Nearly 2 years after fire, Eden Meat Market rises from the ashes

 

FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The long-time owners of a small town Fond du Lac County meat market, rich in history, wondered if they'd ever make a comeback after fire wiped them out. Two years later, the Eden Meat Market is thriving and thankful that a village sustained them during some dark days.

"It's made us stronger for sure," said Jeff Duehring, co-owner of Eden Meat Market.

Jeff Duehring snapped these photos after a quick escape.

"10am on a Thursday, so we had full staff. We tried to fight it as best we could with the fire extinguishers that we had," said Duehring.

But the morning of November 3, 2022, was a windy one. As flames jumped quickly, it was clear workers inside Eden Meat Market needed to get outside fast.

"Eventually it was completely full of black, black smoke. You couldn't see your hand in front of you," said Duehring.

Passersby watched in horror, sad to see the building that dates back to 1890 filled with smoke and flames.

"It was scary you know to think you're gonna lose something you've been going to for a long time. I called my daughter in-law who's in Georgia right away and said Eden Meat Market's burning down," said Robert Crouch, longtime customer.

While the market's been a staple on Main Street for over 130 years, ownership has changed several times. The latest family, the Duehrings, bought it in 1982. Jeff Duehring's third generation to work it.

"Early teens maybe 10, 12, I can't quite remember but just a cleanup kid doing some odd jobs here and there," said Duehring.

Older generations impressed on the younger the rich history here, and the importance of keeping it going in a town of 700.

"Just to highlight Eden, put Eden on the map, make it a draw for people, make it a destination for people to come out and shop our store. There are people that come from a good 90-minute radius of Eden, up from Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee," said Duehring.

That's why Jeff, who now co-owns the business with his cousins, brother and uncle, knew this couldn't be the last of them. They needed to find a way to rise from the ashes and keep people employed in this no-stoplight town.

"Even if they're not blood related, they're still family, so we got to keep them employed, keep them happy," said Duehring.

A Facebook post announcing the meat market was forced to close got over 100 comments, offering prayers and expressing sadness. Even their competitors offered to help.

"A lot of personal phone calls, text messages, what can we do, how can we help? Some of the meat markets too they allowed us to come in and make our meat patties for some restaurants that we've always been making certain products for them," said Duehring.

Two years later out of the ashes the old store front here on Main Street is serving a purpose once again. This is where they're accepting whole deer drop offs.

"2023 we rebounded. We were able to open up what we needed to open up at our old location to create a new flow pattern for accepting deer, skinning them, cutting them, vacuum sealing them," said Duehring.

The old store has limited capacity. That's why they built this one. Also on Main Street, it's three times the size and busy as ever.

"In the end it's good but we struggled for those two years that we were kind of out of business," said Duehring.

While much was lost, Duehring shows us how generational recipes were not.

"I don't know how many different brats we have but there's probably 20 at least," said Duehring.

Cooler after cooler's lined with tasty meats like snack sticks in multiple flavors. They're also selling steaks and roasts, and maple bourbon breakfast links, something that's gotten top state honors.

Behind the storefront are coolers full of fresh cuts. Thick bacon slices, venison snack sticks, ring bologna and kielbasa, some waiting to get smoked, others waiting to be packaged. In another room, workers use care when casing sausage links and then laying them out on rings, ready to be smoked.

"So back here is our smoking area. We have our automated smoke houses," said Alec Kumrow, employee.

Alec Kumrow's worked for the Duehrings for many years.

"That squeal you hear is that water kind of going in. It creates a mist. When that mist comes out and it hits the heat and it turns to steam, that's how these operate, it really helps gives a consistent cook, consistent product every time," said Kumrow.

The new building has three smokers. One's a double cart that can hold up to 2-thousand pounds of bacon.

"Cooks at 170 degrees to an internal temperature of 152. I have to hold that temperature. Right now, it's in a second smoke cycle, 17 minutes left in that one and then it'll, once that's done, it'll kick into the third and final smoke cycle. I can control how high the fan speed's going, how much smoke they get. We have gotten very close to the smoke flavor we had in our old smoke house and that process. It'll hit from drying to smoking to cooking and then you can even do a cold rinse on certain products," said Kumrow.

What's in the smoker today?

"Venison mettwurst and kielbasa, it's an old-fashioned sausage product, it's not one of our staples, it's kind of a unique German style sausages," said Kumrow.

There have been times I've wished our cameras could give you more than just the video, like here outside these smokers, the aroma is incredible.

"A lot of hunters in the area they'll either bring us a whole deer in which we take the hide off, skin it, cut it up and debone it. They usually want their cuts like their tenderloin, backstrap cut and steaks, but we'll hold onto the trimmings," said Kumrow.

Smoking hot dogs takes just a couple hours. Summer sausage is more like eight hours. Eden Meat Market's new brick and mortar store celebrated its grand opening a few months ago with appreciation to those who helped them in a time when their future was uncertain.

"We'd come to breakfast, and we'd see them at the back table doing the planning and drawings and you knew it was gonna come back better than ever," said Crouch.

"I think people when they walk in, they're just in awe of what they used to remember from our old meat market, not to say that we would never forget that place, but to have something like this and to make a new name for ourselves has just been incredible," said Duehring.