A cut above

Doug King is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to meat. He's also an artist in his own right.

Some people love to paint, others sing or dance, but Mr. King cuts meat. The owner of Doug's Meat Shop on Deans Bridge Road has been in business for 37 years.

"There's a skill to it. You have to learn the techniques. You've got to learn the right way and the wrong way, really," Mr. King said.

Regardless of where meat is sold, it should be cut the same way -- there are standards in the industry. For instance, all beef is cut quarter to the grain, he said.

"If you're cutting rib-eye, if you cut them wrong, they're going to be tough," Mr. King said. "Pork is pretty basic. The biggest problem we have in today's industry is identifying cuts that you see in these stores. Some of these cuts are unidentifiable.

"Everybody can look at a T-bone and tell that it's a T-bone, but some of this other stuff, you can't tell what it is."

Because of his broad knowledge, he often gets requests for international cuts and cuts that are thinner than those found in grocery stores.

Lining the cases of the south Augusta store are beef, pork, chicken, seafood, turkeys and hams. The shop also sells lamb and goat. His store is a popular spot during hunting season.

"We make country sausage. We process deer, feral hogs. When it's deer season, our sales pick up," he said.

Mr. King processes feral hogs 365 days a year, but he processes deer only during hunting season.

Though it's an independent store, Doug's Meat Shop has a large client base. In its heyday, the meat shop had three stores in the Augusta area -- two of them in Columbia County.

"It's big volume for an independent. It does grocery store meat sales," Mr. King said. "We've got a real good regular customer base, and a lot of people refer business to us."

He also supplies meat to many restaurants in town, including Village Deli Sub & Pub.

"The Village Deli is a big customer of mine. I furnish probably 75 to 80 percent of all their meat. Then I have some churches that have cafeterias, and I'm also a Richmond County vendor for the jails," Mr. King said.

He keeps his staff relatively small at the family-owned business. He has three full-time employees and one part-timer. His wife, Zelma, and son, Doug Jr., work alongside him at the store.

Mr. King calls his wife "the boss."

"She does everything. She's the bookkeeper, cashier and meat wrapper," he said. "We can run it with less people because we cut and sell ourselves."

Les Barrett, the owner of Village Deli Sub & Pub, has been buying meat, mostly hamburger, from Mr. King for 13 years. He buys 80 to 100 pounds a day.

"It's always fresh and perfect. He knows exactly what he's doing," Mr. Barrett said. "He only provides the best product possible. We've been voted Best Hamburger in Augusta a couple of times, and that's all because of him and his hamburger."

Larry Sides has been a customer for 30 years. The business development officer at Georgia Bank & Trust said that his friend and banking customer is "friendly, outgoing and makes it a point to speak to anyone who enters the store."

"He asks them how they're doing," Mr. Sides said. "He probably knows most of his customers and their family. He's been in that location for years and helped to anchor South Augusta.

"He stayed right there, and he didn't try to move into another area. He's one of the few businesses in his direction that has done that."

Farm life

Mr. King grew up on a farm near Gainesville, Fla., one of 10 children. His parents, Preston and Ethel King, originally from Georgia, were cattle ranchers.

"That's how I got into the meat business. I've been in the grocery business since I was 13 years old," Mr. King said.

He said all his brothers and sisters were born at home. His mother made all of her children's clothes.

On the farm, he raised calves and rode a mule and wagon to town, which was 10 miles away.

"I wore more Yellow Rose and Martha White flour bags for underclothes than most people have ever seen in a lifetime," Mr. King said. "If you had a dollar back then, you were pretty well off. If you had two dollars, you were real rich."

The residents in the small town could trade in grocery items at the "rolling store" if they couldn't afford to buy new ones. A business would pass through with a horse and wagon so families could make their selections. Though they were poor, they had the best of everything, he said.

"Our neighborhood played together, a lot of times we ate together. We swapped things like sugar back and forth. Everybody got along," he said.

Asked about his age, Mr. King said, "We don't want to talk about age. I don't tell people that."

He said that he went to work at a grocery store as soon as he received his Social Security number. He started by bagging groceries and worked his way up. When he graduated from high school, he was offered a position in management.

In 1967, he was transferred to Albany, Ga., and he moved to Augusta in 1969. He said he took early retirement and decided to open his own business.

He opened Doug's Meat Shop in a small, rented space on Deans Bridge Road on March 12, 1972.

"I saw the need for it. When I came here, there was only one butcher shop in this whole town," Mr. King said.

"There wasn't anything out here (south Augusta) except a Piggly Wiggly and Fort Gordon."

One year later, he moved into a larger store he built on Deans Bridge Road. His wife went to work with him.

Mr. King said starting the business was tough. He used his personal money to start Doug's Meat Shop. His children, Doug Jr. and Faye Diane, were 5 and 6 years old at the time.

"You had to have your own funds because banks wouldn't loan you any money. Risk was too high," Mr. King said.

The equipment in a meat shop isn't cheap. Today, display cases cost $800 or $900 per foot, he said.

The couple worked long hours, so they prepared a space at the back of the shop where their children could sleep.

"We'd be there until midnight some nights," Mr. King said.

Mr. King is a master butcher, which is above the skill level of grocery store cutters, he said. He took classes in Toledo, Ohio, while he worked in grocery management, as a requirement for the job.

