Each generation of LaFriedas hasimmensely contributed something to further the business. Every time someone from the parking commission wants to impose another fine on cars coming in to the city, its going to affect all businesses including restaurants. At the end of the day, the restaurants are going to buy from Pat or from myself because the relationship is there, he says. As the steaks age, the enzymes in the beef naturally tenderize the meat. LaFrieda signature customized blends of chopped beef is made using whole muscles, never trimmings. Placeswhereits harder to get to brick and mortar restaurants. LaFrieda has his defenders: Many of the butchers clients say they judge his work by how flavorful a cut of steak is, including factors like fattiness and dry aging, as well as how consistent the product is on a weekly basis. Today, Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors boasts an impressive one thousand customers and is rapidly growing. By submitting your email, you agree to our, The freshest news from the local food world, The Complicated Power of LaFrieda, the Biggest Name in NYCs Meat Industry, Sign up for the We deliver a lot of product in a very short amount of time at the US Open. We bring in farmed Cervena Venison fresh from New Zealand. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Again, short term it lowers the price, and long-term, beef as a whole will go up. Quality control is also important and Elvira Cunha has really brought it to another level thats beyond just the USDA. The result is tender meat with a rich and complex flavor profile that is sought after by the finest chefs in the world. Menus across the city bear his name, branded food stalls in airports and baseball stadiums sling his burgers, and with over 60,000 followers on Instagram, his influence reaches far beyond the local meat industry. Thats concerning since that is where fast food companies, prisons, and school systems get their meat. Disclosure: Eater has a video series, Prime Time, hosted by Ben Turley and Brent Young of the Meat Hook. There are lots of new restaurants popping up; I mean look at all ofHudson Yards. Thats due in part to the now widely championed idea that the highest-quality meat comes from sustainability-minded small-scale producers particularly ones that work with small farms to ensure animals roam freely and are raised without antibiotics and not mass-market suppliers like LaFrieda, who sources meat from more than 100 farms across the country, mainly in the Midwest. When Shake Shacks cheeseburger became an immediate hit, the now-global chain largely attributed its success to the custom meat blend LaFrieda created for the restaurant, which came from a variety of whole-muscle cuts, like brisket and short rib, instead of the traditional trimmings an element of customization that was unheard of in the butcher business, Rosati says.

Marketing, he says, has played a big role in why so many people correlate beef from a big supplier like LaFrieda with quality. We are seeing it with meal-kits, and I love this platform but livery wars are the next big battle. This is all to say that LaFrieda has mastered far more than butchering meat. As for the rest of the team, one of the most important things about our business is credit terms and giving or not giving a restaurant a certain amount of credit. We bring in fresh all natural rabbit from Whiskey Hill Farm, an Amish family farm in the Hudson Valley. Their preferred grass-feeding process takes more time and money, and in its current state, the local farm industry cant meet the volume required by restaurants, they say. It's finished off on grain. Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker asked LaFrieda why he was so negative about "grass fed" beef even though it's the only part of the industry that continuously experiences double digit growth. If it wasnt for all the knowledge and faith of my Fathers, Id never be able to reach where I have. Its not built to be able to sustain those numbers.. And though the meat industry is rife with factory farms that have come under fire for crowded, inhumane conditions and overuse of antibiotics, he says the farms he works with dont take part in that. There was a difference in feeding with their cows too that made forleaner beef with less intramuscular fat. Who can deliver the cheapest, fastest and best food? Rosa Gomez who runs our accounts receivable has been with me for 14 years and has completely turned around that department. The business runs seven days a week, around the clock. I went out there and worked with British butcher Randy Garutti. Consumers trusted chefs to know what good meat was, says Ariane Daguin, who founded her gourmet meat and charcuterie company, DArtagnan, 35 years ago and supplies to over 1,000 restaurants in the five boroughs, including Daniel and Per Se. Now you have a meat company that will custom-tailor one of several hundred custom burger blends for you with whatever blend you want us to do because you have an idea of doing something different. Famous for their chopped not ground meat, Pat has created over 50 custom hamburger blends and is the mastermind behind such burgers as the famous Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern, as well as signature custom blends at hot spots such as Shake Shack, Spotted Pig, Union Square Caf, Blue Smoke and Market Table. At the end of the day, sustainability goes hand in hand with small farmers, and small farmers mean good products, she says. We carry all cuts of beef in choice, high choice and prime grades. Its one of the pitfalls of having a name thats become too big: The brand can get diluted, and what it stands for becomes more difficult to control. Less stressful situations for the animal results in better tasting meat, and we can attest that our beef is the best on the market. The carbon foot print of something that's grass fed is much larger because what's not being taken under consideration is that it has to live a lot longer to get to weight if it's not fed grain or corn.". This is no ordinary cut of beef. Soon, restaurants saw an upside to putting LaFriedas name on their menus for more than just custom-blended burgers. It has been appreciating but has been replaced with terms like grass fed, and all natural (no growth hormones, etc.). All cattle in America starts out feeding on grass, though most big commercial farms pivot to a grain diet before sending their cows to a slaughterhouse. One of our main processing plant is Creekstone Farms, a state of the art facility in the heart of the country. Yes, it definitely has helped give a different perspective because there is more exposure of the brand and we are learning how to give our product to customers in a different way and a different location than we ever have before. Its risky to license his name out: In many cases, a concessions operator runs the day to day, making quality control tough to manage, LaFrieda says. The demand will only grow with population growth. Fortunately, for the restaurants of New York, his plan backfired. LaFrieda responded by saying that his restaurant customers sometimes start off asking for a "grass fed program" which he's happy to supply but "What most people don't know is that all beef is grass fed for about 85% of its life. And sadly, its getting harder and harder to park in the city so coming in to eat is getting harder and harder. newsletter, Rich Diners Only: Private Restaurants Are on the Rise in NYC. We saw it happen in theMiddle East and itd be nice to see it in China.

