Pizza and barbecue, two American favorites, were combined into one delicious offering at Kremmling’s Middle Park Meat Company when the shop began offering “Mustang Mania Pizza” in January. The take-out pizza side of their business has been a hit with regulars and new customers. And with delivery, Kremmling residents can now curb their craving a protein-carb overload with summer’s most popular sauce from the comfort of their living room.

Mustang Mania offers 9 specialty pies.

“Our most popular pizza is the Brisket Mania,” said Rachelle Wolfe, who runs the front of the shop.

The Mania features generous heapings of brisket, three different cheeses, and onions all drizzled with BBQ sauce.

“We use our own brisket and homemade barbecue sauce,” Wolfe said.

The pizza has a savory and slightly spicy kick.

“Mustang Meat Madness is our second most popular one,” Wolfe said.

This pizza features many of the meats the shop is best known for: sausage, ham, bacon, and pepperoni. Their Purple & Gold pizza (named after West Grand’s school colors) has Canadian bacon, purple onion, and pineapple.

“Our Philly Cheese Steak pizza mimics the sandwich, and our Chicken Bacon Ranch is also really popular,” Wolfe said.

The flavorful pizzas all have generous toppings of meat because, after all, that’s what Middle Park Meat is best known for! However, their Hippie pizza, topped with tomato, artichoke, mozzarella, garlic, and drizzled with olive oil, is a great vegetarian option. Customers can also build their own pizza if they want traditional toppings like pepperoni and sausage, or just plain cheese. Mustang Mania Pizza also offers calzones with the same toppings as their pizzas, BBQ and buffalo wings, and cheesy bread.

“Things have been going really well!” said Wolfe of the new side of the business. “There’s been great feedback and lots of repeat customers.”

Customers who have just discovered Mustang Mania Pizza may not realize the rich history behind Middle Park Meat Co.

A Grand County landmark comes to life

Middle Park Meat is a landmark in Grand County, loved by both locals and visitors. The butcher shop has been offering up choice cuts of meat to customers for decades; even during supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19, they strove to offer locally sourced fare whenever possible.

The business was first established as a meat processing plant in 1958, after which Harlan Land purchased it in 1975. Land became the face of the business and transformed it by concentrating on the front-end retail aspect. He drew in customers to enjoy steaks, jerky, bacon, lamb and more.

Mitch and Christina Lockhart, owners of Kremmling’s Troublesome Meat Processing, purchased the business from Land in 2017. The husband and wife team have expanded on what Land started, while also continuing to sell longtime favorites, such as his apple cured pork chops.

“We do hot brisket every Saturday in the shop, and also have cold brisket in the case, along with our pulled pork, coleslaw and baked beans,” Wolfe said.

Their baked beans follow Harlan Land’s traditional recipe, and most items are homemade and locally sourced. In addition to their BBQ offerings, the shop also sells seafood, assorted cheeses and jams, and other sweets.

Transcending the traditional

Wolfe, who is Mitch Lockhart’s sister, explained that he first began expanding from a traditional butcher shop last year, when he opened a barbecue food truck for Meat-In Day. Dubbed the “Middle Park Meat Wagon,” the truck took the shop’s recipes on the road. The Meat Wagon currently caters for events, but is on hiatus from offering everyday take-out.

“We want to expand the BBQ truck and hopefully have it open again by March 22, since that’s the next Meat-In Day,” Wolfe said. “But with the snow, I don’t know if that will happen! If not, it will be open a few weeks after that.”

So what gave the Lockharts the idea to begin offering pizza at what once started as a meat processing plant?

“We wanted to bring Kremmling something new and something that we could deliver,” Wolfe said.

Mustang Mania Pizza is their first step to becoming a thriving take-out and delivery business in West Grand.

“Of course, no one else in Kremmling delivers…We eventually plan to deliver both pizza and barbecue, since it’s all one business,” Wolfe said.

She added that they also do special deliveries for groups and events.

“I’ve delivered to the Kremmling hospital and the schools. Just call and I can deliver!” Wolfe said.

“We want to keep adding new things, like a hot holding unit so we can offer pizza by the slice.”

There are lots of new offerings in the works, not only from Mustang Mania Pizza, but also Middle Park Meat Wagon once it hits the road.

“We just want to keep growing and expanding what we offer with our food truck and our pizza,” Wolfe said.

Whether customers are looking for a cut of meat they can’t find in the grocery store, fresh pizza delivered to their door, or barbecue catering, they can find all this at Middle Park Meat Company.