It's What's For Dinner

"The Finest Sausage and Italian Specialties Since 1900
Faccio’s Pork Stores Inc."

I’m not much for hanging out at butcher shops. In fact I’m not much for food shopping period. Key Food supermarket is usually my culinary source for all things edible. The one exception is Faicco’s, which I think is the Ferrari of butcher shops in NYC. It’s not all that handy to my neighborhood and means a special trip, being way out on 11th Avenue in Brooklyn (there’s also a branch on Bleecker in Manhattan) but it’s worth it if only for the visuals. The store is not that large but it does a huge amount of business because the meat is so fresh; the butchers are infinitely friendly and there’s a lot of ‘em. Yeah, you have to take a number but the wait is never that long and I’ve seen as many as a dozen men serving customers when it gets crowded.

All the meat just looks so damned fresh and it proves the axiom that you should never shop when you’re hungry because you can count on buying double or triple what you intended. And they not only have meat but can supply dinner-sized (for two supposedly but, well…) containers of Italian specialties like lasagna, baked ziti and manicotti; sometimes frozen but often fresh out of the oven.

Also the rice balls and potato croquettes are freshly baked right on the premises and they have to constantly replenish the supply because they are so good they fly out of the store so quickly.

Of course you can buy all kinds of packaged pasta and all the stuff that goes on it but the main attraction at Faicco’s is the fabulous meat counter with all that perfectly aligned display of beef, pork, lamb and various other, sometimes unidentifiable, cuts of edible flesh; a veritable carnivores dream. Oh, I know what you’re thinking: Nothing is cheap at Faicco’s, but the extra dough you spend you can apply to the artistry of the display and an appreciation for its authenticity. Unlike the High Line, see below, this is a stop your Aunt Millie might like to see. A slice of Brooklyn; a cut above the rest. Where the elite come to greet the meat. Etc.