A Bay Ridge butcher shop wants their customers to get sauced while waiting for their favorite cold cuts.
Frank and Eddie’s Meat Market at the corner of 75th Street and Third Avenue — a neighborhood staple since 1963 — is turning its prep room where workers once ground beef and sausage into a bar for customers to sip beer or wine while ordering up a pound or two of roast beef or pastrami and digging into hot and fresh deli sandwiches.
“We wanted to do something a little different for the customers,” said meat market owner Dennis Mannarino, who is opening up Frank and Eddie’s Butcher Bar with friends Pam Caliendo and Joe Tafuri.
Mannarino said he was searching for a new use for his refrigerated meat-handling area when a friend suggested he go into business with Caliendo and Tafuri.
Tafuri, who’s already stripped the space down to its brick walls, said the new watering hole’s vibe will be distinctly old-fashioned — akin to a neighborhood meat market in the era of Oscar-Meyer.
“Real butcher shops are dying out these days. Dennis is one of the only ones left,” said Tafuri. “So our place here is going to be very nostalgic.”
The Butcher Bar will specialize in hot sandwiches made from Meat Market cold cuts, but Tafuri promises the Frank and Eddie’s quality will stay the same.
“Dennis’s meats are amazing. But he serves his cold, while ours will always be hot, juicy, sitting in the sauce all day,” Tafuri said. “It’s all going to be fresh and sliced to order.”
Caliendo is currently applying for a liquor license and a menu of pork, roast beef, pastrami, corned beef, and turkey sandwiches are already in the works. Tafuri said he also wants to have a boneless leg of lamb sandwich that will appeal to Middle Eastern customers, and is even working on a vegetarian option.
“Bay Ridge is great because it’s very diverse,” Tafuri said. “You’ve got to have something for everybody.”
