Small Town Spotlight: Sugar City shop offers beef grown in your backyard
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SUGAR CITY — Top Notch Jerky is as local as it gets.
The cows are raised locally, butchered locally and the jerky is prepared locally. In fact, according to manager Nathan Cook, none of the beef sold by Top Notch is ever more than 50 miles from the company’s Sugar City store.
“People love that fact – especially in the world we live in, where everybody wants to go local,” Cook explains. “Everybody wants to have good beef that they know hasn’t been abused in its life, that hasn’t gotten artificial growth hormones.”
The cows that become Top Notch jerky are raised by the company’s owner, Jed Jacobs, on his ranch in St. Anthony. Then, they are butchered at Jones Meat and Food Service, in Rigby. Finally, the jerky process is done at Top Notch, Cook explained.
“Our business is very unique in that it starts with one owner and it goes all the way through to the customer. That’s something that we’re very proud of, and we’re very proud of the fact that it comes out of right here in Sugar City,” he said. “Other than the slaughtering, everything is done under the same house, under the same roof, under the same owner.”
There is an abundance of options to choose from in the Top Notch showroom — from ranch cut peppered jerky, to spicy dill beef sticks and the “El Diablo” jerky featuring a number of famously spicy peppers.
But jerky isn’t the only thing sold inside the Top Notch showroom. Customers can also shop a massive selection of steaks, roasts, ground beef and even sausages made in-house.
In addition to the product Top Notch provides to the Sugar City community, the company embraces the role of one of the few businesses operating in the city. Along with ProPeat Fertilizer, Top Notch is one of the primary employers for the city, Cook said.
Top Notch holds in high regard the fact that many of their customers are neighbors. Because of that, Top Notch has made it one their objectives to serve the community.
“We love to support everybody,” Cook said. “We’ve supported homecoming the last couple years, we’ve done everything to support different orchestra groups, different sport groups. We’ve done all that we can to support other local businesses, too.”
Top Notch provides beef to Ole’s Burgers and is currently working on a deal be the primary beef provider for Sugar-Salem High School.
“We’re really excited to be able to support the community, to be able to work with the community, to be able to provide a local source of a great product,” Cook said.
According to Mike Rogers, who is responsible for the company’s sales, Top Notch Jerky is available at more than 300 locations throughout Idaho and Montana. Their product can be found at Broulim’s locations across eastern Idaho, and, in the very near future, Good 2 Go stores, Rogers said.
The raw beef is only available at the Top Notch store, located at 450 North Frontage Road. The store is open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To see the variety of products they have available, visit the company website or Facebook page.
Small Town Spotlight wants to shine a light on all the good going on in small-town Idaho. If you know of someone or something in one of Idaho’s many small towns that deserve to be featured on Small Town Spotlight, email Kalama@EastIdahoNews.com and include “spotlight” in the subject line.
