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Look inside Primal Supply Meat’s spacious new Brewerytown headquarters

The shiny new headquarters will feature a retail shop, classes and chef dinners.

Heather Thomason, owner of Primal Supply Meats, at her new location in Brewerytown.
Heather Thomason, owner of Primal Supply Meats, at her new location in Brewerytown.Read moreDAVID SWANSON / Staff Photograph

At the sprawling Brewerytown building that is now the headquarters for Primal Supply Meats, butcher Heather Marold Thomason is going back to her roots.

The light-filled building at 1521 N. 31st Street, which Thomason plans to open to the public May 4, isn’t just a new home for her fast-growing business, which connects chefs and customers with locally sourced, sustainable meats. It’s also a place where Thomason will host classes, dinners and events to showcase those products, similar to what was possible when she worked at Kensington Quarters in Fishtown, which regularly holds such events.

“The building we were in before, it wasn’t a place we could invite people to come and see what we do,” she said of Primal Supply’s previous facility in Yeadon. “I’ve always loved hosting.”

The 6,000-square-foot space, which the company moved into last month, will also include Thomason’s second retail location. She opened a shop on East Passyunk Avenue last May.

A spacious room at the front of the building will feature a meat case and a market with local cheese, produce and pantry items, similar to her South Philly location. The room is decorated with butcher blocks and a scale from Fiorella’s Sausage in the Italian Market, which was bought by Primal Supply partner Marc Vetri after it closed last year.

From the front of the building, interior windows look into a bright room where the meats are cut. Next to that is a full-service kitchen where Thomason will host courses like her “Whole Hog” butchery and sausage-making classes. It will also be a setting for collaborative chef dinners.

Classes in the new building start in May. The retail shop will be open on Saturdays only at first, Thomason said, with expanded days and hours to follow. The front room could also be used to host larger events or parties.

“I would love to have people walk in and ask for what they want,” she said. “This is a flexible, hospitality-forward space, and to some extent I will let the market dictate how it’s used.”