Some meat industry experts also argue that grass-fed beef is a more ethical choice because its better for both the environment and diners health, though those claims are complicated. My father, Pat the second, starting working there when he was 12 and eventually took over the business. But that being said, the product itself is not that unique.. Goat is a unique and versatile protein that is very popular in various cuisines from Caribbean to Mexican to African. All the ducks are raised without hormones or artificial growth stimulants, and the quality of the meat and the skin is unsurpassed. We need more identity in meat, not less, she says. Hes skeptical of the grass-fed beef movement and the sustainability claims around it, thinking much of it is driven by retail marketing, he says. I want to change the system, she says. Though the butcher says hell never open his own steakhouse, today his name can be found on burger concepts at JFK and LaGuardia airports, the Citi Field baseball stadium, and the Pennsy food hall in Midtown. For three generations, Pat LaFrieda Wholesale Meat Purveyors has served everyone from mom and pop shops to the newest hot spots to international hotel chains and renowned hospitality groups. This has legalized the whole process now. There is no way that NYCrestaurants can live by indigenous New Yorkers themselves. We are particularly proud of our All Natural Hampshire Pork from American Homestead. We stock Pekin Duck from Crescent Farms (Long Island) and Jurgielewicz and Son (Pennsylvania.) It took awhile to find someone who would do this in a way that I wanted. CEO Marc Sarrazin says thats because the bulk of his customers are a result of the relationships he and his father built with chefs, not diners. Thats why there is a lawsuit against the US because we started to brand the meat according to what country its from. Thats how we were able to grow: customization, LaFrieda says. We offer milk fed veal humanely raised on small, family owned, Mennonite and Amish farms such as Green Hill Family Farm. Not anymore than commodity or all-natural beef. I took over from my father in 1994. They are all committed to raising Berkshire pigs using a strict code of humane and responsible animal husbandry. Its the bridge & tunnel folks.

Photography was so important and was really a huge aspect of the book that I wanted to get in front of my readers. This underscores our dedication to quality and consistency. Pat LaFrieda has built a reputation for making the best hamburgers on the market. Food blogs and writers obsessively tracked the rise of the pricier gourmet burger, attributing at least part of the trend to the high profile of LaFriedas boutique blends. Cervena venison is held to strict criteria. At the end of the day, anybody can buy product from the same farms, Sarrazin says. Working directly with consumers is a faster route for me to focus on.. But it didnt end there with the Mets opening. That unmatched LaFrieda work ethic not only gained notoriety but earned respect; so much respect that in 2003 New York City renamed the street where the shop was located to Pat LaFrieda Lane after the first generation of LaFrieda meat men. Pat LaFrieda offers a full line of beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry and wild game. He definitely went from having a really great reputation to kind of a ubiquitous reputation, says Brent Young, co-owner of artisanal butcher shop the Meat Hook in Williamsburg. LaFrieda Meats was started by mygrandfather, Pat LaFrieda the first, and his brother Lou, who both learned the trade from my great-grandfather, Anthony LaFrieda. They should all just be lined up after big events, maybe at city parks. Clients and competitors alike say that hes glamorized a historically unglamorous industry, redefining and becoming synonymous with the very idea of quality beef. The fear is that long term they are going to be drinking our milkshake by taking all of our live animals. We lost that, but that is a big mistake. About half of his sales are of all-natural beef, the kind without antibiotics or hormones, but thats generally priced 15 percent higher than commodity beef. We provide a variety of different lamb options, but fresh Colorado Lamb is our passion and our specialty. We receive the chicken fresh every night from Pennsylvania for deliveries to our restaurants the next day. Thats decommodifying this product.. LaFrieda reached out to Eater to clarify that he doesnt supply hot dogs to the restaurant and didnt know that his name was advertised so prominently on the vendor, whose signage implied that everything from the burger to the chicken sandwich was endorsed by him. LaFriedas name was touted in virtually all of Shake Shacks opening press, minting him as a butcher whose name diners should know. Thats why its very important to know there is a split 30 months and younger, there will be no MCD, 30 months and older,thereis a possibility youll find it. Chefs in the industry know of our company and know who we are. He works all day and at night goes out to restaurants, taking clients out and networking constantly. They work with a network of family ranches and manage every aspect of the cattles lives, from breeding to feeding to care, to ensure the result on your plate is consistently and incredibly delicious. We carry a full selection of fresh duck from various small farm growers. A lot ofAmerican beef has been consumed in China via HongKong then black marketed into China. newsletter. Longstanding New Jersey-based company DeBragga supplies to some of the