About Primal Supply Meats

Primal Supply Meats is a Philadelphia-based butchery and local sourcing company. Since 2016, we’ve been building a supply chain to connect regional farmers and slaughterhouses to restaurants, chefs and home cooks who care about sourcing local, sustainably raised meats.

In the of Spring 2018 we opened a brick-and-mortar butcher shop on East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia. In 2019 we opened our Butchery & Market in Brewerytown which serves as the companies headquarters for operations. Our wholesale program gives chefs access to sustainably raised whole animals, has helped put pasture-raised meats on the menus at restaurants in and around the city. The Butcher’s Club, our weekly subscription service for fresh-cut packages of meat, is available for home cooks at pickup locations around Philadelphia in partnership with local businesses.

Heather Marold Thomason, Butcher & Founder

Heather left a successful career in graphic design in order to pursue the trade of whole animal butchery and a passion for supporting local, sustainable food systems. To train, she apprenticed at North Mountain Pastures in Newport, PA, where she learned to raise pastured animals from birth to slaughter. While there, she partnered with local farmers to better understand their daily operations and inefficiencies. She then furthered her training in Berkeley, California at The Local Butcher Shop. Heather relocated to Philadelphia in 2014 to serve as the opening Head Butcher and Manager of the butcher shop at Kensington Quarters.

Heather recognized that Philadelphia was prime for community building and change within its food supply chain and in 2016, she founded Primal Supply Meats, a modern butchery committed to whole animal practices.

Media Love for Primal Supply Meats

CIVIL EATS

As COVID-19 Disrupts the Industrial Meat System, Independent Processors Have a Moment to Shine

“Our supply chain is secure. The food is going to keep coming,” said Thomason, “When everything falls away around us, we’ll be standing here doing what we’ve always been doing.” (May 2020)

The Newsette

What She Does: Heather Marold Thomason, Founder & Butcher at Primal Supply Meats

“I had built this local supply chain. I was working with farmers, dealing with trucking and slaughterhouses, and a lot of chefs started asking me if I could help them, too. I realized I could serve the city, and not just one location.”  (February 2020)

Philadelphia Magazine

Watch the masters at work.

At the classes at Primal Supply Meats headquarters, Heather Marold Thomason will show you how to coax a coppa steak from a pork shoulder. This is as close to the action as you’re going to get. (October 2019)

Philadelphia Inquirer

Look inside Primal Supply Meat’s Spacious New Brewerytown Headquarters

The light-filled building at 1521 N. 31st Street isn’t just a new home for her fast-growing business, which connects chefs and customers with locally sourced, sustainable meats… (April 2019)

Food & Wine

Ones to Watch: 15 Visionaries Who Will Revolutionize the Way We Eat

Thomason is one of the most energizing forces in Philly’s restaurant scene, as well as a major disruptor of the boys club that butchery has been for decades, and we can’t wait for her next move. (July 2018)

NBC News

Women's Work: Meet The Female Pioneers Thriving In Once-Male Domains
To mark International Women's Day, photographers around the world captured women breaking down barriers of gender bias. (March 2018)

Philadelphia Inquirer

Craig LaBan picks Philly's best butchers

Primal has plans to open a storefront on East Passyunk this spring... I'm excited for that neighborhood to get the great butcher it deserves. (February 2018)

Edible Philly

Local Heroes Food Shop: Primal Supply Meats
(March 2017)

HUFFINGTON POST

12 Stunning Photos That Prove There’s No Such Thing As ‘Men’s Work’
(December 2016)

CBS NEWS

How one Philadelphia butcher is "reimagining" the future of her small business amid the coronavirus

Thomason also remains optimistic about what's to come, even as she keeps Primal Supply Meats on course in navigating the wildly uncertain present. "The longer this goes, the more I think we're kind of reimagining a future." (April 2020)

The Wall Street Journal

Smart Move: Butcher That Beef Yourself

Ms. Thomason’s step-by-step instructions on how to butcher a chuck roll will leave you with steaks, a pot roast, short ribs, stew meat and stock scraps—not to mention a feeling of supreme satisfaction and the admiration of your dinner guests. (February 2020)

Philadelphia Magazine

Primal Supply Meats’ Heather Thomason on Cutting It in the Male-Dominated Butcher Industry

“I had an idea that if I learned butchery, I could start to support farms and help reconnect a broken local food-supply chain.” (July 2019)

”the Special” Podcast (NEw York TIMES)

Philadelphia: A Big City with a Small-City Feel

In this episode we explore the constantly evolving South Philadelphia neighborhood. We’ll sit for a traditional Italian-Philly meal of Sunday Gravy” with three female entrepreneurs. (March 2019)

Billy Penn

Meet the South Philly butcher sourcing the best meat in Philadelphia

Staying true to the “all sustainable, errythang” practice has allowed Thomason to quickly grow her customer base. Around 30 local chefs have regular standing orders with Primal Supply. (July 2018)

Food & Wine

A Butcher Offers Foolproof Tips for Cooking That High-Quality Meat You Bought
(February 2018)

Philadelphia Inquirer

How She Pulled Up Stakes and Became A Butcher
(October 2017)

Grid Magazine

Buying Clubs That Focus on Animal Welfare and Sustainable Practices
(March 2017)

Foobooz

Kensington Quarters Butcher Heads Out on Her Own
(May 2016)

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Women’s work: 12 stories of female success and struggle in male-dominated fields

In Women’s Work, award-winning photographer Chris Crisman, who is based near Philadelphia, pairs his striking photography with personal essays from women who have carved out unique places for themselves in a workforce often dominated by men (March 2020)

Speaking Broadly

The Case for Meat: Heather Thomason

In light of the onslaught of articles calling for cutting back on meat consumption, host Dana Cowin talks to one of the country’s pre-eminent butchers, Philadelphia-based Heather Thomason about her chosen career.  (December 2019)

FOOBOOZ

Primal Supply Is Hosting Some of the City’s Best Chefs for an Intimate Dinner Series

The whole-animal butcher has a shiny new headquarters in Brewerytown, where they'll feature a slate of guest chefs from spots like Friday Saturday Sunday, Vetri Cucina, and Tired Hands. (April 2019)

Philadelphia Inquirer

Marc Vetri is now a part-owner of Primal Supply Meats

The celebrated chef and restaurateur is now a minority owner in butcher Heather Thomason’s business, with an eye to supporting Primal Supply as it builds a new headquarters in the city next year. (September 2018)

Philadelphia Magazine

2018 Top-Quality Meats

Heather Thomason (badass butcher to the city’s top chefs) has finally turned her pasture-raised meat subscription into a cheery brick-and-mortar. (July 2018)

Philadelphia Magazine

Philly’s New Food Establishment
Fifteen chefs, owners and doers who are re-creating Philly’s food scene. (January 2018)

Foobooz

Your Guide to Philly’s Grassfed Beef Boom
These companies make it easy to source delicious, nutritious, and sustainable beef. Here's how they stack up. (August 2017)

Foobooz

A Whole-Animal Butcher Shop Is Coming to East Passyunk Avenue
Primal Supply Meats owner-butcher Heather Thomason is opening her own brick and mortar. (December 2017)

Edible Philly

Woman's Work
At Kensington Quarters, Heather Marold Thomason busts up the butchery boy’s club. (September 2015)