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Kensington Quarters closes its retail butcher counter

It's an unfortunate development at KQ, which boasted an interesting hybrid formula at its opening in October 2014: restaurant/bar, butcher shop, and meat classroom.

Kensington Quarters in Fishtown has closed its retail, cut-and-wrap butcher counter in favor of 14 additional restaurant seats to be installed this weekend.

It's an unfortunate development at KQ, which boasted an interesting hybrid formula at its opening in October 2014: the restaurant/bar headed by chef Damon Menapace; a butcher shop on the ground floor, led by Bryan Mayer, a New York import with a beefy pedigree; and a meat classroom.

Through a statement provided by his rep, owner Mike Pasquarello said KQ's restaurant business was doing well.

KQ will still offer custom meat orders with 24 hours' notice and will sell, on a daily basis, its most popular butcher items: bacon, eggs, ground meat, whole chickens, scrapple, and house-made deli ham and pastrami.

With the counter gone, foods will be held in the walk-in refrigerator. Customers must order from a bartender or server, or call ahead and have them put aside. A restaurant manager will handle payment.

KQ will continue to butcher for Pasquarello's other restaurants - Cafe Lift, Prohibition Taphouse, and Bufad - and its restaurant clients, such as Martha, La Colombe, and Cake Life Bake Shop next door.