“I like to do things right. I like to do things the best way that I possibly can,” Felix said. “It’s a passion for me.”
Felix opened the market in April 2021 with his wife, Jeanette Florez. He has worked in the restaurant industry for 30 years alongside some of the best in the culinary industry, he said.
Felix previously founded Houston’s Black Hill Meats in 2009, which sold products he raised to restaurants wholesale. However, when the pandemic led restaurants to close their doors, he found himself with no one to sell to.
“With three kids at home, that’s a scary thing,” Felix said.
Felix split from the company and began the search for a location to start another meat company, this time one with retail capabilities. He found a location in Old Katy with the stability and space he was looking for, and Cherry Block Craft Butcher & Texas Market was born.
“It was me finally scratching an itch of wanting restaurants in Houston and in Texas to serve products from Texas,” Felix said.
The market sells pastured pork, Texas poultry, Texas Brangus beef, various wagyu beef, Gulf seafood and wild game, which the shop can also process and pack for patrons. The market also makes its own charcuterie and sausage; has a dry-aging room on-site; and hangs its own guanciale, an Italian cured meat, and coppa, an Italian pork cold cut.
“Authenticity is a big thing for us,” Felix said. “The level of authenticity here is like no other that I can think of.”
Cherry Block gets its products from Falcon Lake Farms, headquartered in the same building as Cherry Block. Falcon Lake Farms, Felix’s wholesale business, combines meat raised by him with meat from a group of farmers and ranchers from all over Texas. The farm, which takes its name from his family’s home in South Texas, supplies products to restaurants in Houston and Austin.
Customers can find items at Cherry Block that they would not be able to find at a grocery store, Felix said. Teres major, a small cut that rivals the tenderness of filet mignon for half the price, sells well, along with popular cuts such as ribeye and strip steaks. Felix is also a sommelier, so the market offers a hand-selected assortment of small-production, high-quality wines.
“The people that know about us love us,” Felix said.
Cherry Block Craft Butcher & Texas Market
5305 Highway Blvd., Katy
346-257-4566
www.cherryblockmarket.com
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-7 p.m.,
Sat. 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
