The months that followed her husband Dan’s death were tough for Christy Bubenheim, but she is confident that her decision to sell her husband’s business to Tony Erickson and Junior Herndon has helped to fill the void left behind.
“I knew that I couldn’t run it,” Christy said of Elk River Custom Meats at 2464 Downhill Dr. in Steamboat Springs. “I didn’t have the business knowledge that Dan had, nor the butchery knowledge that he had, but I knew that I wanted to keep it going because the community needs a wild game processor, plus just a butcher in general.”
Dan Bubenheim started Elk River Custom Meats in 2009 and had built a strong following among both local and outof- state hunters, as well as a reputation for taking care of his customers. He passed away Feb.2, 2023, after suffering a heart attack.
“Even his friends didn’t realize what an impact he had on this community — his memorial service was packed,” said Christy, who married Dan in 2007. “Everybody just loved him, and he taught everybody in town. … He treated them all the same and taught them either to cook or how to butcher, and he was a staple in this community.”
Dan was a culinary chef and worked and consulted in many of Steamboat’s top restaurants. He owned Black Mountain Tavern with Doug Diamond in Oak Creek from 2003 to 2010, and opened Elk River Custom Meats in 2009 with partner Joe Muhlbauer before taking over the operation a few years later. After his death, Christy said she was approached by people interested in buying the operation, but mostly from buyers who wanted it for private butchering.
“I didn’t want to go that route,” Christy said. “I knew our community needed to have a wild game processor, and these guys were just fantastic from the get-go.”
Erickson and Herndon have owned AGP, a custom meat processing operation in Craig, since 2004. They were familiar with what Dan was doing and had worked with him over the years, often smoking meat for him because Elk River Custom Meats did not have a smoker.
“His mentality and the way he took care of customers is a lot like ours,” Herndon said. “We do the same thing — one animal at a time, and you get your animals back, no more no less. There’s not a huge change, it is going to be basically the same stuff. We do bring more specialty meats to the table with more options including summer sausages, snack sticks, jerky, stuff like that. Other than that, we’re just trying to keep it rolling.”
Erickson and Herndon have remodeled the office, painting the walls, updating the trim and doors, and adding a retail section.
“They didn’t have anything like this, so come Sept. 2, this area will be full of goodies people can come in and buy, and it will be here for the hunters if they want to come in early and grab steaks and stuff like that to take on-mountain for camp,” Herndon said. “The goal is to keep this storefront open.”
In addition to wild game processing, Elk River Custom Meats offers beef from local and Colorado ranches and is hoping to add pork (bratwurst and breakfast sausage) as well as some lamb to the future menu. The storefront is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
“We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves,” Herndon said. “Right now, we are focusing on certified Angus beef as well as beef jerky, summer sausage and snack sticks.”
Herndon, who attended Moffat County High School and pitched in 12 games for the San Diego Padres in 2001, wants people to know that the beef is coming from ranches in Northwest Colorado.
“We are ranch to table,” Herndon said. “There are no chemicals, vaccines or additives.” Erickson and Herndon have owned and operated AGP in Craig since 2004. Erickson started processing meat in 1989, and Herndon has worked processing meat for much of his life.
Elk River Custom Meats has two walk-in freezers, as well as rooms for wild game domestic livestock processing. Customers can drop off and then pick up their meat to take it home when the job is completed, or it can be shipped.
Christy said her husband put his heart and soul into Elk River Custom Meats and was able to overcome challenges with the economy and trying to find employees. He frequently offered his friends in the restaurant industry jobs during the offseason.
“People that he worked with at Mambos, Bésame and all the different restaurants in town, he would pull them in during the shoulder season, teach them how to how to cut meat and how to do it correctly,” Christy said. “There’s a lot of people in this community that know how to butcher because of him.”
Now that she has sold the business to Erickson and Herndon, her hope is that they can help fill the void that her husband left. Elk River Custom Meats can be reached at 970-871-7975 or by email at AGPPROCESSING21@ gmail.com. AGP Processing can be reached at 970-826- 0144. Both operations are USDA-certified.
“Having worked with Dan, and with the relationships that he and Christy had with the hunters and the Steamboat community, we kind of want to help carry on his vision and his tradition that he had already set up,” Erickson said. “Circumstances dictated something else, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep what he had going and going strong. We are just going to add domestic retail to it and keep the dream alive.”