Yesterday I felt bruised and beaten by New York, our fair city. We tried to make an "efficient" grocery run. We headed to the Jay street stop on the A, because we thought that we'd be able to hit all of our needs, butcher, dry goods (Sahadi's), and general grocery store (Trader Joe's) and be able to get the bulk of what we needed in one area.

Trader Joe's let us down from the moment we walked trhough the doors. The line was already at the doors. Mind you I wanted to just poke in and see if their dry goods or major bulk fruits were even worth our time and discovered they weren't. A bag of Organic Lemons for $2.99 (5-6 small lemons) or $2.69 for non-organic? Come on. Next we headed to Sahadi's, but we knew exactly what we needed from there and that they would have it at a reasonable cost so that was in and out.

Then we aimed for local butcher's we found online a Halal meat market we had hope for, nope, smelled like road kill. A butcher shop should smell like meat, but not road kill. I stared at the list of prices for a few seconds trying to feign interest and then saw Tracie's face and we headed out. Tracie saw a roach on the counter that they cut the meat on.

Next, it was down Court street to the infamous Staubitz Market where the butcher didn't make eye contact with me, sighed when we mentioned we wanted "de-boned" lamb shoulder and told us it would cost more per pound and then generally treated us like assholes. I am an asshole, but I wasn't being one then. We walked out and decided to do a bit more research.

We remembered that we like Essex Market and Tracie looked up what was available there. We found a butcher that sounded reasonable and she sent me the link. I spent the next 20 minutes reading over his site and watching demo video's of him butchering animals on Gourmet's old site. I already was charmed by this guy.

Old school New Yorker to the core. My favorite part of their website "Who Fucked Up The Order?" When you are a Chef in a restaurant this is something purveyors are always saying to you when you call them the day you need something that "someone else" forgot to order. In my case it almost has always been the other person who did, so I've been on the receiving end so much that I burst a gut laughing. 

Tracie calls him up and asks if we can get 4# of lamb shoulder and how much is it. He asks her what she's using it for and I hear her tell him the whole story of what our plans are. I'm in the other room so I shout, "Ask him how much it is de-boned?" since the other butcher gave us shit for that. She asks him if he can de-bone it also and how much. His reply," Lady, I'm a fuckin' butcher of course I can de-bone it!" I love this guy.

This morning we head over to Essex St. Market. We wander around and find damn near everything we need there, for pretty low prices. There is this one Grocery stand in the back left corner run by a Chinese family, they have nearly every god-damned Bob's Red Mill grain. Seriously. 

Finally, we make our way over to Jeffery's Meat Market, our new butcher. I'm not sure how many of you know what I mean when I say Jeffrey is an "Old School New Yorker" so go visit him, he is. We Walked up to the counter and one of his other butcher's, "Silva", was helping us and he asked what we were doing with it and suggested a leg of lamb as it was cheaper. Tracie mentioned she'd spoken with Jeffrey on the phone yesterday, he overheard and headed over to greet us.

First question, what are you planning to do with this again? We explained that we are making a type of Turkish sausage. He mulled it over for a split second and agreed with his butcher's choice and then quoted a slightly higher price than the butcher had, I corrected him and he was apologetic about it and changed it back. He told us the total price, just over $24 and we told him we'd take it, he had quoted $5.99 a pound.

Ours weighed in just over 4#. I told him I would go ahead and de-bone it and he says, "What are you tryin' to put me out a business, I'm a butcher..." I laughed and said, "...go for it...I can always learn something by watching..." He has a terrific sense of humor, he's super knowledgeable and has been in the business for over forty years, wait why the fuck have I gone to other guys for the past 5 years? Oh yea, because I've been too busy to talk to people. 

We talked for about 10 more minutes about the state of the restaurant industry, my startup ideas, how he could help, how other butchers are ripping people off, how the meat industry has change, where he gets all of his meat, and that "Anything dead, he can probably get it for us..." I put my money on the counter and he said "Wait, I'm sorry did I say $25 I meant $18." From $5.99 a pound to $4.36 a pound, a savings of $1.63 a pound. Straight faced the guy just dropped the price because he and I both knew we would do business again. 

Jeffrey's Leg of Lamb, $18

Not only was he helpful, inviting, and charismatic, but also while we were watching him butcher the leg of lamb Tracie found a slip of paper on his counter advertising Meat Plans. We picked it up. You should pick it up. He makes meat affordable. And his sources are reasonable local and that makes me happy.

I love New York today and it's because there are people and small businesses like Jeffery's Meat Market. Now we just need more like him.