|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
| . Mike's Meats | |
||||||||
 |
||||
|
109
Market
House Mike's Meats is the place to go to feed a big family on a little budget. He's got all the right food when you want your kids to clean their plates: corn dogs, meat patties, chicken nuggets, frozen veggies, ravioli, homemade ham salad, egg rolls, fruit-flavored drinks, and a choice of about a half dozen different kinds of cake for dessert. A trip to Mike's Meats can get you stocked up on many basic grocery items too, like Amish cheese and butter, sliced bread, and deli meats. Mike makes sure his stand provides customers with quality food that's affordable and convenient to prepare. He was a kid himself when he started working at Findlay Market. He was twelve years old when he first helped out at Rothhaus Meats, the stand his sister-in-law, Jean Bender, later purchased. He remembers packaging a lot of hot dogs to sell in bulk. But it didn't take much to get him to do that task or any other. All through school, he worked Saturdays at the market. Then for the seven years that he was a professional plumber, he was still at the market every Saturday, enjoying the diversity of the customers and joking with all of them. In 1985, when he decided he wanted to be his own boss, he stopped being a plumber full-time and bought a Findlay Market stand of his own from Mary Davis, who was retiring. In the beginning, Mike's inventory was basically lunchmeats and fresh pork. He wasn't in business long when chicken nuggets entered the American food scene. Mike's Meats was the first stand at Findlay Market to offer chicken nuggets. They were an instant hit, and have been his best seller ever since. As different flavors of breaded chicken became available, he started to stock those too. His all white meat patties and nuggets now come in the traditional flavor, as well as spicy or with Italian seasoning. Mike doubled the size of his stand in 1991 when the business right next to him, Hanlein Meats, came up for sale. He bought that space and added deli meats and cheese to his offerings. Besides running his stand full-time, Mike is the treasurer of the Findlay Market Merchant's Association. He was first elected in 1991 and has been re-elected every year since. The Merchant's Association combines the efforts of all the vendors to promote the market and to see that its daily operations are fulfilled. The association is best known for putting on the annual Findlay Market Opening Day Parade for the Cincinnati Reds. Mike's Meats is one of two stands at Findlay Market run by the same family. Mike's sister-in-law, Jeanie Bender, owns Bender Meats. More than half of the customers who shop at Mike's Meats have been doing so for over ten years. Mike has one customer who's still a regular after 30 years of shopping for her family at Mike's Meats. Mike is proud that his customers come from all over the greater Cincinnati area, but he's especially happy to know that he's making a difference right in Over-the-Rhine, providing households with low-cost, good food.
|
... |
|
||
