Japanese Butcher Shop Opens Wagyu Burger Window

San Francisco’s high-end Japanese butcher shop is now serving burgers and sausages for a to-go power lunch. Those options and more are rotating weekday specials at The Butcher Shop by Niku Steakhouse: Lunch hours at the shop are Tuesdays to Friday, 11:30 a.m. until sold out.

The Butcher Shop by Niku Steakhouse opened in January to supply next door steak restaurant Niku and more nearby properties run by the Omakase Restaurant Group. Japanese beef fanatic and lifelong Bay Area butcher Guy Crims is in charge of the operation, which is the city’s only certified Kobe beef retailer.

Last year, Crims secured the largest retail order of Japanese A5 Kobe and Wagyu Beef in the Western hemisphere for the shop, which also serves retail customers. Beyond beef, it stocks Heritage Berkshire Kurobuta pork, knives from American knife master Mike Solaegui, and wagyu beef fat by the tub.

But with the shop’s new lunch options, patrons won’t need to go next door or take their meat home for a taste of Wagyu, that famously fat-marbled Japanese beef. The butcher shop’s burger will be a staple of the menu: It’s 50 percent domestic Imperial Wagyu and 50 percent Japanese A5 Wagyu, served with Kewpie mayonnaise and pickles. Additionally, customers can expect rotating items like 100 percent A5 bratwurst and skewers of domestic Imperial Wagyu, Japanese A5 Wagyu, and dry aged U.S.D.A. Prime New York and ribeye steaks. Lunch prices — $15.99 to 19.99 for items — are meaty to match.