Chef Andrew McConnell to open Meatsmith boutique butcher in Collingwood

Chef Andrew McConnell's new business had to be close to a supermarket with a car park. Why? "So people could buy toilet paper and then walk down the road and buy some good meat," he says, partly explaining the Smith Street, Collingwood, location of his boutique butchery called Meatsmith.

McConnell is branching out of the kitchen, opening the wholesale and retail speciality shop with butcher Troy Wheeler. Wheeler has managed high-end Peter Bouchier in Toorak for the past 10 years, and in the last two years has been ageing beef with McConnell at his Builders Arms Hotel in Fitzroy.

Wheeler, who will run the day-to-day operation, says "Andrew's perspective as a chef and mine as a butcher are very different, and bringing them together will create something unique".

Meatsmith will sell house-made charcuterie and salumi, Victorian beef, lamb and chicken, and native meats such as kangaroo and emu. A grocer section will carry stocks, seasonal produce, pastas and relishes and mustards made by the Builders Arms crew. There'll be ready-cooked meals to take home, including the Cumulus Inc lamb shoulder that can be heated in 30 minutes, and a small wine shop.

Meatsmith will be at 273 Smith Street, Collingwood. The wholesale arm will open in June, with the retail space expected to be operating by August.