Herd & Grace is paving their own path for upscale culinary experiences at home. During the pandemic, the idea for Herd & Grace was born out of Think Culinary, a company that provides the best cuts of protein to top restaurants in California and the Southwest United States.
Herd & Grace was created to give people at-home access to quality meat at a time when they couldn’t dine in at restaurants—now they’re shaping celebrational dinners at home and the way people enjoy a special cut of meat.
We sat down with CEO Jason Latshaw on our podcast, Hit Subscribe, to talk about how the company is creating an experience around their meats and their membership by giving members prime access to their offerings and making their monthly price well worth the investment.
Key takeaways
- Memberships offer merchants another opportunity to form deeper relationships with their customers.
- Herd & Grace was born out of a pandemic need and has transformed into a leader in providing the best cuts of meat to cook at home.
Pandemic lessons
As restaurants closed during the pandemic, Think Culinary had to get creative since their typical mission was to provide high-quality meat to restaurants. They decided to shift things online and as this became more successful and people started to enjoy their steaks at home, Herd & Grace was officially born as its own brand.
As Jason mentioned on the podcast, the pandemic taught a lot of us that we could make good food on our own. And even as restaurants began opening again, the experience wasn’t always the same as it used to be. Plus, though Herd & Grace’s products can be pricey (rightfully so, for the quality they’re offering), it can still be cheaper than a night out at a restaurant.
“When the restaurants did open back up, a lot of times you were eating in a parking lot with paper plates and plastic silverware, and all of a sudden the food didn’t taste quite as good.”
–Jason Latshaw, CEO, Herd & Grace
People realized they didn’t always need to go out to have an amazing culinary experience—and offerings like Herd & Grace took off as a way to have celebratory, incredible meals at home. With Wagyu, barley-fed, and grass-fed options, customers have their pick of what they’d like to enjoy. Offerings are flexible too, so customers can control how much they’re spending and how often they receive a shipment.
A subscription designed for special occasions
The difference between Herd & Grace and other butcher boxes or meat subscriptions is that their meat is not something to be consumed every week. Rather, it’s made for special occasions—times when you want to splurge to enjoy a Wagyu or other high-end cut of meat.
“This is for anniversaries and celebrations and birthdays…when you really wanna make an event special. That’s what Herd and Grace is for, because these are some of the finest steaks that you’ll find in the world.”
–Jason Latshaw, CEO, Herd & Grace
Their vision since launching has been to always deliver a top-notch experience—a celebration for their customers each time they receive a new package.
How Herd & Grace goes beyond the steak
The Herd & Grace membership takes their offerings to the next level—not just in terms of what customers receive physically, but also how their experience goes beyond the meat for members. Customers rave about Herd & Grace online, for how much money they’ve saved and how personal the experience is. Plus, lately, Herd & Grace has been able to host in-person events that bring together potential customers and chefs for a night of learning and incredible food.
1. Special access
Like we mentioned, the meat that customers receive from Herd & Grace are top-of-the-line cuts, which usually go first to restaurants and are hard to find at your neighborhood butcher shop. That is, if you still have a corner butcher shop.
Herd & Grace is making these cuts available to their members. They’ll often receive a notification letting them know of special cuts that are available and typically sell out very quickly. So, if you’re someone who enjoys top-notch steaks, having this incredible special access is well worth a small monthly fee for their membership.
2. More personal relationships with farmers
Knowing where food comes from is increasingly important to consumers, and Herd & Grace customers are no less curious, especially for how much they may be spending on any cut of meat. With the membership, Herd & Grace offers different perks like Zoom calls with their farmers.
“We have a Zoom meeting with a farmer in Australia standing in a field with his cows, and people can ask him questions.”
–Jason Latshaw, CEO, Herd & Grace
Being able to learn more about the products they’re being served makes the experience that much better for customers.
3. In-person events & cooking demonstrations
Crossing the lines between online and real life is now possible for Herd & Grace, since they’re located in Los Angeles and have access to a test kitchen where they can host events. By inviting people within their target demographic, they create a very personal experience for them to try their product—cooked by talented chefs—before they commit to buying the product and cooking it themselves at home.
Celebrating with Herd & Grace
By creating a membership that truly makes customers feel like they’re part of a special club, Herd & Grace has changed the game for cooking and enjoying high-quality steaks at home. Merchants can learn from their example to create engaging, all-encompassing subscription and membership experiences that will leave customers satisfied and coming back for more.
Check out the full interview with Jason, as well as conversations with other industry experts, on our Hit Subscribe podcast.
Sources
[1] How to build a value-driving paid membership program (Recharge)
[2] Herd & Grace on fostering community with Memberships (Hit Subscribe)
