One-of-a-kind Kansas meat market closes after 96 years

One of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce has closed its doors.

For 96 years, Brant’s Meat Market in Lucas was a go-to place for locals – and for tourists visiting other attractions like the town’s wacky Garden of Eden.

The announcement was made to the tiny Russell County town’s Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night. Stephanie Svaty, the fourth generation of Brants to help run the store, posted an announcement on the store’s Facebook page on after that meeting, and by 9 a.m. Friday the store had sold out of nearly all of its meats, cheeses and food.

Svaty’s phone and computer blew up with internet postings, emails and calls from fans of the store.

Walking through the doors of Brant’s Meat Market was a time travel experience. Wood and glass cases held the family’s specialty of homemade Czech sausages, ring bologna, dry-cured bacon and cheeses made fresh at the store. Hand-painted Works Progress Administration murals depicted scenes from Czechoslovakia. A gold cash register sat on the counter. Customers could rest their feet on the brass rail at the meat counter and chat while third-generation owner Doug Brant sliced off hunks of bologna and cheese to their liking.

“It is one of my favorite places in the entire state,” said Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation. “I loved knowing it had been in the Brant family all those generations. It was uniquely one of a kind. There wasn’t any other like it in Kansas. Some might be in a similar category but none that have always been a meat market dating back to 1922 and always operated by members of the same family. It is very beloved, not only by the locals but people all over the state and anybody who has ever traveled through there.”

It was nominated as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce in 2009, Penner said, because all the meat products sold were made in the store using old-fashioned methods. The 8 Wonders of Kansas was a series of contests organized by the Kansas Sampler Foundation to educate the public about the architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, customs, geography, history and people of Kansas.

Stephanie Svaty said the decision to close the store came recently, largely because of federal regulations now being enforced.

The store was not cited for any violation, Svaty said. A state meat inspector visited the store on Jan. 10 and reported that it needed to keep more documentation and paperwork in the future.

“It is just mainly the paperwork they brought in and told us we needed to start following,” Svaty said. “They gave us a 22-page document, which would be fine if we had 10 to 15 employees, we could understand. It wasn’t feasible hiring an extra person to keep track and check things. We have always had inspections, everything has always been checked and been fine. Maybe if they would have given it to us in chunks, it might not have been so overwhelming.

“We don’t freeze any of our meat, it is made fresh,” she said. “We’ve done this 96 years and to our knowledge we did not have anybody die from it or were hospitalized because of our products.”

“But my dad, he is 72 years old. This burst his bubble. The fire left him when he got that 22-page document and read it from front to back and made notes in the margins. We made our decision just this past week.”

Svaty, 47, had moved back to the area a few years ago to help run the store. Doug Brant had double rotator cuff surgery last year, which prompted the store to close while he recuperated.

She said Sunday it did not make sense for the store to hire an extra employee just to keep the records.

“A lot of people have said, ‘What can we do to help?’ We are still processing this,” she said.

Some of those people, Svaty said, have included state Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill; U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran; and state Secretary of Agriculture Jackie McClaskey.

Penner said Sunday that made her hopeful.

“If anybody gets involved, it won’t be to save Brant’s but to address a bigger problem with legislation being oppressive to many small businesses,” she said. “Maybe the sadness of Brant’s will lead to some effort to change things so other small businesses may not have to struggle as hard.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 10:50 AM with the headline "One-of-a-kind Kansas meat market closes after 96 years."