Celebrity butcher Tom Mylan has broken his silence!
On Wednesday night, The Brooklyn Paper cornered the camouflage-, Buddy Holly glasses- and cigarette-wearing Mylan outside his newest venture, The Meat Hook, and got the legend of lard to talk about the butcher shop he’ll open on Monday.
It wasn’t easy to get Mylan to open up anything but a pig carcass, alas. With the chop shop set to open in three days, the former house butcher for a restaurant group that includes Marlowe and Daughters, was in no mood to chat.
“It’s basically three dudes with sharp knives, and the sky’s the limit,” said Mylan, 33, referring to his buddies and co-butchers Brent Young and Ben Turley. “We like cutting ourselves, you know, lots of pain and blood — so it works.”
Along with a variety of previously grass-fed whole animals for sale, Mylan will join and Brooklyn Kitchen owner Harry Rosenblum to offer courses and demos for aspiring cooks — everything from beer brewing to pig butchering to bread making.
For now, of course, the three butchers are focussing their masochistic energy on Thanksgiving and refurbishing their 7,000-square-foot warehouse into what Young called “the kitchen of our dreams.”
“It’s also a forum to put a lot of weird and awesome stuff in front of the public,” he said.
Beef cheeks are only the beginning. Though the meat isn’t organic certified, Young said it’ll come from small nearby farms that the three will visit themselves. The business will set itself apart by catering to the average Joe who wants a cut for dinner, he said, rather than providing for expensive restaurants.
Two laboratories upstairs will eventually have experts on call every day to help locals conquer any kitchen problem they’re facing at home.
“It’s recession-proof,” Mylan said. “People tend to cook at home, so we might as well have better meat for less money and give them a little help on the side.”
When asked why he fancied blades and hanging carcasses, Mylan shrugged and yawned. Turley added that the three fell into their line of work, and happen to play well as a team.
The first step to success? Opening day.
“We’re gonna have to go balls to the walls on Monday,” Turley said.
It was unclear whether he was talking about the butchers or the meat.
The Meat Hook and The Lab [100 Frost St. at Meeker Avenue in Williamsburg, (718) 349-5033]. For info, visit the-meathook.com or www.thebrooklynkitchen.com.
