He didn’t see it coming when suddenly something called a pandemic descended on the world, but Dave Rotriga and his Miklas Meat Market have never welcomed more patrons during the past 12 years than he and his staff have in the last 10 months.
“Maybe I didn’t think it through,” he admitted. “Everything seems so gloom and doom, so I thought that’s how it was going to be for us, too.”
Nope. Rotriga has found it necessary to fully staff the butcher shop except when the meat market is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. In fact, because of the capacity limits mandate by the state, lines of loyal customers have properly formed along Carmel Road.
Even during those two closed days per week, the owner has to unlock the front door to ask people to come back the next day.
“This has been a year that probably will never be matched,” Rotriga said. “We have had people from all around like Pennsylvania, New Martinsville, from all over East Ohio, and of course, from Wheeling. But it’s been crazy, and I know our employees sleep well because it’s constant movement behind this counter.
“We have just tried to take care of everyone, and our employees have been working so hard to make sure that’s what happens,” he explained. “That’s why we just wanted to say thank you to everyone. To the customers and to our staff because of everything everyone has been going through the past nine or 10 months.”
But Why Miklas?
Miklas Meat Market has been on the corner of Edgington Lane and Carmel Road for decades, and Dave and his wife, Laura, have owned it since Steve Miklas passed away in 2008.
After their nephew, Hines, was diagnosed with stage 4 childhood cancer in December 2013, Dave and his brother Kevin launched the Hope for Hines Foundation and the Hope for Hines Facebook timeline. That page now has 32,000 members, and Dave established the Hope for Hines Headquarters at, you guessed it, Miklas Meat Market.
“Hines is doing great, and last month the scans show no signs again.” Rotriga said. “The best part is that he’s finally been able to be a kid the last couple of years. We didn’t know if that was ever going to happen for a long time.”
For those reasons, most everyone has at least heard of the butcher shop, but the owner believes it has been his staff’s pandemic performance that’s proved to be the primary reason for the increase in business.
“We haven’t run out of any of our products, and when there’s been a really big order, we have been able to get those filled within a day or two,” Rotriga said. “Some of the supermarkets, though, had some issues with supply, especially at the beginning, and I believe that helped us gain a lot of customers during the past year. We’re really picky here about what we sell, so maybe that played into it, too.
“We have done everything to streamline our service so we get people in and out quickly, and we’ve added to our inventory, so maybe our customers can find everything they need so they don’t need to go to multiple places,” he said. “We’re limited with space here, and when we do add items, we try to work with local businesses as often as possible. When we do business, we like to do business with the people who do business with us.”
The People Factor
A mere few moths after Dave and his wife purchased the business, Dave was sharpening one of the slicing machines in the store and caught one of his fingers.
It was that injury which removed him from the butcher’s block for more than two months, and to this day Rotriga remains thankful for one of his uncle’s final hires.
“After my uncle passed away and we bought the shop, it was Bill Ferrell who was here when I got hurt and had to be off for about 10 weeks,” Rotriga said. “If it wasn’t for my uncle, Jerry Miklas, finding Bill after he had retired from Kroger, this store wouldn’t be here because he covered for me when he had to.
“Bill was a Godsend for us,” he said. “And he is still going, and he is a big part of us still being here on this corner.”
And, of course, there’s Tom Dawson, too, a gentleman who has made cutting chicken and beef and pork an artform over a 50-year career in several positions before opening his own shop on 12th Street in downtown Wheeling.
“We still have Tom Dawson a couple of days per week and that’s really helped because we all pick his brain because of how much experience he has had with cutting the meat,” Rotriga said. “Of course, for a lot of years he had Dawson’s Meat Market, and it’s hard to realize sometimes that he is in his 80s because of how much he loves to work here.
“I love having him here, and he was one of my uncle’s best friends,” he said. “He is always willing to help anyone who wants to learn more about working in a shop like this. He’s done it longer than most people, so that makes us better every day.”
And yes, Dawson wears a mask, too, just like his workmates and all other employees inside retail shops, restaurants, doctor’s offices, and everywhere else that welcomes the public.
“Our employees have had to wear their masks the entire time they are in the shop, and that’s not easy because of everything that’s involved with their job,” Rotriga said. “And I think folks should appreciate the employees in other stores, too, because of what they have to experience while doing their jobs. They are out there dealing with the public, and there’s risk to that.
“I know our people still go about their jobs with a smile on their face, but unfortunately our customers can’t see those smiles,” he said. “Right now, we have four guys who work here who retired from Kroger, and that helps everyone in the store because of their experience and the pace they work. So, we say thank you to our staff, and thank you to all of our great customers.”
