Meat+Poultry - June 2019 - 79

Fischer's Meat Market blends European
craftsmanship with Texas hospitality
BY S T E V E K RU T | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d.c o m

T

his past March, on the first day of
his company's 93rd year in business,
Steven Fisher spoke with zeal about
its past, present and future. The operator of
Fischer's Meat Market in Muenster, Texas,
was open, straightforward and excited about
opportunities ahead.
"I guess you could say we were handed a
silver spoon when my wife Penny and I took
over the family business in 2005," he reflects.
"It was built right, with the right equipment,
the correct layout and everything was designed
for efficiency and worked right."
Fisher has a way of understating. The plant
was so well designed that the Texas Dept.
of Agriculture actually made a film of the
facility as a model that taught not only layout
for optimum product flow, but separation of
product operations that all lent to greater
sanitation and food safety. At the time, it was
the blueprint of what Texas meat inspection
officials wanted to see when they came to
conduct a total plant inspection.
Fischer's Meat Market is in its third location
since its founding on March 17, 1927. The
28,000-sq.-ft. operation, occupying the space
that was formerly a Chevrolet dealership,
features a kill area, processing rooms, a
sausage kitchen and a full grocery store. The
retail store features a 24-ft. meat service case,
another 16 ft. of self-service meats, and a
third 36-ft. case featuring the firm's specialty
smoked meats and cheeses. The company is in
the process of adding a 16,000-sq.-ft. facility on
the same site.
"We are building it for higher-level
production with more modern equipment,"
Fisher explains. "We hope to be able to greatly
increase manufacturing specialty products."

John, opened a small butcher shop and grocery
store. Their staples were German sausages and
fresh meats.
Within a few years, the great Dust Bowl
wreaked havoc on the area, but the brothers
persevered, returned to prosperity, and built a
modern facility they turned over to John's sons
in 1975. The upgraded plant was also a model
facility that was even featured in a presentation
by engineer/architect Bob Bowlin at a national
convention of the American Association
of Meat Processors shortly after it opened.
Bowlin, now in his 80s, is also responsible for
designing the newest facility.
Fisher's mother insisted that to better
reflect the Bavarian heritage of the family
business, it should have a glockenspiel. Bowlin
also designed the 45-ft. tower which, on the
hour, plays German celebration percussion
music, bells ring and its upper doors open to a
parade of seven traditional figures including a
milkmaid, cow, fraulein, dancers, a bear and a
king. Oh, and of course leading the parade is a
sausage-maker donning lederhosen.
Completed in 1998, the glockenspiel is a
tourist draw in this Bavarian-style community.
It is the only one of its kind in Texas, and for
many years was one of only four or five in
the US.
Ironically, with the outbreak of war with
Germany, the Fischer family changed the
family name to Fisher to avoid creating ill will

(Left) The glockenspiel at
Fischer's Meat Market in
Muenster, Texas, has been
a tourist draw since it was
added in 1998. (Below)
Albert Andress, Joe Fisher
and Gertie Fisher at the
original shop in 1932.

GERMAN HERITAGE
The company was founded in oil country
about 60 miles northwest of Dallas by German
immigrants. Seeing the need for fresh and
cured meats in the town, which has grown to a
population of 1,600, Fischer brothers Joe and
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