

The best-seller among cocktails at Forequarter is the ginger beer that is made in-house. Baisden says that it’s a combination of ginger, honey, lemon and water that ferments for a few days and is later charged with carbon dioxide. It is served in a classic copper mug and sometimes mixed with other liqueurs.

FoxNews.com recently named Forequarter one of the top ten restaurants in Madison that make the city a “foodie paradise.” It was listed among the iconic Dane County Farmers’ Market as well as other prominent area restaurants. While this press is certainly exciting for the company, employees remain grounded.

“Everybody that works in any of these businesses is here because they have a passion about making good food,” Traczyk says. “That’s kind of where that collective started, [as] a group of people that were just really passionate about good food and making everything from scratch and working with farm produce. That developed into what it is now, which is amazing to think about.”

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Working as a collective, Underground prides itself on the fact that the employees all share a passion for their daily work and the food that they create. As a company that sees little turnover in staff, the workers all take part in multiple aspects of the company and have a lot of say in what decisions are made.

“Your staff kind of becomes a family. Once someone comes in, they’re our friend, and they’re our family and we love them. I think that’s one thing about the Underground staff. We always have each other’s backs,” Baisden says. “I really enjoy working here and I think everyone else does as well.”