Show the animal: Constructing and communicating new elite food tastes at upscale butcher shops

•Analysis of physical points of purchase and the work practices of retail shop workers reveals how they are implicated in the sociology of taste.•Omnivorous tastes are (re)produced and inculcated in the setting of a new upscale butcher shop.•Recoded occupations at new elite retail establishments use skilled performances of “functional aesthetics” and “interactive service”.•Inclusion in the social world of new elite food (i.e. “foodie”) culture is in part based on these skilled performances, which are in themselves exclusionary.

Research on cultural omnivorousness has mainly focused on consumption practices among economic and cultural elites and the dissemination of omnivorous tastes through the media. Through ethnographic research this paper argues for the significance of physical points of purchase in the production and inculcation of omnivorous taste. Focusing on the workers at upscale butcher shops, this paper examines how workers at new elite retail establishments use skilled performances to construct and communicate notions of taste and quality in their products. I explain how the “meat philosophy” of these shops makes them distinct from other meat retail outlets, fits with omnivorous tastes, and underpins the work their cultural workers do. I then show how craft butchers and counter workers at these shops use “functional aesthetics” and “interactive service,” respectively, to prepare and sell meat, as well as to teach “good” taste in meat to customers. Exploring the intersection of restructured tastes and values in food, new places for elite consumption, and the recoding of occupations in the postindustrial city, this paper furthers our understanding of cultural omnivorousness and, more broadly, the sociology of taste.