There was never overt pressure from Dad to follow in his footsteps, yet despite my initial attempts to pursue other paths, the 2008 economic downturn ultimately drew me back into the family business. Embracing the dynamic environment of our family store, then known as Bryan’s Fine Foods, I discovered a genuine passion for the complexities of our trade.
Upon joining the team, my father entrusted me with the task of establishing an e-commerce platform for our premium food offerings, initially focusing solely on prime dry-aged steaks. As our online presence flourished, the repercussions of the recession led us to make the decision to close our retail store in Corte Madera in 2011, redirecting our efforts towards our true passion: dry-aged beef. This marked the latest chapter of Flannery Beef.
In the early years of this new venture, Dad and I took on the entirety of the workload, from equipment assembly to product preparation and delivery. Despite the challenges, witnessing our customer base grow into a devoted following was immensely gratifying. It was an incredible feeling to see our hard work paying off, and to know that people were enjoying our product as much as we enjoyed creating it.
I fell in love with the nuances within just our small niche of the beef world, and as Dad gave me increasing operational control over our dry aging program, I learned everything I could about the ins and outs of this age old practice. Combining Dad’s hands on knowledge passed down from his father with newer advances in food science, we’ve perfected our dry aging process to the point where I can confidently say we’re producing some of the best dry aged steaks available in the country.