Art for Your Dinner Table - and Walls -
at Jeffrey’s Meats in the Essex Street Market

Putting a New Spin on a Historic Treasure
Jeffrey Ruhalter knows all about diversification. He is a fourth generation family butcher whose business, now called Jeffrey's Meats, has been serving the changing tastes of New Yorkers for over 75 years. His great-grandfather opened a butcher shop in 1929 on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, and then moved it in to the nearby Essex Street Market when it opened in 1940.

While the Market has experienced a rebirth of sorts in the last few years - now boasting 25 meat, fish, artisan cheese, produce, pastry and other merchants - Jeffrey is in the unique position of having observed how customers' needs evolved through the decades, as he is the Market’s last remaining original tenant.

"What sold kept changing each decade," he told us as he ran through his extensive list of more traditional, as well as exotic fare. "We (and the Market) are now reflecting the new diversity of the neighborhood."

While you can still get the brisket of yesteryear and your standard porterhouse steak, lamb chops and duck, how about something a little edgier, like alligator, emu, wild boar or rattlesnake?

As higher end restaurants and residents settle in to the Lower East Side, Jeffrey makes sure to keep pace with the palates. He also caters dinner parties. Jeffrey's "Gourmet Lunch and Dinner to Go - Fine Gourmet Dining at Home" can whip up an exciting and tasty culinary experience for 10 to 100 people.

"I am the customers’ butcher and their friend," he said. "People come to me when planning a dinner party and want to know what to serve."

We sampled Jeffrey's Steak Noelle (pictured with Jeffrey in the top left picture), a tender and artistic work of flank steak, provolone, prosciutto, yellow squash, spinach, Portobello mushroom and aged Parmesan Reggiano - a definite masterpiece.

The photos to the left and above capture many of the delectable sights of Jeffrey’s Meats and the Essex Street Market

Catering to Hip and Artistic Crowds
Jeffrey also leverages the assets of the many artists in his Lower East Side neighborhood and nearby East Village. The "Meat Market Gallery at Jeffrey's" has hosted and catered art openings for as many as 90 people in front of his meat counter, and artwork is displayed daily. From paintings to photographs to sculpture, Jeffrey says that all art is welcome and his gallery is one of the few places in the city where an artist can have a truly free showing. No sales are required and he will not take a commission.

Jeffrey has also supplied many restaurants throughout the city, including the chic Essex Restaurant right next door to the Market.

But while Jeffrey does not supply restaurants to the extent he once did, he does offer an "emergency service" for them. Thrusting a business card into our hands, it aptly displayed the words, "Who Fucked up the Order - Emergency Restaurant Supply - We Will Save Your Ass."

It's good to know that there is someone in the city who will…

You can visit Jeffrey's Meats in the Essex Street Market at 120 Essex, between Delancey and Rivington, Lower East Side. Click here for more details.

By subway: Take the F train to Delancey, or the J, M or Z trains to Essex in Manhattan.