Search for grass-fed beef – BRED gourmet

Recently I wrote a post about the definition of grass-fed beef.  Now that we are (sort-of) clear on the definitions, where can we find grass-fed beef at a restaurant?  Well you won’t have to look too hard to find the term grass-fed on a menu.   Very few restaurants state the actual farm they get their meat from (there are some exceptions, stay tuned for future posts) but there are plenty of restaurants that will state grass-fed beef on their menu, particularly for burgers.  So how can can you know for sure?

One day I was home with the kids (school holiday) and we went bowling in the morning to kill some time and get them out of the house on rainy day.  I was looking for a place to take them to lunch and I found – Bred Gourmet, a burger place in Lower Mills Dorchester, close to my house.   They had “grass-fed beef”  all over their menu and good reviews on Yelp, and a kids menu!  We were there at lunchtime and it was not that busy.  They had a small eat-in area and the menu looked interesting –  three grass-fed burger options, a hormone-free turkey burger, bison burger, salmon burger and a veggie option and you can also add a free-range egg.  Lots of the right terms being used here for sure.  I decided to go for the Maui burger, the combination of grilled pineapple,  plantains and BBQ sauce was intriguing to me, but I decided to omit the ham.  Kids got a plain cheeseburger.  Everything was made to order and while I was waiting I asked the young lady behind the counter, where did they get their grass-fed beef?  She replied that she couldn’t tell me, I said ‘can you not tell me or do you not know?’  Turns out she didn’t  know – fair enough.

The burgers were delicious, you could taste the quality for sure.  I wish that I got a plain cheeseburger after tasting my kids’ burgers so that I could really appreciate the taste of the beef.  The flavors of the Maui burger were awesome but I have found with good grass fed beef you don’t need too many other flavors.  The real taste test was the kids, I asked whether the liked BRED burger or Wendy’s and they overwhelmingly said Bred – must say I was a little surprised since they loved Wendy’s (which is now off the list by the way).

When I got home I did some research on BRED – there is a good video on Youtube with a review by Phantom Gourmet.  They show most of the menu and they look so good! In this video they mention that the meat is from Maine Family Farms.  A search came up with a website that mentioned that they buy grass-fed beef from farms throughout Maine.  I emailed them to ask if all their beef is pasture-raised and grass fed and got a prompt reply that is was.  I also emailed BRED gourmet to ask if they still use Maine Family Farms for their ground beef since the video was a few years old (still waiting for a reply).

Also found this article on the founder Tambo Burrow.   I like that he is a young guy from the neighborhood that is trying to make a difference making good food.