Ardi's Block to Grill brings gourmet meats to Surry Hills

It has been a rough couple of months for Sydney's independent butchers with the closure of Leichhardt's AC Butchery and Randwick's 59-year-old stalwart, Terry Wright.

So why would Ardi Edgu open a butcher shop now, on the same strip where he worked at another casualty, Surry Hills's departee Hudson Meats?

"I know, when everyone is closing I'm opening," Edgu says from Ardi's Block to Grill, which opens on Friday, August 31.

Edgu has studied overseas markets where supermarkets have similarly ripped marketshare from local butcher shops.

"In England they've become more boutique, they offer niche products and value-add, things like bone broths and stocks," he explains.

Edgu is adding another component he's gambling will be a staple of reinvented butcher shops.

"I've got 15 or 20 seats where customers can eat what the butcher eats. We'll do old-school cuts and pulled pork and lamb," he says.

The butcher is also punting on his eye for quality meat: "I look for the best whereas someone else might say 'I'll take a 1000."

He has also chosen a site with a meaty history. It opened in 1906 as a butcher before changing to a different usage about 25 years ago.

Edgu is punting on Surry Hills going back to the future.

Open 9am-9pm daily.

Ardi's Block to Grill, 612 Crown Street, Surry Hills.