Hillcrest Artisan Meats of Little Rock is once again king of the Ham world!
H.A.M., co-owned by Brandon Brown and his wife, Tara Protiva-Brown, won the La Quercia Ham Independence contest for the second consecutive year. The local shop defeated competitors from across the nation to take home the top prize.
H.A.M. received 6,886 votes, roughly 41 percent, to beat its closest competitor, The Cheese Shop of Des Moines, which received 6,665 votes, roughly 39 percent.
As its prize, H.A.M. wins a whole Acorn Edition Prosciutto leg. The humongous piece of pork is aged 24-36 months and weighs between 15-30 lbs and comes from a pig fed a 60 percent acorn diet for at least three months.
The folks at H.A.M. were in the middle of catering to a busy lunch crowd at their Kavanaugh Boulevard shop when they found out they had repeated as winners.
“Our fans in Arkansas are incredible to do this two years in a row,” Protiva-Brown said.
As an added bonus this year, H.A.M. will get to travel to Iowa to pick out its prized possession.
H.A.M. doesn’t know when it will be headed up to Iowa to collect its prize, but one thing is for sure, the ham will be available to all customers once it’s in Little Rock.
“Absolutely,” Protiva-Brown said when asked if customers would be able to get free samples of the glorious meat. “We would never sell this ham.”
It took about eight days for the entire ham to be consumed by H.A.M.’s customers last year, and Protiva-Brown said it was a great experience.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “People would pull up on their lunch breaks, run in, get a bite and run out.”
The contest is part of the Ham Independence Week, a week-long festival put on by La Quercia Cured Meats of Iowa. The festival celebrates artisan cured ham and all its glory.
H.A.M.is located at 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd, Suite B, and is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Hillcrest shop provides locally-sourced, natural and organic meats and charcuterie products. For more information, check out their Facebook page.