"You couldn't be in management if you didn't go past a journeyman butcher," he said.

Doug's Meat Shop thrived over the years. Mr. King opened two additional stores in Columbia County in 1975 and 1986. At one time, he had 10 employees.

"When the road widened, River Watch Parkway got one of them (the stores), and Washington Road got the other one," Mr. King said.

His shop on Washington Road closed in 1978, and his store along River Watch Parkway closed in 1989, but he was financially compensated for his loss.

Satisfaction

Mr. King said he enjoys cutting meat; working with the public is what keeps him in the business.

"I just like dealing with people and talking with people. I don't ever meet a stranger," Mr. King said.

His goal is to accommodate his customers' needs, he said.

"There's always a place for personal service. That's the key to the whole thing," Mr. King said. "You can buy anything in here you can get in a grocery store. If you want to buy it in bulk, we sell it.

"There's no order here too small or too big. We can give them one pork chop to a whole cow."

Rick Terzia has been a customer for 15 years. He said that he keeps coming back because of the quality product and "good prices on great stuff."

"There's nowhere else you can get stuff hand-done for you," Mr. Terzia said. "He'll cut the meat to order."

He met Mr. King when he worked in the food industry selling food products to restaurants.

"He's a stickler about who he buys from -- that's the main thing. He buys only from companies that he knows. He knows what he's doing," Mr. Terzia said.

Holidays and major events are Mr. King's prime business days -- Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Masters Tournament.

Hunting season brings customers in numbers, he said.

"We trade off our days off because from August to Jan. 15, nobody gets off. When hunting season starts, everybody works. We start taking deer from South Carolina on Aug. 15," Mr. King said.

After a hunting trip, people bring in their deer and hogs to be processed into sausage. He has been busy filling last-minute orders for Fourth of July barbecues.

To meet industry regulations, Mr. King has a separate facility for processing hogs.

"You can't bring them into the store. It's under a different inspection," Mr. King said. "I have a feral hog license, which is a Georgia red meat license. You can only take feral hogs if you have that license."

Patricia Schaffer, the owner of Villa Europa, was a neighbor business at one time.

"He seems very driven," Ms. Schaffer said. "I know he's a hard worker. He seems to be very eager to supply what people want. He is one of the few people in Augusta, if not the only one, who processes feral pigs. So I've sent people to him for their pig roasts."

He has given her mother, Anneliese Schaffer-Neises, a meat cutter and co-owner of Villa Europa, advice on meat-cutting techniques. Customers benefit from his quality and expertise, she said.

"It reminds us of the neighborhood butcher shop, the way they have it in Germany," Ms. Schaffer said. "They know it's fresh, and you can pick out your own cut of meat. You have someone waiting on you, and that's all that they do -- sell meat.

"He's been really loyal to south Augusta. I appreciate that. He's really dedicated to his trade."

The meat industry has changed over the years, Mr. King said.

"If you've been out of the industry for a few years, you'd have to get a refresher to get back into what we're doing today," he said.

Mr. King stays current through classes and industry publications. Meat companies offer classes in the latest techniques, but he doesn't attend them because they're so expensive, he said.

Master butchers can teach classes, and Mr. King taught students at his shop during the 1980s. About 35 students attended for two hours twice a week.

He believes that Augusta Technical College should start a meat-cutting program, but the school probably hasn't done so because it would be too expensive.

"You've got to practice on something, and that stuff is high price," he said.

When he hires employees, he ensures they are highly skilled.

"If he's a good butcher, then he can do everything. When you come in here and ask me for a job, I'm going to ask if you're a butcher or a meat cutter," he said.

Another change is that there are fewer meat suppliers, Mr. King said. Though the industry is evolving, he believes that meat cutters will always be around.

"This is never going to die. There's always going to be a market for a butcher shop," he said.

Mr. King's son started working with him when he reached 15. He has taught Doug Jr. everything he knows about the meat business.

"He knows enough to continue the business when I'm long gone. He's going to be the future of the business," Mr. King said.

Golfing, working

When Mr. King isn't cutting meat, he can likely be found on the golf course.

"My biggest hobby is golf. The next one is hunting," he said.

He plays golf several days a week, he said.

Mr. Barrett said that he enjoys talking with Mr. King about the game, though they don't play together.

"He's way too out of my league. He is a scratch golfer. He and his son are excellent golfers. His son has won the club championship out at Pointe South several times," Mr. Barrett said. "For a man of his age, he can still knock the golf ball a country mile."

Donnie Miller, a commercial loan officer at Queensborough National Bank & Trust, plays golf occasionally with Mr. King. He met Mr. King through business and considers his friend to be "independent, likeable and a hard worker."

"Doug's very competitive. He practices at his house. He's a very good golfer," Mr. Miller said.

Periodically, Mr. King takes golf trips out of town with other golfers, he said.

He and his son take deer hunting trips together in Georgia, but they also like to hunt alone.

Unlike many people, Mr. King considers work to be a pastime. Retirement is not in his immediate plans. He said that he would do it all over again.

"It's been a good ride. I'm going to work until I can't work. I like being around people, and I'm bored to death when I'm not here," Mr. King said.

"I could have quit the meat industry years ago, but I'm not. It's in my blood."

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.