After a year of delays, Bernardsville’s newest store, Butcher & Farmer has opened. The store, announced in late 2024, was originally scheduled to open in January of 2025. However, delays forced the store to open its doors nearly a year later on February 27, 2026.
The opening of the shop gives the area another butcher shop, along with Perrotti’s in Basking Ridge and Far Hills. Butcher & Farmer isn’t what a typical butchershop would look like, as there are separate sections for dining and three separate kitchens. A Facebook post from Elizabeth Leyland, a local community member,, said the butcher shop “is one of the coolest [she’s] ever been in.”
The eatery is separate from the butcher area and Ivan Fedorov, the store manager, explained that the goal of these separate areas “was to create more of a dining experience for customers who aren’t looking for beef and just want to enjoy a lunch or dinner, such as a time during Easter, when people want to eat and others are here to pick up orders.”
Fedorov claimed that there were huge building delays that caused the store’s opening to be constantly moved. Fedorov said that “They had to change the layout because of regulations and engineering difficulties.” One issue that Fedorov faced was trying to move some appliances around the store for better fit, yet the engineers and plumbers turned those requests down multiple times. The reasons for the rejection included store space, regulations, and plumbing. Fedorov gave an example of this and explained that “If [he] wanted to move a fridge, [he] would have to ask an engineer, who would then have to ask another engineer, who then would get back to [him], and if it was a yes, [he] would then have to get plumbers opinion, and permits for it.”
These delays raised questions in Bernardsville as the stores that replaced Kings, ACE Hardware and Wells Fargo, opened up in less time compared to Butcher & Farmer. ACE opened up on November 16, 2024, a year after it was announced, November 27, 2023. Wells Fargo was announced to be moving on October 1, 2024, and opened on February 10, 2025.
The store provides beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, sausage and burgers. They have a large selection of ribs that include short rib, brisket, skirt steak, and a sirloin steak among others.
Fedorov said that their goal when opening the store was to have “grass-fed beef that was imported from Italy and France, and expand into local farms.” This is reflected in their prices as the ground beef is priced at $11.99 a pound.
Less than a month after its opening, Fedorov and the rest of the staff are hoping for more customers in the coming months as more and more people realize that the store is finally open. If interested in visiting, Butcher & Farmer is open on Tuesday to Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM.
