New York steak? uh uh! the best comes from the Bronx
By Joseph Gallagher
josephtgallagher@gmail.com
Photo by Meredith Whitefield Goncalves
Master Purveyors still provides meat the old-fashioned way, butchering carcasses itself.
A year ago, Master Purveyors, the source of meat for many of the city’s best steakhouses, went up in flames. But on February 12, a year and a day after the fire, the workers at Master Purveyors were moving fast around the refrigerated plant at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. It was 11 a.m., time for their shift to end, and they still had last-minute Valentine’s Day orders to complete.
Called one of the last of “the city’s great old-guard meat purveyors” by New York Magazine, the family-owned-and-operated company is 53 years old and has been a Hunts Point fixture for the past eight years. It was able to bounce back from the fire, which caused millions of dollars worth of damage. Now, the failing economy is proving to be yet another challenge–a challenge that the Solasz family is determined to overcome.
Sam Solasz, 81, started Master Purveyors in August 1957. He still runs the business today with the help of his two sons, Mark and Scott, and his son-in-law, Matt Kudish. For its first 43 years, the business was located in Manhattan’s Meat Packing District. Escalating real estate prices forced the company to move to Hunts Point in 2001.
“Making the move from the city to the Bronx was the best decision we ever made,” said Mark Solasz, 46. “The meat market is centrally located to the tri-state area and utilizes loading docks, as opposed to the street loading in Manhattan”.
Some of the company’s workers decided not to follow their employer from Manhattan to the Bronx. Now, about 20 percent of Master Purveyors 45-member workforce lives in surrounding neighborhoods in the Bronx.
Pedro Clark has been with the company for six years. He commutes daily from his Port Morris home. His workday begins at midnight and ends at around 11:30 a.m.
“Once I finish here, I go home, shower, eat and sleep,” Clark said. “My commute isn’t bad, about 30 minutes on the bus”.
What makes Master Purveyors different is that the company still follows the old ways, receiving whole slabs of beef from Pennsylvania and Indiana and other parts of the Midwest, while most wholesalers now get their meat pre-cut and packaged.
“We bring the beef in, fabricate it, and cut it into different parts,” said Kudish, who married Sam Solasz’s daughter and serves as assistant plant supervisor. “We specialize in fresh hanging meat and have the largest dry-aging room in the tri-state area. We dry age our beef in a very cold and very dry environment for up to three weeks. This makes the meat more tender and gives it a nuttier flavor.”
The company’s 18 trucks begin making deliveries as early as 4 a.m. to fine restaurants and hotels all over the region. A representative from Peter Luger, the most famous steak house in New York City, visits Master Purveyors once or twice a week to personally select the cuts of beef to be sold at the Brooklyn restaurant.
“Master Purveyors is financially secure and has the economic power to buy a lot of beef,” said Amy Rubenstein, a co-owner of Peter Luger Steakhouse. “We only buy USDA prime beef and then we dry age it ourselves.”
When the blaze–an electrical fire–broke out in its second floor offices on the afternoon of Feb. 11, 2008, Master Purveyors suffered a tremendous loss. Neighboring businesses at the market rallied around, offering services and support.
“After the fire, we really found out who are friends were,” said Kudish. “Other businesses shared their phone lines, butcher shops and so on.”
According to Mark Solasz, Master Purveyors spent the last year maintaining the accounts the company had before the fire. Their numbers are almost back to what they were.
But the recession is presenting a new set of problems.
“The economy is definitely taking a toll on business,” Solasz said. “People are eating less at restaurants and that causes a trickle-down effect. Congress should reinstate a 100 percent write-off for businesses on client meals. That would really help to stimulate restaurant sales.”
Despite the ailing economy, Solasz is determined not to lay off any of his workforce. Master Purveyors has made adjustments in work hours and has encouraged workers to take their earned vacations, instead, he said.
“We have been in business for 53 years,” Solasz said. “We don’t believe in drastic decisions. When we had the fire, not one of my men lost their job. We’re not about to start laying off people now.”