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Date: 5/24/2022
EASTHAMPTON – When Corsello Butcheria opened five years ago, owners Vincent and Kasey Corsello had a vision of what they wanted to create within the community.
The vision was based on their time spent living in Italy. While in Italy, the couple stumbled upon an open-air market in Rome where they discovered a local butcher who they began to know well, later becoming friends.
“We learned a lot from them and counted on them a lot for what to do with the food that we bought,” Vincent Corsello said. “When we came back here, we missed that very much. I wanted to take the bounty of this valley, which is a lot of local food, but also to have it in a way they could get whatever they wanted.”
Corsello said being able to provide local high-quality meat and have the Roman butcher experience that is Corsello Butcheria, was very important for him in bringing this business to Easthampton.
“For me, cooking or a meal doesn’t begin when sitting down to eat it, it begins when you think about what you want to do and the people you’re going to have there and what you’re going to cook,” Corsello said.
Corsello works directly with customers to ensure the best food for them and also is more than happy to explain the best way to prepare and cook a meat as they purchase some from the butcher.
Being able to connect with the community he serves is important to Corsello as he feels people are a little bit removed from their food than ever before due to the agricultural and industrial food systems in America. Corsello said customers need that support and it will lead them to cook more and learn more about cooking.
“There is a time and convenience factor but I think quite frankly a lot of it is also for people is it’s just a big mystery,” Corsello said. “It’s not considered easy or convenient to cook your own food and what I’m looking to do is just show people all you need is a little bit of knowledge and then you can have something spectacular within minutes and much better than what you would buy for convenience.”
It also was always a key component for the Corsellos to use only locally sourced food and when they first started, Vincent did not appreciate how little people knew about food and cooking. That was where he said his vision was adjusted as he had to take it as a chance to share an education with people about their food.
Five years later, the Corsellos have continued to uphold their mission and find success in Easthampton. The coronavirus pandemic caused some obstacles to the butcher but overall they were still open as an essential business.
While the overall impact from COVID-19 was small, two years of the five the butcheria has been open has been amid a different lifestyle than most were accustomed to prior.
Corsello said the main reason it ended up being a beneficial time amid crisis was that people were stuck at home and had to start cooking more and getting food to cook themselves.
“They got to experiment, they really didn’t have a choice, so they just did it,” Corsello said. “I think people realized in a lot of ways they could do it and make something out of nothing, like their grandparents did or even their parents did. From that regard it was an opportunity that really supported us in a way.”
Corsello said the biggest challenge was people’s fear of going inside stores, so they began doing online curbside pickup orders. He added the challenge of keeping up with orders was a positive one for the situation but that he was missing the interactions he would often have with people coming in the butcher.
Corsello said his five pillars to success he follows for his butcher are quality, local, simplicity, transparency and connection, and due to restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, the connection was lacking. Luckily it was only a small phase as making connections within the community through the day-to-day operations is something that has been important for the Corsellos and has most likely helped with their success.
“Connection is a really important thing for us because food is something that brings us together, something we all have in common no matter what our political beliefs are, our social economic situation, food is the common denominator that we can all enjoy or not enjoy,” Corsello said.
Now hopefully not having to deal with such strict restrictions as the coronavirus pandemic eases, Corsello said he is grateful they were able to make it through with the success they had.
“We were very fortunate in that regard, we worked very hard during that period of time,” Corsello said. “We’re on the other side of that and we’re grateful people came out and trusted us at that time.”
Now five years in, there are plans in the works for Corsello Butcheria to grow and expand their quality products and services to other areas in Western Massachusetts. This is the next step in Corsellos vision for the butcher.
The butchers in Rome the Corsellos would frequent were located within a market and had their own stand set up. Corsello Butcheria will be looking to replicate their own market in collaboration with Springfield’s Nosh Bakery, Urban Artisan Farm and Monsoon Roastery and Expresso Bar at the Food Brood later this summer.
Corsello asked to be a part of the Food Brood and makeshift market space where he will serve as the butcher alongside bakers, coffee makers, and local and fresh vegetables for sale at Gasoline Alley in Springfield on 250 Albany St. Not only can you purchase a meal while visiting, you can also buy the proper ingredient needed for that meal at the market and take it home to make it yourself.
“What’s beautiful about it is I’m not alone, it’s a collaboration,” Corsello said. “We will have more farm to table dinners, and cooking lessons because it’s not all up to me, it’s a collaborative. The first time I went there I thought I want to be a part of this.”
Corsello said as opposed to a competition or trying to reach an incentive of his own, the Food Brood is truly collaborative which is what food should be.
“Food is not a profit-making extraction business, it’s really about feeding people, and this is even more in that vein,” Corsello said.