Fall River’s Reis Meat Market Bounces Back One Year After Devastating Fire

There's a small family-owned meat market in Fall River with mighty perseverance.

One year after a devastating fire ripped through their building, the Ventura family is back and the doors of Reis Meat Market are open again to the public. Fall River native Tony Ventura and his family/crew had the soft opening this week to work out the kinks after being out of business for over a year.

An official grand reopening will happen in September.

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Ventura said everything went smoothly on reopening day, Tuesday. He was happy to see a lot of customers, old and new.

"It was a really good day and business was good thanks to word of mouth," Ventura said. "People greeted and congratulated us, and although we're not 100% organized, I'm still tweaking things here and there. It's been a year not running the store, so the least amount of mistakes before the grand reopening, the better it will be for us."

The business caught fire in August 2022 one day before its 20th anniversary. It was scheduled to reopen back in March but kept running into delays for reasons including code issues and damaged equipment.

Reis Meat Market, 375 Alden St., is best known for its famous homemade chourico, linguica and morcela (blood pudding). Ventura's favorite is the Azorean-style rotisserie chicken with homemade piri piri sauce.

"It's a secret recipe," Ventura said. "Eventually, we'll be looking to bottle the sauce with a label and a name for it. The rotisserie chicken is one of my favorite dishes we offer with Portuguese roasted potatoes, Portuguese stuffing, vegetables and rice."

Reis Meat Market will announce its official grand reopening on Facebook.

"Come and visit us, we'd love to see you and extend a Portuguese experience that's authentic as it gets," Ventura said.