Shepherds and Butchers: Curated Gastronomy in the Heart of Wellington

Chef, traveler and raconteur Anthony Bourdain once claimed that without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese, life was simply not worth living.

This is a philosophy that Gabriel Llauradó has taken to heart with Meat N’ Bone, a discerning purveyor of quality meats, poultry and caviar based in South Florida.

Llauradó is passionate about steak and sees himself as a docent of sorts, working with customers to create not just a memorable meal but an unforgettable dining event.

“Back when we were kids, my mom would take me to the butcher and she would have a relationship with the butcher,” Llauradó said. “She knew what she wanted and she asked questions.”

He is looking to replicate that experience with Meat N’ Bone and encourages customers to come in, spend some time and learn about the vast array of fine meats the store carries.

“We want to show you our offerings and talk about it. You start asking questions and we put the beef on the table,” Llauradó said. “We want you to touch the steaks, it’s fresh meat. Anything with a bone has a different shelf life so some of the cuts are frozen but we strive for freshness.”

With four locations in Miami, Parkland, Pinecrest and Wellington with a fifth opening in Hallandale Beach later this year, Meat N’ Bone delivers to all of Miami-Dade, Broward and most of Palm Beach County and will deliver for free if customers schedule deliveries ahead of time. Meat N’ Bone also offers a Grill Master service for private events.

“Let’s say you want to host an event at your house but you don’t feel like standing at the grill all night. For $200 plus the cost of the meat, we can bring a guy who cooks to order,” Llauradó said. “Each one of our guys has hundreds of hours of grill experience and knows our products so it’s much more unique than going out to a steakhouse.”

Creating exclusive gastronomic affairs is at the heart of Meat N’ Bone’s culture and one of the ways they cultivate this is through their dry aging and alcohol-infusion process.

“Nobody does this, it’s unique to Meat N’ Bone and I only make 80 steaks a month. They sell out in minutes,” Llauradó said.

Dry-aging is the difference between the steak you grill in the backyard and the steaks you get when eating out. A process which both helps tenderness and intensifies flavor, large cuts of beef are aged between one month to several months before being cut into steaks.

“The Capital Grille ages for about 28 days and we do 60 in our dry-aged steaks. We have one of the best dry age programs in the nation; we dry age in Chicago,” Llauradó said. “The thing about dry aged is not for everybody. When you cook it, it has a little bit of a nutty flavor. It’s not that commonly found and it’s not that simple to source. Our 45-day dry aged Tomahawk is incredibly flavorful and definitely the ‘manliest’ cut of beef out there.”

The concept of alcohol-infused steak came about during the 2020 pandemic. While the rest of the country was in lockdown making sourdough bread, Llauradó was conceptualizing how to combine the classic combination of steaks and spirits.

“I’m an avid drinker,” Llauradó said with a warm chuckle. “When dry-aging, we infused the muscles with liquor. We did single malt whiskey and it was delicious but my favorite is the rum. We partnered up with Diplomatico, a Venezuelan rum brand, and it was amazing. The sugars from the rum stay there and when you cook it, you get an incredible crust.”

In addition to dry-aged steak, Meat N’ Bone prides itself on sourcing rare cuts of meat only found in the most exclusive of retailers.

Referred to as the “Showstopper of the Backyard BBQ,” Picanha Steak Wagyu is highly sought-after, much beloved in Brazil and almost impossible to find in the United States…unless you’re Gabriel Llauradó.

“It has a fat cap that crisps up beautifully when cooked and a delicious buttery flavor that’s almost addictive,” he said. “Our Picanhas come from a family owned company and we have compared this program to others from major chains, finding that it consistently tastes better and eats better.”

Meat N’ Bone also has the distinction of carrying the rarest steak in the world, the heralded New York Olive Sanuki Wagyu, a Japanese A5 Wagyu from Shodoshima Island where cattle breeding goes back over a millennium.

“Olive-Fed Wagyu comes from steers raised on a special feed of olive mulch and has become famous for its higher levels of oleic acid and nutty taste,” Llauradó said. “The texture is soft and buttery, the fat is sweet and very digestible.”

For those with a discerning palate who prefer seafood or pork to beef, Meat N’ Bone offers wild caught African tiger prawns and Jamon Iberico directly from Spain.

“Our pork chops come from Farm Vera Vieja in Badajoz, Spain from black Iberian pigs who roam freely and are fed a diet of grass and grain,” Llauradó said. “We call it the Wagyu of pork.”
Located in the Wellington Marketplace, a trip to Meat N’ Bone is less a trip to the butcher and more the start of a culinary journey. Gabriel Llauradó is passionate about great food and bringing people together for inimitable experiences.

“We have a team that curates everything, sourcing from the top 3% of USDA produce and working with farmers to bring best-in-class food to South Floridians,” he said. “Most people will learn more about beef on one visit to Meat N’ Bone than in a lifetime of buying from the supermarket.”