It was 40 years ago when Arno Grimm started living his dream of running a sausage kitchen, and it's being kept alive by Kelly and Kelly Grimm at Grimmsa国际传媒 Sausage in Penticton.
Arno became a pro at making sausage while coming-of-age in post-war Europe. He immigrated to Canada in the 1960s, and older readers may remember his first business Grimmsa国际传媒 Meat Market, which opened in 1964.
Kelly has good memories from those days during childhood, tagging along with dad to the farm and seeing how the system works.
鈥淭hatsa国际传媒 where my passion developed back in the early early days,鈥 Kelly said.
Following the death of his mom Henna Grimm in 1982, Arno had to take a new direction as a family businessman.听听
At that point, Kelly was a young man who moved away after graduating from Penticton Secondary. Thatsa国际传媒 when he learned how the sausage was made, having worked at sausage factories. But it was time to come home.
It was 1984 when Arno and Kelly opened the doors of
A + K Grimmsa国际传媒 Sausage on Eckhardt Avenue.
In 1991, Kelly married his wife, also named Kelly, and joined the family business. The business model originally offered meat-cutting and butchering, but as a small business, they didn鈥檛 have the capacity to keep up with increasingly stringent safety standards over the years.听听
鈥淚t was just too complicated to continue on that way.鈥
Authentic European food markets were popular in sa国际传媒 when Grimmsa国际传媒 opened its doors 40 years ago. But Kelly noticed that not many other second-generation Canadians followed in their parents鈥 footsteps, which is why so few are still around.
But the family-owned delis that persevered through to 2024 are keeping busy.
Kelly notices that many of his new customers are younger adults 鈥 some want high-quality sausage and cold cuts. Others are looking for specialty ingredients from a recipe thatsa国际传媒 popular online. Kellysa国际传媒 not a big user of social media, but he appreciates how chefs are sharing great recipes that call for fattier meats which used to be considered cheap. Like chuck roast and short ribs.
Itsa国际传媒 not as easy to stick to tradition as it used to be, largely because tradition isn鈥檛 as important to the suppliers as it is to the Grimms. But after 40 years of fine-tuning, some things are as good as ever 鈥 like their pork, which comes from Johnstonsa国际传媒 in Chilliwack.
鈥淏est pork we鈥檝e seen in this store in 40 years.鈥
And Grimmsa国际传媒 smokes its bacon thoroughly, so the customer is left with much more after cooking it at home.
鈥淟ot of people say the supermarket bacon really shrinks up to nothing in the frying pan. Whereas our bacon seems to hold its size better.鈥
Kelly said they support sa国际传媒 as much as they can, but in order to maintain the highest level of quality, their beef comes from Alberta.
鈥淥f course big box stores are a big competition for us, but we still think theresa国际传媒 a niche in the market for smaller businesses,鈥 he said.
The Kellysa国际传媒 simple formula seems to be working, because they need eight staff to keep up with their bustling shop. And they plan to continue sticking to tradition for the foreseeable future.听
