Olivier's Butchery
Olivier Cordier ages beef 100, 165 and past 200 days. It is spoken for long before it is ready. He learned the trade from his father, a butcher on a Burgundy farm. He opened this Dogpatch shop in the summer of 2011 and still picks the animals himself.
Why go
Getting the ranchers to sell to him took a year. Cordier went to the livestock market every week until they would talk to him. His wife Hang Nguyen told 7x7 about it in 2011. By the end of that year the cases carried Stemple Creek Ranch grass-fed beef, Branigan Family Farms turkey and Gleason Farm pork. Kelly O'Mara reported for KQED that he visits every ranch he buys from once a week.
Cordier works French seams with old hand tools. So the case runs to paleron, a shoulder cut that wants a long braise, and bavette for a hot pan. Heart, bones and tail sit there too. In March 2026 Sara Deseran argued that most kitchens have since priced whole-animal work out.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the super-aged beef.
- Order: the paleron if you have a Sunday and a pot.
- Order: the spiced sausages Cordier makes on site.
- Avoid: Monday and Tuesday.
What locals & experts say
- Hang Nguyen, who runs the shop with Cordier, to 7x7 in December 2011: nobody wanted to talk to him at all.
He even went to the livestock market every week to meet the ranchers. He looked like a cowboy too, but then he'd open his mouth.
2 - Sara Deseran, The San Francisco Standard, March 2026:
Between 2007 and 2011, a handful of amazing independent butcher shops cropped up in San Francisco, including Avedano's, Fatted Calf, Prather Ranch, and Olivier's Butchery.
3
Good to know
- Closed: Monday and Tuesday, and the shop opens later on Wednesday than on the other days.
- Ordering: pre-order through the site for the aged cuts and the monthly butchery box.
- Where: 1192 Illinois Street, in Dogpatch.
Verdict
could-visit — Ask for a cut by its French name and let him pick the animal.