"butchers" news and stories

The shift toward local, sustainable eating has gone beyond farmers markets, CSAs, and restaurant menus and into a bloodier realm: butcher shops. In search of meat with traceable origins, consumers are bypassing mega-market meat counters in favor of small butchers where local cuts are king.

"Our goal was to create a place where people can come and feel good about what they eat," Joshua Applestone told Slashfood, who started Fleisher's Grass-fed & Organic Meats in Kingston, NY, with his wife Jessica in 2004. Their philosophy is paying off -- literally. Fleisher's has been a smashing success, drawing national attention (Applestone has been in a number of food publications and recently appeared on Martha Stewart's television show) and securing some of New York City's biggest restaurants as customers. All of the shop's meat comes from family-run farms and slaughterhouses within 50 miles of their operation in Kingston. Applestone says they made that choice not just to support local agriculture, but also to minimize environmental impact. (Shipping meat cross-country requires extra packaging, refrigeration, and fuel to transport.)

At John's Custom Meats in Smiths Grove, Ky., Amy Sipes and her husband John Rediess make no secret of their pride in local cuts, and they want their customers to question where mass-produced cuts originate. "Ever Wonder Where Your Dinner Comes From?" asks the banner at the top of their website. The couple is somewhat unique in that they process all of their own cattle. And what they don't raise themselves, they buy locally.

There was a time when only rock stars were rock stars. Then, sometime in the last decade, the public decided that chefs were rock stars, too. The latest profession to get the nod? Butchers. Yep, this unlikely profession -- a mix of blood, dead animals, and sharp knives -- is now, well, cool. East Coast hipsters eager to show off their adventurous side (and their food knowledge) started the trend, and recently, things have taken a turn for the weird: A slew of articles in the past year, including a splashy piece in the New York Times, have dubbed the profession "sexy."

Julie Powell, of "Julie and Julia" fame, is partly responsible. Her recent book, "Cleaving," chronicles her eight-month apprenticeship at Fleisher's Meats in upstate New York in between her descriptions of her torrid affair with an ex-boyfriend. But Powell's voice is only one of many. Butchers have a cult following, fans eager to learn the trade and pick up some of the foodie credibility it suddenly provides. San Francisco butcher Ryan Farr's shop, 4505 Meats, doesn't bother trying to be coy. Their apparel line (Apparel! Butcher shop apparel!) includes a t-shirt depicting a curvaceous woman with a whip, along with the caption "Say it sexy: Chicha-r-r-r-r-r-ones." Another shirt quips, "Pork. The noun, not the verb." Farr's classes, sessions like "Whole Hog," where participants butcher a 250-lb hog and take home the spoils, routinely sell out.

Don't forget about the carnivore's favorite time-saver: the employees behind the meat counter at your local butcher.

Pat LaFrieda. Photo: Nick Solares.

Haute Burger. The idea seems silly of a food that was once so simple. (Grind meat. Form patty. Grill. Dress. Eat.)

That's no longer the case. Proprietary patties are big business, with big money to be earned in creating a mouth-watering blend of ground cow. A masterful mix could earn a chef the coveted crown of Burger King at one of growing number of cook-offs, such as the Feedbag's first annual cook-off in Summit, N.J., last weekend.

In New York, when a chef wants a custom burger, he often turns to third-generation meatman Pat La Frieda, whose family has been making burgers for nearly a century. He and his staff spend up to two months creating the right mix of meat for a chef.

"For the Shake Shack we made almost 30 different blends," La Frieda told us. "For Minetta Tavern's Black Label Burger, it was probably just as many. We tried different styles of meat, different weights. It was a process. I was eating burgers everyday."

We caught up with LaFrieda to get the juice on his family, the growing list of big name chefs trafficking in burgers and his decision this month to finally make three types of patties available to home cooks through Fresh Direct.

Prosciutto, anchovy and onion pizza. Photo: Gio JL/Flickr

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