A new Port Richmond butcher shop has a $16 cheesesteak special

A woman came into the sunny space at KP’s Fine Meats on a recent morning and surveyed the refrigerated cases. Any liverwurst? she asked.

“That’s the fourth customer to ask for it,” said co-owner Kevin Penney. “We’ll have that in next week. I can promise you that.”

Penney and his partner/fiancée Amanda Grady have transformed this Port Richmond shop — the former home of Jim’s Meat Market, open since the ‘70s — into a full-service butcher shop offering everything from tomahawk steaks and marrow bones to Dietz & Watson cold cuts. They opened the doors in February and have been gaining traction with the neighbors since.

KP’s Fine Meats is the brick-and-mortar manifestation of Penney’s delivery service, launched in 2020 in the wake of national meat shortages. The South Jersey native, who worked for years at Arnie’s Gourmet in Cherry Hill, established accounts at wholesalers like Ashley Foods, Samuels Seafood, and Esposito’s. He fielded orders in Philly, New Jersey, and beyond — tracking down product, making custom cuts, and shipping to customers up and down the East Coast.

“Everyone had their ‘meat guy,’ and that was me. And that became a title that I took a lot of pride in,” Penney said.

He initially worked out of his and Grady’s apartment, which made for close quarters. “It was a lot of me working from home and him making sausage behind me while I’m in meetings,” Grady recalled.

“I have my ServSafe [certification]!” Penney chimed in.

As Penney’s business grew, he moved the operation into the kitchen of a shuttered restaurant in Old City. Meanwhile, he expanded his repertoire to include local farms like Keiser’s Pheasantry, Smith Poultry, and Neighbours Farmstead. Business was buoyed by word of mouth and Instagram. Grady, who works full-time in business and marketing, nudged him to formalize his transactions.

“It was hard for me to get him to transition to taking orders through a form and not people texting him,” she said.

When the Old City restaurant announced plans to reopen, Penney started searching for other cost-effective kitchen spaces to rent but came up short. Then his realtor told him about a storefront for sale at the corner of Memphis and Clearfield Streets — a five-minute drive from the couple’s apartment. When they first looked at the shop, passersby asked them if they were going to reopen the meat market, which had been operating as a bodega in recent years. They missed Jim’s, they said.

“That’s when it sort of clicked to me that this is perfect,” Penney said. They closed on the storefront last May and spent months renovating and refurbishing the space. The deli cases and band saw are the same.

The couple took a word of advice from Jim Denning, who ran the shop for about 40 years: “Make sure you sell chip steak,” an essential for cheesesteaks. Penney cuts thin slices of inside round roast fresh every day for the chip steak, which sells for $9.99 a pound. KP’s also offers a “Philly-style special”: Chip steak, sliced cheese of your choice, and four hoagie rolls for $16.

That package is one way KP’s Fine Meats bridges the gap between clientele shipping Delmonicos to Florida and those asking after the liverwurst. The store carries special-occasion offerings like duck prosciutto and Frenched rack of lamb as well as Martin’s sausages and chicken wings (”We can barely keep them in stock”).

“I think having the Wagyu and the deli meat in the same place is really is a metaphor of what we’re trying to [do],” Grady said, adding that KP’s is in the process of getting EBT approval. “We were very mindful while we were doing renovations about talking to everyone as they walked by and [asking], ‘What’s something that you would want to see in this neighborhood?’”

As a result of that outreach, about 60% of KP’s business comes from walk-ins from the neighborhood and elsewhere in Philly. Delivery, offered within a 20-mile radius, and wholesale make up the rest. Wholesale accounts include Middle Child Clubhouse, Liberty Kitchen, and the Filipino food truck Tabachoy, soon to open a brick-and-mortar spot of its own.

Penney and Grady, who got engaged earlier this month, are excited for the future. They’re looking forward to arrival of more refrigerated cases — one for dry-aging beef and another for a budding in-house charcuterie program — and they’ve even pondered a second location. But the main goal for now is to become as much a fixture as Jim’s Meat Market.

“It’s great to be here,” Penney said. “We certainly lucked out.”

KP’s Fine Meats at 2329 E. Clearfield St. is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Order for pickup, delivery, or shipping at kpsfinemeats.com.