Conversations with Jason & Susie Lee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason & Susie Lee.

Jason & Susie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
We started making our Meat Duster seasoning many years ago, just a “personal” seasoning for home use. It was never meant to be a product for sale. After using and sharing it with friends and family we were encouraged to try and make it salable product. 

We did biker rallies, outdoor expos, and a couple of farmers’ markets just to try and get the brand out there. 

Once the pandemic hit, all of our markets and events went away, unfortunately. We built enough regular clients through our events that our online sales helped us maintain the business during that very rough time. It is also the same time we decided to try and open the butcher shop. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Opening the store at the height of the pandemic obviously presented many obstacles. Shipping on most equipment had been doubled and tripled from pre-pandemic norms. We ordered our most important pieces of equipment, our meat display cases, in Oct. we opened the shop at the end of Feb 2021. Our cases didn’t show up until mid-April. Running a brand-new meat shop without display cases for over a month was also a challenge. But we dos what we have to do to keep it moving. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Quality meat and a huge priority on customer service. We mainly source Prime beef. We do carry some Angus, American Wagyu, Australian Wagyu, and also A5 Japanese wagyu from time to time. 

The pork and chicken we source is “all natural”. No solutions are added to any of our pork or chicken. 

The meat we sale in our store is a much higher quality than you will fine at most grocery stores. 

What does success mean to you?
A happy work environment. Employees that are happy to show up every day and put in the work needed to present our quality products in a way that appeals to our customers’ needs. If all this falls in line correctly we create happy customers that are more than happy to return to our shop. We run a shop that is fun to come work in. A Happy/fun workplace creates happy employees which in return creates customers a happy/fun place to shop. Not sure I answered this correctly but that’s my thought. 

Contact Info:

• Website: Leebonesfinemeats.com and meatduster.com
• Instagram: @Leebonesfinemeats and @leebonesmeatduster
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeBonesFineMeats/ and https://www.facebook.com/MeatDuster/