The last fun party I went to was Dumpling Wars 2020 in late February at Marz Community Brewing. I was a judge for the contest, which was jam-packed with people inhaling momos, mandu, khinkali, and soup dumplings. There was a popular vote on the 20 contestants, and the judges picked their own favorite. After minimal debate we decided that best in show was a black-squid-ink empanadilla stuffed with wild boar chorizo, perched in the bowl of a spoon atop a crumble of cured egg yolk with salsa brava and manchego aioli.



 Turns out Hanft has worked as a line cook over the years, staging at Gilt Bar and the Publican during a brief run in culinary school. He was also on the opening crew at Publican Quality Meats, and he spent a summer in the kitchen at 3 Floyds. But those jobs didn’t pay the bills.



 Applestone hired Hanft as an apprentice, and within a few years he had worked his way up to plant manager in a white, windowless refrigerated USDA facility where “all I did all day every day was cut and process. It was really nice because that’s how you get good.”



 Hanft decided to give it a go last spring, when he returned home and applied for a commercial line of credit from a local bank to build out a space on Griffith’s main drag next to a deli and down the street from a taxidermist. That’s when he started processing deer (and beaver and wild boar). The money was also meant to go toward hiring and training staff and to pay for the first round of animals that Howe had lined up from a handful of local farmers, most of whom were raising 50 animals or less at a time. Two of them had been considering selling their farms, says Hanft. 



 He also wasn’t able to get a health inspection until his construction was complete, but by that point his walk-in was operational and he jumped through a few hoops to get the Indiana State Board of Animal Health and the Lake County Health Department’s approval to begin dry-aging them. In the meantime, he got to work making sausage: brats, Polishes, Italian, Thai, loukaniko, chorizo, and all-beef hot dogs based on a recipe he worked on at Applestone’s with the help of a German master butcher.

130 N. Broad St. Griffith, Indianathewurstmeats.com