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What ever happened to the local butcher?
Posted on Wed, January 28, 2009 by Jerusha Klemperer
5 Comments | Categories: Farms and Farming, Meat,
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by Slow Food USA Intern Laura Kate Morris
Having recently moved to New York City from the Hudson Valley, I’m still in the process of getting my bearings and (more importantly) my groceries. Prior to this I was living on a farm, so sourcing my food was easy; most of it was in the field or a neighbor’s meat freezer. Now, as the wind sweeps me up and down the streets, I feel slightly daunted.
I’ve been dreaming of my next meal – a hot, brothy soup with chunks of potato, leeks, and fresh tortellini. The first step should be simple – I want a hearty stock that will start with carrots and onions from the Union Square Greenmarket and some beef bones I have yet to acquire. Armed with my trusty (if somewhat out-of-date) copy of The Slow Food Guide to New York City and my naive faith in the availability of anything, anywhere, in New York, I venture out into the cold.
Convinced I will find what I’m looking for in Little Italy, I venture out in search of Dom’s Fine Foods. I find it squeezed between an upscale furniture retailer and a shiny bank. Dom’s, however, isn’t keeping up with the Joneses. Boarded up and chained shut, the name is just visible painted in green and red under layers of grime and graffiti. My next option, Albanese’s, is several frigid blocks later. So unobtrusive that I pass it the first time, Moe Albanese’s is a hole-in-the wall with a faded newspaper cutting in the window, proclaiming it “the last authentic Italian butcher in Little Italy.” It is closed, with no hours posted. After trudging home, a hot cup of coffee, and some Internet research, I give it one more try. I find a nearby gourmet shop with a butcher’s counter. However, I am told they don’t really carry things like that. The butcher suggests I try Whole Foods.
I haven’t given up entirely, but I’m feeling discouraged. I’m sure that there are fantastic artisan butchers in Manhattan that would fulfill my wildest dreams of soup bones. I tell myself it’s my inexperience in navigating through the city. Perhaps New Yorkers don’t make beef stock from scratch, I tell myself. Or, maybe they just don’t cook at all. Whatever it is, I was sad that the independent shops I was looking for in small neighborhoods were fading away into lingerie boutiques and that my options were seemingly limited to chain stores. I know that the loss of small, localized shops is nothing new, as specialized stores cannot compete with larger corporations and rent goes up in increasingly fashionable neighborhoods. Perhaps as we become more aware of the values of handmade, sustainable foods and skilled producers who really know their product, these places will start to return. That, and I hope a beef farmer will brave the cold at this week’s greenmarket.
Postscript:
Some good news: if anyone else in New York City is looking for a quality butcher, I’ve recently learned of the following:
Gramercy Meat Market. 383 Second Avenue, Manhattan.
Marlow and Daughters. 95 Broadway. Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat Market. 285 Bleecker Street. West Village.
Staubitz Market. 222 Court Street. Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Member Comments
From esbee on Fri, January 30, 2009
It’s not the neighborhood butcher I am worried about but the farmer who raises the good pasture raised grass-fed animals that become the butcher’s product that may disappear leaving only factory farmed meats (factory farms raise animals in crowded unhealthy conditions, vaccinate and hormone the poor creatures)
For those who want to continue eating healthy farm raised meat, I highly suggest you educate yourself about the USDA program called NAIS and how it will threaten the slow Food and grass-raised movement in favor of big ag factory farmed meats.
(NAIS national animal id system) is a business plan to benefit corporate agriculture on the global level. But it is being pushed as an animal disease tracking program (there are already proven disease tracking programs in place!!!) Big agri-biz gets the benefits and profits from the program, but those who own even one farm animal, even as a pet will have to bear the burden and costs of working it. So far, the USDA has spent over $130 million of your tax dollars to push the lies of this program. Corporate ag gets one lot number per groups of factory farmed animals and the rest of us will have to?
1. register premises with the govt
2. microchip all animals we own
3. file reports on all births, deaths, off property movements
4. depopulate (kill) animals in 6 mi.radius if disease is suspected.
All this so corporate ag can tell Japan they are buying safe beef! But how does my telling the govt everywhere I ride my horse insure Japan will have safe beef? How are granny?s few backyard hens the same as thousands of factory farmed chickens? They are certainly not on the same playing field. That is like me having a disease but forcing you to take/pay for the meds, then I go tell the world I am healthy so I can travel the world. Makes absolutely no sense, benefits neither one of us, but that is how NAIS will work. NAIS will affect everyone who eats, and not in a good way. See nonaisdotorg for more info on this program that will affect everyone who eats.
From Candy Schibli on Fri, January 30, 2009
My husband and I, though not living in NY, have found it equally hard in the VA suburbs of Washington, D.C. to locate a local butcher. One who will cut our meat by request, and not just sell us pre-packaged parts. Recently opening in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA (Metro accessible)is “Let?s Meat on the Avenue”, at 2403 Mt. Vernon Avenue. Unfortunately, places like this are hard to locate if you don’t know where and how to search for them. Most people, though they would like to, won’t take the time. It would be great if this information were gathered and placed online, or in the phone books for easy access - not just for NY, but for a number or urban areas.
From Jerusha on Sat, January 31, 2009
Hi Candy,
Have you checked out Local Harvest?
http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?map=1&lat=38.857622&lon;=-77.053083&scale=8&ty;=-1&nm=butcher&zip=22246
Best,
Jerusha
From Jess on Sun, February 01, 2009
It’s not in your neighborhood, but Oppenheimer Meats on the Upper West Side is the real deal. The people who work there are actual butchers who cut the meat themselves and can cut anything to order. When I lived in New York I shopped there—I learned about it from an Argentinean friend who wouldn’t buy his meat anywhere else because he could request special cuts.
From Paul Kobulnicky on Tue, February 03, 2009
This is not about NYC but about butchers. Even when they don’t disappear they seem to have capitulated. Our area is not known for great food ... just massive portions of mediocre food. However, when we moved here we did discover a great butcher shop. Old fashioned and smelling like smoke and blood.
But ... over the six years that we have been here, this butcher shop has abandoned all of the traditional things it used to do and now puts out meat like the supermarket ... standard cuts with every bit of fat cut off. The clincher came last night when I asked if they had short ribs (because I didn’t see them in the case). The young man behind the counter pointed to a pile of meat cubes and said “short ribs”. No fat and certainly no ribs. We’re sending them a Mass card for the Dead.
