Mystic — James Wayman, executive chef and owner of Grass & Bone, the downtown restaurant and butcher shop at 24 E. Main St., confirmed Monday that the butcher shop will close at the end of the month due to rising costs.

“With much sadness we would like to announce that December 31st will be the last day that we will have a butcher shop inside Grass & Bone,” Wayman wrote in a social media post, referring to himself and Grass & Bone co-owner Aaron Laipply. “In short, we have realized that our butcher shop is just not a sustainable business model.”

The restaurant portion of the business will continue operating “for now,” the post says.

Wayman wrote in the post that when he and Laipply took over sole ownership of Grass & Bone this past summer, they knew they would face some difficult decisions.

“As we watched meat prices sky rocket, and as the price of feed and grain increased, we began to question the viability of operating a small animal butcher shop,” he wrote.

Wayman indicated in an email that he had nothing to add.

Grass & Bone's butcher shop, which opened in 2017 along with the restaurant, had supplied meat to other restaurants, including Oyster Club and Engine Room.

According to Grass & Bone’s website, its butcher shop sources animals from local and regional farms and specializes in whole animal butchery, which allows it to offer a variety of cuts of meat while using as much as possible from each animal. The shop cuts, cures, cooks and dry-ages meats in house.

“One of my greatest joys of having a butcher shop was to provide our community a resource for buying ethically and organically farmed, pasture raised meats,” Wayman continued in the post. “Although we will no longer be offering them for sale, we ask that you please continue supporting our farmers directly which will be even more beneficial to their livelihood.”

Grass & Bone soon will be launching its final Christmas roast market, the post says.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com