biggest names in the industry, including Tom Colicchios restaurants, Gotham Bar & Grill, and the Tao Restaurant Group, but unlike LaFrieda, its name isnt printed on menus. The first time you taste Mishima Reserve you'll know the difference. With only five employees and 40 customers, Pat LaFrieda hit the streets and started selling the brand that has won him accolades within the New York community including, New York Magazine, which dubbed Pat the magician of meat.. In my honest opinion, I tried it with my mother, whois a vegetarian and we really liked it. Her eventual goal is to make organic meat available at a much larger scale by selling it directly to shoppers in grocery stores across the United States. Most restaurants that serve the companys beef dont buy the grass-fed or organic beef; only about 5 percent of his clients purchase either, he says. Now, some say its time for the LaFrieda name to mean a little less even if he was one of the first major players to convince everyday diners to care about what quality meat means. In the long run, maybe the bipartisan debate was right? We actually have turned down countless offers to open restaurants. We service approximately fifteen hundred establishments, six days a week. Luckily, I was able to fix it in a day and return home. Beef happens to be the most efficient food system that our country has, he says.

But over the last decade, New York diners have grown increasingly curious about where their food comes from, and the more LaFriedas name is plastered all over the place, the more complicated the brands once-unanimous reputation as the citys meat purveyor of choice has become. To learn more about Pat LaFrieda, visit his website. Our family owned farms include Diamond Ranch Farms in Kansas. Sarrazin, its CEO, says his team is growing the ecommerce business and expanding his companys presence on platforms like Instagram a bid to market the company name directly to consumers, just like LaFrieda. The lamb is rich in marbling and sweet in flavor, and we find that they tend to be larger than imported lamb while still retaining their tender texture. But its so worth it. He is very charismatic and what he does is an art. We are proud to offer a full line of Bell & Evans chicken. We also offer fresh Australian Lamb and frozen New Zealand Lamb, which are both great options for customers seeking those particular styles. But thats not what allures me to be the distributor. Bell & Evans has the countys best air-chilled poultry program, which ensures no retained or added water and results in tender, flavorful birds. LaFrieda is aware of the scrutiny of the meat industry and the increased demand for ethical meat. We bring in the best premium 100 % Berkshire Pork from Eden Farms, a coalition of independent family owned farms in the Midwest. They mature and develop naturally in a social indoor/outdoor environment and are never crated. Advocates of grass-fed beef say that grain-fed cattle are more likely to suffer in inhumane conditions like overcrowded feeding pens, which can lead to disease, requiring the extensive use of antibiotics. Its less expensive because they use older bulls and old milking cows. No purveyor in the industry works to a higher standard of hygiene, cleanliness and safety. We arent lazy, just really busy, so the idea that someone will deliver this high quality food is very substantial. Awareness around any meat brand means consumers are starting to think about where their food comes from, Fernald says, and that curiosity is one of the big reasons she chose New York for her newest restaurant outpost. Mishima builds on the incredible genetic potential of their wagyu bloodlines with an uncompromising feeding and breeding program that brings out the very best in the cattles potential. This was a time when we had no country of origin, so when there was MCD, everyone was looking at the US but it was in fact, from Canada. Such a problem came up at the end of 2019, when Eater critic Robert Sietsema named the Chicago dog from a Custom Burgers by Pat LaFrieda at JFK one of his worst dishes of the year. It was definitely a culture shock as they paid no attention to the chopping of the beef, and one of the most flavorful parts, the flatiron, was being cut out. Its an admittedly long and growing list of words for consumers to memorize: grass-fed, antibiotic-free, free-range, cruelty-free, organic, natural, and so on. The burger boom that followed had every chef in town seeking their own blend, and LaFrieda was the name behind several of the most hyped burgers in NYC, including the famed dry-aged black label burger at Minetta Tavern. Don't freak out yet, though, as LaFrieda says that farmers are already working on expanding their inventory by retaining heifers for breeding. LaFrieda, his father, and Pastore already worked with a few of Danny Meyers fine dining restaurants when the idea for Shake Shack was born. This recent trade deal is not surprising since there is only one reason to buy our largest porkproducerso they can supplythemselves. We also carry chickens and turkey from Mountaire. Showcase Alternative Offerings. Our job is to make sure that when the chef gets product in his restaurant or kitchen, its ready to go.. We have our own finishing and raising protocols that growers must adhere to, and they have to be part of our acceptance plan, he says, adding that his beef is fed grain that tastes like cornflakes.. Our hamburger patties, available in any size from 2-8oz or 10oz, are formed by a low pressure machine with a noodle textured fill system.