BRUCE – Trenten Kor, owner and operator for the past 2 1/2 years, has permanently closed the doors of the Bruce Market.
It will be replaced by the Bruce Locker and the Steel Grit Bar and Grill, a steakhouse-type restaurant.
By way of history, the market had been a grocery store since the 1970s; the meat market/locker (Kor uses the terms interchangeably) was added to the business in 2011.
“It was a complete market,” Kor said, “local for the grocery store and we probably had a 50-mile radius for the locker (meat market).”
Kor explained that the Bruce Market operated a “custom exempt” local locker: “The customer would bring in the animal and we would process it for them, what they wanted done with it, and they would have to come in and pick it back up.”
The market closed June 29, and custom meet processing ended July 6.
Unlike a state- and federally-inspected locker, the Bruce Market could not sell the processed meat. That will change when the Bruce Locker opens, which is planned for mid-October.
“After passing state and federal inspections, we can go out and buy our own animals and sell (their meat) to the customer,” Kor explained, adding that the bar and grill will be adjacent to the locker. “That’s why we shut it down, so we could revamp it. We’re going to reseal walls, reseal floors, get everything 100 percent up to code and ready to go.”
However, the restaurant will come first. His plan is to have it up and running by the end of August.
Menu: Keep it simple
“There’s a restaurant up the hill from us,” he said. “But we’re going to focus on being a steakhouse. We want to test-fire and get everything ready before I go over and open the federally inspected locker, so I don’t have everything opening at once.”
As to the restaurant menu, Kor said, “We’re going to keep it pretty simple. We’re going to do steak, of course. I want to do all the prime cuts. We also want to do dinner and breakfast. Breakfast for the locals, mainly.” And the proximity of the locker will allow a steady supply of a variety of meats for the restaurant.
”I’m going to have so much extra stuff there in the locker,” Kor explained. “When you process a beef, you have more than just steaks. You have the whole animal to get rid of.
“So I want to do a very selective pizza and burger menu for dinner, kind of put our special twist on everything.”
In addition to beef, the locker will also “do pork, lamb, goat; I want to serve lamb chops,” he added.
The meat used in the restaurant will come via purchases from local area farmers. Kor will have the purchased animals butchered and returned to the locker where he will further process the meat into a variety of cuts. Some of the meat will be sold to the public while some will be used for the menu at the restaurant.
Most of the beef will come from Kor Farms Inc., a feedlot and feed plant northwest of White owned and operated by Kor and his father, Wes Kor.
“We harvest grain,” Trenten Kor said. “And we make our own cattle feed; so we can control protein rates, everything.”
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
Register photo: The Bruce Market, shown July 28 during Honey Days in Bruce, closed earlier this summer. Its owner, Trenten Kor, says he’s transforming the space on Jay Street into a steakhouse-type restaurant and a state- and federally-inspected locker, where it can sell processed meat. The restaurant is expected to open first.
