Palm Beach Meats will open a temple of Japanese beef in SoDo this fall

One of the country's foremost purveyors of Japanese wagyu is coming to Orlando and lovers of highly marbled beef have cause to rejoice.

Palm Beach Meats will open this fall in the SoDo space recently vacated by Hungry Pants at 3421 S. Orange Ave. And like the original coastal operation, Palm Beach Meats Orlando will sell cuts of the prized protein, including Australian and domestic brands, to avid beef connoisseurs and cook them up as well. A menu of burgers, cheesesteaks, sandwiches, hot dogs, burritos and, yes, steaks will be offered.

Owners Eric and Meghan San Pedro, who are moving to Orlando from Palm Beach, say they'll also stage special events and pop-ups with local chefs and food artisans in addition to holding monthly steakhouse nights spotlighting some of the finest beef on the planet.

Like Kobe beef.

"We're one of a few places in the state licensed to sell Kobe beef," says Eric, "and the only place in the U.S. licensed to sell it in a retail, wholesale and restaurant setting."

Needless to say, Palm Beach Meats Orlando will be the first and only establishment certified by Japan's Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association to sell Kobe beef in the city.

But expect to see other high-end brands of Japanese beef like Matsusaka (which we got to sample when it debuted in this country back in 2015), Ōmi, Takamori, Nagasaki, Shinshu, Shimane and Bushu in addition to commodity brands like Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Hokkaido.

Bushu is a brand Eric San Pedro has a particular affinity for, having visited the family-owned operation in Saitama Prefecture. "We spent the day on the farm with the Hasegawa family and saw how the cows are cared for," he says. "The experience was almost religious because we already loved their beef."

I was fortunate enough to sample Bushu beef in addition to others at a dinner hosted by Juju and Palm Beach Meats back in September 2022. At that epic dinner, San Pedro and Juju chef/owner Lewis Lin also served Takamori beef, often called "drunken wagyu" for the special diet the cows are fed.

"The farm has a partnership with the Dassai Sake Brewery and their cows are fed a sake mash," says San Pedro. "We recently sold a 1,300-pound whole carcass set to one restaurant. This is very exclusive stuff."

But Palm Beach Meats Orlando will also carry a host of non-beef products as Iberico pork, Kurobuta pork, some game sausages and Poulet Rouge chickens.

"We sell quite a few hard-to-find imported products, largely Japanese, as well as salts, sauces and spices. But the bulk of what we carry is wagyu," San Pedro says, "because we love it."

Follow @palmbeachmeats for all the latest.

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