Bud's Custom Meats shares flavorful cuts with a side of family tradition

ByChris Bollini Localish logo
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
This popular meat shop is a cut above the rest
Bud's Custom Meats in Penngrove, California serves up flavorful cuts of meat.

PENNGROVE, Calif. -- President of Bud's Custom Meats and master butcher, Matt Gamba, has always had a strong connection to his profession.

"It's been a long family tradition, 4 generations," Matt Gamba recalls. "My grandfather had a butcher shop in Italy. His son, my dad, and me."

Gamba's rich history and knowledge of the meat business has made him a master at his craft.

"There's a lot of different ways to process meat, not just by ingredients and seasoning and stuff like that," Gamba explains, "Aging has a lot to do with it, so a lot of different nuisances on how we process things make it a much better product."

Bud's Custom Meats offers the services of a traditional butcher, like wild game processing and farm animal processing, but there is also a retail shop.

"I'm always trying to create new things to create attention and give my customers something new to try." Gamba says, "We've come up with over 120 products that we make ourselves in house."

Some of their most popular products are Cowboy Candy Jerky and a wide array of seasoned tri-tip.

"I've been coming here I'd say for about 15 years, and I always know where I'm going, straight to that tri-tip," Diego says about Bud's Bloody Mary tri-tip.

"The meat is really good. We can't keep it on the counter, they eat it so quick," regular customer Cindy reveals about her family dinners.

Gamba enjoys playing around with seasonings until he creates the perfect flavor.

"Most of it is super-secret. Most of it is. I'll give a couple details out, but not much," Gamba reveals with a smile.

As a 4th generation master butcher, Gamba takes great pride in his product.

"It's very personal to me and that's probably what I get the most out of this...customers coming in and enjoying our products and actually enjoying the ranch," Gamba shares, "It's been a lot of fun, a family tradition."

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