Butcher Shop Near Me in Bernal Heights: Avedano's on Cortland Avenue

Avedano's Holly Park Market opens at noon Monday through Thursday and at 9 am Friday through Sunday, closing at 6 pm every day, at 235 Cortland Avenue in Bernal Heights. Anyone typing butcher shop near me from the south side of San Francisco will find a whole-animal counter here, with house-cured bacon at $18.99 a pound, links made in the back, and a phone number spelled out as 415-285-MEAT.

The room has sold meat for well over a century. Tablehopper reported in June 2007 that the space had held a butcher since 1901, most recently Cicero's Meat Market, when three women took it over: Tia Harrison, the chef and partner behind Sociale, Angela Wilson of Divine Chai, and Melanie Eisman. Harrison named the shop after her Italian grandparents from Asti, and the doors opened that July.

Twelve years later the story almost ended. In May 2019 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Avedano's would close on June 30, with the owners pointing to grocery delivery competition, the sale of the building and the struggle to keep staff. Within weeks an angel investor stepped in. Wilson told the Chronicle, "Some rich guy saved us," then added that the plan should not be for rich people to rescue small shops. After a quick remodel the counter reopened on September 1, 2019.

Start with the cured and stuffed things, because they show off the in-house work. The bacon is cured on site and sold in one-pound packs for $18.99. Sausages come four links to a package, roughly 1.3 pounds: spicy Italian, mild Italian, bourbon and sage, and bratwurst run $22.49, lamb merguez is $23.99, and the breakfast and chorizo links are $16.99. The bourbon and sage is the one to grab if you only buy one pack.

For a dinner centerpiece, the online store lists a Root Down chicken of about 3.5 pounds for $31.99 and a Klingeman cowboy steak, a single bone of roughly two pounds, for $61.99. Seasoned porchetta comes in six-pound and eight-pound rolls at $149.99 and $199.99, and USDA Prime bone-in rib roasts from Brandt start at $189.99 for two bones. The counter accepts CalFresh EBT, which is unusual for a whole-animal shop at this price level.

Thanksgiving is the shop's busiest stretch. The 2026 list has Ferndale fresh turkeys, never frozen, at $88.99 for 12 to 14 pounds, $102.99 for 14 to 16 pounds and $115.99 for 16 to 18 pounds. Pickup runs Friday, November 20 through Wednesday, November 25, from noon to 6 pm. Spatchcocking adds $14.99, and the Turchetta upgrade, a deboned bird stuffed with duck fat, sage, rosemary, parsley and garlic, then rolled and tied, adds $94.99.

The pastured PT Ranch birds ($99.99 and $131.99) and Joyce Farms Heritage Black turkeys ($136.99 and $209.99) are the pricier tier. On October 17 several rib roast and porchetta sizes already showed as sold out in the online store. Meat boxes work on a weekly cycle: phone in on a Friday and pick up the following Friday. The Basic Box is $119.99 and the Griller box is $279.99 in the online store.

The butchery classes are the reason some regulars first walked in. Each session takes four students, costs $350 a person and includes $150 worth of meat to carry home. The fall and winter calendar lists a pork class on Sunday, October 18, 2026, then whole hog on January 24, 2027, lamb on February 21 and another hog on March 21. A shorter sausage-making class is $225, and the shop asks for a week's notice to cancel.

Next door at 237 Cortland, the Udder Room hosts private dinners and parties for up to 25 guests at $1,000 flat plus $75 per person. The shop describes itself as an old-fashioned butcher in a high-tech city that puts sustainability ahead of convenience. Whole-animal butchery means the cutters work through entire carcasses rather than ordering boxed primals. A 2012 Bold Italic piece caught Wilson cutting up a cow that hung on a hook.

The single mistake visitors make is showing up on a weekday morning. From Monday to Thursday the door stays locked until noon, so a 10 am errand only works Friday through Sunday. Large orders are handled on a fixed rhythm: call between noon and 3 pm, then collect between 3 and 6 pm the same day. That window suits weekday cooks who want a custom cut ready on the way home from work.

Friday through Sunday is the only time the shop opens at 9 am, so it is also the easiest window for early shoppers. If you need a fallback for steaks, Olivier's Butchery in Dogpatch is a short drive east. Skip the idea of a holiday walk-in: turkeys are reserved ahead and handed out across the six-day pickup window.

The 24 Divisadero bus runs along Cortland, and the shop takes its name from Holly Park, a hilltop green a few blocks south on Holly Park Circle. The park opens at 6 am and closes at 8 pm, and its looping path gives wide views across the city toward the bay. Holly Park is a calm place to sit for half an hour with coffee after shopping, and the climb from Cortland is short but steep.

Walk east instead to Wild Side West at 424 Cortland, a lesbian bar founded in 1962 that moved to Bernal Heights in 1976. Its art-filled beer garden is the draw on a sunny afternoon, and the bar stays open from 2 pm until 2 am. Shop first, keep the sausages cold in an insulated bag, and finish with a pint in the garden before heading home.

Avedano's Holly Park Market, 235 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94110. Hours: Monday to Thursday noon to 6 pm, Friday to Sunday 9 am to 6 pm. Large orders: call noon to 3 pm, pick up 3 to 6 pm. Online orders go through the shop's Square store. CalFresh EBT accepted. Butchery classes $350 with four students per class. Thanksgiving pickup November 20 to 25. Nearest transit: the 24 Divisadero along Cortland Avenue.