Hines Meat Co. Closes Pendleton Location After Five Years, Future Uncertain

The butcher counter at 1210 S.W. Dorion Ave. in Pendleton went dark on Saturday, March 28, cutting off the region's most full-service independent meat processor just as spring calving season moves across Umatilla and Union counties.

Hines Meat Co. co-owner Jake Hines posted the news to the company's Facebook page, which has built a following of more than 12,500. He described the closure as the result of "challenging discussions" but stopped short of calling it permanent, saying he is not sure whether it is temporary or not. "Thank you very much for supporting us the last couple of years," he wrote.

For area ranchers and shoppers who relied on the shop for custom processing, wild game cutting, or specialty cuts, the La Grande flagship at 2315 Jefferson Ave. offers the same full roster of services: custom meat processing, in-house curing and smoking, on-site slaughter, a full-service meat counter, wild game processing, and event catering. Online ordering and shipping are also available through the company's website for those unable to make the trip. Union Market in Union, Oregon, provides another nearby option for custom cutting and wild game processing on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Pendleton location had an origin few business-recruitment stories can match. The expansion was not proposed by an economic development staffer but by Sean Tarter, a City of Pendleton public works employee, who floated the idea during a 2019 city training exercise. City Manager Robb Corbett backed the concept, noting that Pendleton had "lost a couple of wild game kill shop-type businesses." Corbett and his staff then recruited Jake and Paige Hines directly.

Pendleton's Urban Renewal Program put $100,000 behind the effort, issuing a Jump Start loan in March 2020 intended to cover equipment including walk-in freezers and coolers. The Hineses leased the former Pendleton Grain Growers Energy building on S.W. Dorion Ave. in September 2019, purchased it outright in July 2020, and opened for business on November 13, 2020.

Hines Meat Co. traces back to La Grande in June 2016, when Paige and Jake Hines identified what they saw as a glaring gap in Eastern Oregon's food system. "We're surrounded by agriculture and livestock," Paige said at the time. "We should have a better source for it." Jake came to butchering from an unlikely starting point: he had been a concrete contractor who taught himself the craft by watching YouTube videos, visiting local meat-cutting facilities, and taking classes at the University of Idaho.

The La Grande location grew so quickly after opening that the couple had no time to plan expansion; the Pendleton push arrived partly because COVID-19 drove demand and partly because Corbett's office came calling.

Whether the S.W. Dorion Ave. storefront reopens is a question Jake Hines has left deliberately open. The La Grande original, which predates Pendleton by four years and remains the company's only operating address, is still cutting, smoking, and processing at 2315 Jefferson Ave.