Julia Child once said, “Every woman should kiss her butcher.”

After cooking up a freshly ground hamburger or a marinated chicken breast from Frank Tucker’s counter, you may be inclined to agree.

For 13 years, Tucker has been butcher-in-chief at Lloyd’s Market, garnering a number of groupies who come from as far as Westport, Plymouth, and Raynham to get his fresh cuts.

Lloyd’s Market owner Matt Beaulieu has come to expect that when customers enter his store, they’re going to make a beeline for the back.

“People come here to see Frank,” said Beaulieu.

The Fairhaven native and now Wareham resident grew up in the meat industry. His aunt and uncle owned Davidsons Meat Products in New Bedford where Tucker’s father also worked on Saturdays.

“He woke me up one morning and said, ‘Come on, you’re going to work.’” recalled Tucker.

At 13, he was too young to go near the machinery, so he started washing pots and pans, later waiting on customers and watching the butchers work.

“It lead to picking up a knife and trying different things,” said Tucker, who learned the different cuts of meat so well he was eventually allowed to fill in for the butchers.

Tucker focused on the business side of the food industry in the 80s but got back into retail in the 90s when he started working as a deli manager in local supermarkets.

In 2001, his former store manager and then owner of Lloyd’s Market, Jay Gorge, invited him to fill the vacant butcher position.

With the meat department and a host of local and gourmet goodies, the unassuming market on Hartley Road (Beaulieu said people often think it’s a convenience store) has definitely tapped into the ever-growing foodie culture. People are increasingly concerned about the origin of their food and buying fresh products.

“We serve a purpose for the people who don’t want to go to the supermarket and be so impersonal,” said Tucker. “You can actually choose which steak you want. We’re still buying the chicken the old fashioned way. I find it a lot fresher that way. It’s not sitting in the package for a long period of time.”

And Tucker knows the names of most of his customers.

“It seems more and more people are going back to that where you can give them old-fashioned personal service – just like ‘Cheers’ where everybody knows your name,” he said.

Like his uncle and father before him, Tucker said, “I thoroughly enjoy dealing with the public. You get to know people. I’ve seen the kids grow up. As they grow and get older, they actually start shopping here.”

He also said the prices are pretty competitive to the big box stores. But in addition to making cuts on the spot, Tucker and his crew mix their own marinades from scratch and even brine their own corned beef.

“People think that small is expensive. Small is very competitive,” Tucker said.

Zac Savaria shares the workload with Tucker. A graduate of Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical School’s culinary arts program, Savaria said he’s done “everything from short order to fine dining.”

He started working at Lloyd’s seven years ago. “I’ve always liked working with knives and being in kitchens so this seemed like the next step,” said Savaria.

The chef turned butcher said there’s an art to cutting meat, and while butchers may be scarce these days, they serve a purpose.

“It’s something that everybody takes for granted. They go to the grocery store. They don’t know where it came from, who touched it last, or how long it’s been sitting there,” he said.

Supermarkets also lack the culinary advice that Tucker and Savaria say is part of the job.

“We get a lot of people in at dinnertime. We just start rattling stuff off,” said Tucker. “A lot of times we make the decision for them.”

For a busy mom that advice could warrant a Julia Child recommended peck…just make sure it’s on the cheek.

Lloyd’s Market is located at 4 Hartley Rd. The butcher counter is open and staffed from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.