Soul Brothers Meats to Open Retail Shop in North Wales Borough

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

After almost 20 years of making artisan and bespoke sausage, it is time to bring home the bacon.

Brothers Bob Zimmerman, 56, of North Wales, and Karl Zimmerman, 54, of Souderton, along with friend Doug Perry, of Lansdale, established their sausage-making business in 2003. As time went by, they gathered more and more fans of their specialty meats.

Soul Brothers Meats — named after "Soul Brothers of Kung Fu,” a favorite 1970s kung-fu flick that Bob and Doug loved during their high school years at Lansdale Catholic — produces high-quality sausage, sourced from local farms, and mixed with local ingredients.

By Summer 2024, it will have a new brick-and-mortar retail and production facility behind Ten7 Brewing Company on East Walnut Street in North Wales Borough.

"The products we are producing there are intended to be USDA certified. We don’t have that yet, but we are still in the build-out process,” said Bob Zimmerman, who is also an Air Force veteran. "We want to ship it, not just to Pennsylvania, but New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and so forth. There are not a lot out there that are artisan style that are USDA certified.”

Soul Brothers Meats offers a variety of sausages, either fresh, dry or as charcuterie. All meats are made with locally sourced chicken, beef, or pork.

"Think of broccoli rabe with sharp provolone and roasted red pepper, or an Italian with Calabrian pepper paste with Italian parsley and parmesan cheese — these are very artisan-style items. On the smoked sausage side, we have kielbasas and summer sausages. Our third product is dried sausages, like capicola and prosciutto, like a charcuterie board,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said the quality of sausage is the most important. Their sausage, for instance, is made from pork shoulder, but fat is added because the meat gets too dry, Zimmerman said.

"What makes us different from a sausage-making standpoint is we focus on quality of protein we get. We source hogs from local providers,” he said. "Chicken, beef, and just about every protein you can think of, we have several recipes for what we can make.”

Even vegan sausage is on the agenda.

"From an owner standpoint, our mission is to break away from the whole standard sausage as Italian. There are Korean sausages, sausages that are Greek-based and ones from Africa and South Africa,” Zimmerman said. "Every time we talk to someone, they say, ‘Listen, where I came from, we had this sausage. I’d love to get my hands on it.’ Part of it is being able to introduce the local community to sausages that are country-based that a lot never tasted.”

When Soul Brothers Meats opens its doors, customers will see a retail section, a wholesale section, and a production area. With wholesale, Soul Brothers Meats can sell bulk sausage to local restaurants, wine makers and the like.

The retail portion will not be a butcher shop. It will be a simple grab-and-go situation.

"We don’t cook any food,” Zimmerman said. "You come in and buy and say thank you come again.”

Customers will be able to choose various types of smoked, fresh, and dry sausages, along with cheeses. About three-quarters of the building will be for production. The intention is to have a window into production so customers can see the whole clean sausage-making process.

"This was completely hobby-based. We never charged for anything,” Zimmerman said. "Why the brick-and-mortar is coming about is, we never sold it and didn’t want to sell it in a way that would somehow come back and bite me or do something detrimental to all of us doing it.”

For 22 years, the Zimmermans and Perry, as well as three other friends, would make 800 pounds of sausage at a time, and stuff it in the freezer. They would often use the meat to barter.

"After doing it for so long, and so many saying they love it, it became an opportunity to say I enjoy doing it, it’s fun, and it brings creative space to me to let that out,” Zimmerman said. "It’s a sharp move away from what I do every day for my primary business, which is credit card processing. This is being funded by BKZ Consulting Partners.”

There was no better location for their new business than North Wales Borough.

"Keeping it local was a part of it. I was born in Souderton, I grew up in Montgomery County, went to Lansdale Catholic, and I’ve been here the whole time,” he said. "I stayed in North Wales because being in my hometown is important to me. Community is important to me. And it’s also nice because I knew so many people, and to hear them say ‘Thank God you’ve started selling’ is neat and exciting.”

Visit their website to learn more about the business.