Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. SSE winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. SSE winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.
Greg Harwell stands in the door of his walk-in on Friday afternoon at Harwell’s Custom Processing.
Meat hooks hang from the ceiling of a freezer on Friday afternoon at Harwell’s Custom Processing off Upper Mission Valley Road in Victoria County.
Josef McCoy, left, and Tyler Brink, right, enter the “beer cave” at the Texan #6 on Friday afternoon off North Main Street in Victoria.
John Tyrna points out some of the items in the dry-aging refrigerator at the Chopping Block meat market on Friday on North Navarro Street in Victoria.
Industrial fans work round the clock to keep beverages cool in the beer cave at the Texan #6 on Friday afternoon off North Main Street.
A thermometer keeps track of the beverage cooler temperature on Friday afternoon at the Texan #6 off of North Main Street.
The shelves of the walk-in cooler at the Chopping Block hold cuts of every kind of quality meat imaginable on Friday.
Greg Harwell stands in the door of his walk-in on Friday afternoon at Harwell’s Custom Processing.
Industrial fans work round the clock to keep beverages cool in the beer cave at the Texan #6 on Friday afternoon off North Main Street.
A thermometer keeps track of the beverage cooler temperature on Friday afternoon at the Texan #6 off of North Main Street.
The shelves of the walk-in cooler at the Chopping Block hold cuts of every kind of quality meat imaginable on Friday.
Some jobs are cooler than others.
This week, temperatures across the region flirted with adding a third digit, but some summer work uniforms still include hoodies and gloves.
The Chopping Block on North Navarro Street, just south of the Loop, has been keeping it cool since opening in February.
Anyone poking their head in a merchandise fridge to cool off might also notice a dizzying array of high-quality meat products for sale. And temperature control is particularly important when dealing with high-quality meats. A slab of Wagyu beef, for example, has an extremely high fat content and doesn’t like to sit above 60 degrees for long.
John Tyrna points out some of the items in the dry-aging refrigerator at the Chopping Block meat market on Friday on North Navarro Street in Victoria.
“We do everything the old school way. Everything’s fresh,” Chopping Block owner John Tyrna said. “We don’t pump Co2 or nitrogen or fillers, preservatives, binders, soy, I mean anything. It’s just all meat, cheese, seasoning — the good stuff.”
If the food wasn’t already a big enough draw, customers can bring a bit of the cold home with them. Tyrna said he’s working with a company to make reusable cooler bags for those who have to transport meats long distances.
But customers still find an excuse to linger where its cool.
“Last week, (a) guy walked in and was like, ‘Hey can I go sit in your cooler?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘I made a chair in the beer cooler at the gas station. They kicked me out,’” Tyrna said.
Josef McCoy, left, and Tyler Brink, right, enter the “beer cave” at the Texan #6 on Friday afternoon off North Main Street in Victoria.
Residents frequently call the Texan #6 gas station off North Main Street the cleanest rest stop in the area, and Victoria Advocate readers voted it 2022’s best convenience store. For maintenance workers like Josef McCoy and Tyler Brink, who keep up the high level of shine, the crisp air of the “beer cave” is one of the perks.
“A lot of the outside stuff, we’ll handle that first,” McCoy said. “I feel like we take it as a relief to go into the cooler. Especially, you know, on the 100-some-(degree)-odd days, it’s awesome to be able to actually have something to go to to cool you off.”
McCoy said customers are quick to express their envy when they enter the cave and see him stocking the shelves.
“I always tell everybody it’s my office,” McCoy said.
But McCoy and Brink agree there can be too much of a good thing.
“If you’re in there too long, you definitely feel the effects,” McCoy said.
Meat hooks hang from the ceiling of a freezer on Friday afternoon at Harwell’s Custom Processing off Upper Mission Valley Road in Victoria County.
The door to the cooler at Harwell’s Custom Processing is so thick it would make John Dillinger blush. Its heft helps preserve shelves of wrapped and portioned cuts of recent livestock waiting to be claimed by customers.
But things get even colder.
Harwell’s freezer is so frigid that when the door opens, warm air from the outside instantly condenses into a semi-opaque fog. Wearers of glasses beware.
Harwell’s opened in 1970, and Greg Harwell, whose father founded the business, said he’s been in and out of meat coolers and on and off killing floors since he was 12 years old. With all that experience, he said he can manage about an hour in the walk-in. Anyone eager to take advantage of the job’s frosty benefits also has to be able to manage the arduous work of butchering livestock — not to mention the perpetual cold.
After all, colder isn’t always better.
“In the winter time,” Harwell said, “there’s nowhere to hide.”
I'm a staff photojournalist at the Victoria Advocate. I was raised in Virginia and went to the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
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