On Central Avenue in downtown Great Falls, the aroma of freshly butchered meat lingers from the doorway of Central Avenue Meats. Inside, customers browse through gleaming glass cases filled with hand-cut steaks, brats, and lamb chops. The shop’s products stand apart. Not for fancy packaging, but for being local, fresh, and raised with care on Montana ranches.
“We are committed to, like our slogan says, to supporting our local ranchers. ” Drew Hicks said.
For owner and founder, Drew Hicks, the connection between land, rancher, and table isn’t just a marketing slogan, but a mission. By working directly with nearby ranches and handling nearly every step of processing in-house, Central Avenue Meats has built a system that keeps dollars local and customers confident in what they’re eating. A process that starts on the ranch and ends at the restaurant.
What does the company stand for?:
At Central Avenue Meats, the goal has always been to rebuild trust in where food comes from and to make sure that every dollar spent on local meat supports local families. And that philosophy is what guides every decision the company makes, Hicks said.
“Other than the slaughter operation, everything is done in a closed loop with the ranching family,” he said. “We wanted to be very intentional with how we differentiated ourselves from the grocery store.”
Through that closed loop system, Central Avenue Meats helps keep almost every part of the process, from pasture to plate, right here in Montana.
What’s the Process?
It all begins on the ranch. Local partners like McCafferty Ranch, which provides pork and chicken, and the Montana Sheep Company, which supplies lamb, raise their animals on open pasture. McCafferty’s uses a sprout-finishing system that naturally enhances nutrition for the animals, which produces cleaner, healthier meat.
“The McCaffertys have a proprietary system where they sprout-finish everything grass-fed, then finish on sprouts — this makes the meat less inflammatory and removes trace elements like glyphosate,” Hicks said.
The McCaffertys also separate themselves not only with sprout-finish but also with their hydroponic system. Instead of planting their crops in dirt, they plant them in water that’s mixed with nutrients. The roots sit directly in that nutrient-rich water, which gives them everything they need to grow without needing fresh soil. Meaning the ranch meets their nutrient goals for the animals all year long, even when the grass is buried under snow.
Once the livestock are ready, ranchers haul them to a USDA-inspected slaughterhouse, which is usually several hours away due to the lack of local facilities for initial processing. From there, the carcasses are brought directly to Central Avenue Meats in downtown Great Falls. Inside the shop, the team breaks down each animal by hand.
“We bring in whole carcasses, not boxed meat so everything is cut, prepared, and processed right here. It’s more of a traditional system that forces us to use the whole animal, “ Hicks said.
This longer process ensures that every cut meets the quality and safety standards they hold for their company. Most meats are dry-aged on site. Beef for at least 14 days, and pork and lamb for about a week. This traditional method that is used, improves flavor and tenderness without the additives or shortcuts used in bigger industrial processing. However, that also means that specific meat requests aren’t always on convenient demand.
“Sometimes that means we run out of ribeyes, but our customers have been adventurous, discovering new cuts they end up loving,” Hicks said.
After aging and cutting, the meat follows one of two paths. Some stay in-house, stocked in the glass cases at Central Avenue Meats for local shoppers to take home. The rest goes to Missouri River Meats, where it’s prepared for restaurants and wholesale clients across the region, he said.
One of the best-known partners in that chain is the Roadhouse Diner. The diner sources its beef directly from Central Avenue Meats, meaning the meat on its menu is just as honest as its supplier.
The step by step:
- Animals are raised locally at McCafferty Ranch and Montana Sheep Company.
- Ranchers take livestock to a USDA-inspected slaughterhouse.
- Carcasses go to Central Avenue Meats in Great Falls.
- The team hand-cuts and dry-ages the meat in-house.
- Meat is either sold in the shop or sent to Missouri River Meats for restaurants.
Why is it important and What’s the difference?:
At its core, the company’s philosophy is about connection: between ranch and retailer, business and community, and most of all, between people and their food!
For Central Avenue Meats, the word “local” isn’t a buzzword for publicity, it’s a safeguard. In a market dominated by industrial processors, keeping meat “local” means keeping it clean, transparent, and trustworthy.
“We believe it’s a better quality product because it’s touched fewer times. There’s less risk for contamination and less packaging waste,” Hicks said.
Most grocery store meat travels through several sets of handlers, packaging plants, and shipping routes which allows the product to lose freshness and increase contamination risk with every stop. Central Avenue Meats avoids that by keeping nearly the entire process within Montana, reducing handling, plastic waste, and long-distance transport.
The difference also shows in quality. McCafferty Ranch’s sprout-finished feed produces cleaner, healthier meat without the additives or chemicals common in large-scale grain-fed systems. Buying locally also keeps money in Montana supporting ranchers instead of corporate packers and helping strengthen rural economies. In the end, local meat doesn’t just taste better, it builds a better food system for everyone, he said.
How did they get started?
Rewinding back to the start of the business, it all started with Drew Hicks. As a Great Falls native who graduated high school locally and attended college in Missoula, Hicks returned to Montana in 2017 with his wife after several years living and working around the country.
The couple wanted to invest in the growth of downtown Great Falls and saw potential in the historic Central Avenue building. They purchased and renovated the property in 2019, selling part of it to what is now The Newberry and transforming the rest into what would become Central Avenue Meats. The shop officially opened its doors in 2020.
“We opened in 2020, right in the middle of a meat shortage,” Hicks said.
Launching a new business during the COVID-19 pandemic came with many challenges, from mask restrictions and supply shortages to infrequent customers, but it also presented an opportunity, Hicks said. The timing coincided with a national meat shortage, which drew attention to smaller, local suppliers like: Central Avenue Meats.
“We were blessed with customers who shared our passion and ranchers who stuck with us through situations that would have ended most partnerships,” he said.
Through persistence and community support, the business quickly established itself as a trusted source for high-quality, Montana-raised meat. Hicks and his team built strong relationships with local ranchers and suppliers, creating partnerships that not only endured the difficulties of the early years but grew stronger because of them in supporting their message and making the changes they wanted to see.
“We’re not only doing this for the benefit of our community and our local clientele, but we want to be that diverse option to the regular grain-fed model,” he said.
What’s happening now/ Goals for the future?:
For Drew Hicks, Central Avenue Meats has always been about more than selling steaks but instead, about strengthening Great Falls’ connection to local food. Now, he’s expanding that vision beyond the butcher shop.
Hicks is now a part owner of Missouri River Meats (formerly Cascade Wholesale Meats), a wholesale processor in Great Falls that handles local beef for more than 35 restaurants. Hicks’ business recently received a GFDA Development Loan to help with renovations and rebranding, increasing its capacity to process local carcasses for both restaurants and McCafferty Ranch’s online sales.
Looking ahead, Hicks hopes to continue striving for the company’s goals by gaining more customer volume, expanding the apprenticeship program they sponsor for people and students interested in the trade, having more product on hand, and potentially expanding into a small eatery kitchen where visitors can enjoy hot, ready-to-eat meals.
“It’s definitely a big goal, but we want to bridge the gap between the butcher shop and the diner. We just want to be able to not be limited to the fact that people have to take whatever they get here and take it home to cook it,” he said.
Conclusion:
With these goals in mind the company never loses sight of their vision. Especially for Drew Hicks, the mission remains simple: keep food honest, keep it local, and keep it close to home. Central Avenue Meats proves that when a community chooses to support its own, everyone from the rancher to the diner shares in the reward.
“We want to be that community touch point. A place where people can learn about our ranchers, become more connected to what they’re eating, and understand why that matters,” Hicks said.
