Co Harkness

After training and apprenticing to be a butcher in Alberta, Patrick Harkness — who originally hails from the UK — came back to Vancouver and opened Harkness & Co. Butchers at the corner of Fraser and Broadway in January of 2012. Still in his twenties, Patrick decided to open his own business rather than work for someone else. “I'm not really suited to working for other people,” he explains.

In addition to wanting to be his own boss, Patrick's a big believer in eating locally and sources all his meat directly from BC farmers. “When I was training in Alberta I saw how the food system in Canada is set up and there are lots of things wrong with how everything's processed centrally. If you have smaller operations it creates more work on a local level.”

As for the location of his store, near the somewhat desolate corner of Fraser and Broadway, choosing that space was one part strategy, “this is a great neighbourhood, it's constantly changing and there was nothing here to serve the people.” And the other part necessity, “When you're in your twenties and you're starting your first business you go where you can find a space. A lot of the places I looked at wanted to rent to a chain business, not someone young just starting out.”