Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Isabella Rutigliano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Isabella , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My Father owned Wayside Market, our family’s butcher shop, for 29 years. My Grandfather before him had his own farm raising animals and processing them for people in the 70s and 80s. My Mom’s a private chef so I grew up around food. I went into the corporate world for 6 years, I learned a lot but the goal was always to come home to apply the systems I learned.

I’ve been running the show for the last several years now as my Dad has desired to retire and my plan has always been to keep what we have and build onto our great products. We’re a craft butcher market so everything is artisanal and intentional down to the string we use to tie the meat. It’s edible artwork.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We’re a small artisanal butcher shop that’s located on the north fork of Long Island. We specialize in craft butcher cuts and all fresh in house dry-aged product. All of our animals are pasture raised and the ranches we work with are all people that follow organic practices but aren’t technically “organic”. We believe in teaching our customers to be informed consumers and we love to meet people where they’re at for their dietary specifications. We also have NY-style sandwiches where we use all of our own products from the breaded chicken cutlet to the roast beef and salads. We make it all, we’re an all scratch kitchen, so even for my catering what I tell people is that we provide the gourmet effect of a restaurant in the comfort of their own home so we can be as casual or as elegant as the affair requires.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Covid-19 like everyone was a crazy time for us. It’s why I came back home and I quit the corporate world. We were cutting steaks like crazy, masked, trying to navigate contactless and delivery. I had to take the store from operating on paper and pen to completely digitizing everything. It was wild but I learned so much about my self, about the business, I was able to foster my relationship with my Dad.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For a little while in the business we were only promoting sandwiches/deli product so our sandwich clientele and our butchering/meat clientele were different. When I came back, I saw the lapse in the connection of the two so I started marketing to each other aspect of the business from each side. It was a game changer. I also stopped print ads, I just found them to be ineffective and too expensive. We geared everything towards targeted holidays through specific newsletter marketing with some of the larger papers in the area and that’s been doing very well and our advertising costs are down significantly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.southoldwaysidemarket.com
• Instagram: @southoldwaysidemarket
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoutholdWaysideMarket
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/izrutigliano/

Image Credits

Mathew Kropp, Brooklyn East Photography