‘Rare Butchers’ has been owned by Chris Cierpik since January 2010. Previously, the shop was owned

and run by Bob Wherlock for many years.

‘Rare’ is run by 2 highly experienced butchers: Chris himself and his colleague, Mr Juraj Suhajda.

Chris has spent over 30 years in the meat trade, having trained at Bristol Meat Company. He is

passionate about food and this is reflected in the wide array of free range, locally sourced products

sold in the shop. Juraj completed a 5 year apprenticeship in his native Slovakia to become a master

butcher and Pawel re-trained at ‘Rare’ as a butcher under the guidance of Chris and Juraj, having

previously worked as a chef. We also have a 16 year old apprentice enrolled through a programme

at Bridgwater College as well as 2 front of house staff.

Chris and the team at ‘Rare’ are always striving to serve our local, diverse residents of Bedminster

and further afield with good quality, affordably priced products matched to our customers’ needs

and budgets.

What we appreciate about Bedminster and our North Street location is our wide range of customers

in terms of age, nationality and ethnicity who visit the shop. So many of our local customers share

our enthusiasm for ethically sourced products. North Street has a vibrancy and ‘buzz’, particularly on

a Saturday. We see many customers chatting with neighbours and friends as they carry out their

shopping and it is a pleasure to serve our friendly community. We are surrounded by other

independent retail outlets in our street offering good quality fruit and vegetables, bread, fish and deli

products. This makes Bedminster a place to buy fresh goods as we have in our street a genuine

alternative to supermarket shopping for everyday food products.

Thank you to the team at Rare for writing this piece about the butchers that we all know and love! You can visit the team at Rare at 250 North Street.