The words Hottinger s Family Meats stretches above the doorway of a one-story, red-tile roofed building in an industrial corner of Chino near warehouses and railroad tracks. The business is one of the last reminders that ranches and dairies that once ruled this swath of the Inland Empire.
Ben Hottinger at work at Hottinger Family Meats in Chino. (Courtesy of Hottinger Family Meats)
Founded in 1948 by Swiss immigrant Henry Hottinger, the intimate butcher shop has been owned by the same family for four generations. When we built this place, there wasn t anything here, it was wide open, says 79-year-old Ben Hottinger, Henry s youngest son. My dad bought 12 acres but what we have left here is an acre. That s it.