Joe Klein shows not one bit of remorse even though a long trail of customers have expressed their sorrow at his closing. After decades of cutting meat, thirty-three years in the local area, he’s done with steaks and roasts.

Klein first learned to cut meat in what was to become East Germany, back in 1923. In 1956 he escaped the East for West Germany and then Switzerland. He knocked about a good bit, eventually riding a tall-master to America.

He had friends in the area already, and moved to Portola to cut meat. Initially he worked in Leonard’s Market, but when heavy snow damaged the building in 1993 he designed and built a building and opened his butcher shop.

Klein mentions several reasons he’s hanging up his apron. The national economy is a good reason. Joe isn’t a youngster anymore and a butcher spends a lot of time on his feet. Also, the damage to the local economy by the collapse of the timber industry, and the repeated poisoning of Lake Davis. A big factor, though, is that people don’t know how to cook real meat anymore.

Joe Klein has maritime friends from around the world, including Peter Benchley, but no doubt his most avid supporters are in the local area.