A butcher shop that learned to cook
Meet the Meat began in 1962 as a six-hook butcher counter. Customers kept asking the family to cook what they had just bought, so the family built a fire. Sixty-four years later the counter is still the heart of the room: you choose your cut, we trim it in front of you and it goes straight onto the oak and charcoal.
We age our own beef for at least 28 days, buy whole animals from two farms we know by name and use every part. That is why brisket, burnt ends and merguez sit on the menu next to the steaks.
The counter opens
Marcus Brandt hangs six hooks and one scale on Cleaver Lane and starts cutting for the neighbors.
The first smoker
A wood smoker goes into the back room. Regulars begin staying for brisket instead of taking it home.
Twelve tables and a grill
His daughter Elena adds a charcoal grill and twelve tables. The butcher shop becomes a restaurant.
The aging room
A cold room goes in for dry-aging, with a 28-day minimum and beef from two family farms.
Meet the Meat
Lina Brandt, Marcus's granddaughter, relaunches the place with a chef's counter where guests meet the cut before it meets the fire.