G reg Madouras’ grandfather was a butcher, so it seemed a natural progression that he moved from sacker to checker to meat cutter at the Jegens United Super in Stanley in Johnson County.

“We broke sides of meat and did custom cuts for customers, so I got a good background in where the cuts come from,” Madouras says.

His career path led him to the Price Chopper group, where he worked as a meat manager for 18 years. But over the years, the business changed. “The sides went away and in came the box meat.”

Now Madouras is owner/operator of Broadway Butcher Shop, a full-service meat store next door to Gomer’s, whose owners are partners in the business.

The building itself feels old-timey with its tin ceiling and elaborate woodwork, but the throwback draw for customers is the service.

“Some customers come in with a picture or a drawing of a piece of meat, and I try to mimic that,” Madouras says. He also makes his own sausage in a giant mechanical grinder behind the front counter.

In other aspects, Broadway Butcher Shop is very much in tune with the zeitgeist. All the beef is antibiotic-free, and some of the steaks are USDA prime, which has become more difficult to find in recent years as consumers have expressed a preference for lean.

The store has no website but has a Facebook page where Madouras posts photos of the wild line-caught fish he flies in overnight from Hawaii.

“People look at their Facebook five or six times a day. Those posts really bring customers into the store.”