The Best Italian Butcher Shops on Arthur Avenue, Bronx — A Shopper's Guide
- Jul 21, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 13
Arthur Avenue has four butcher shops within two blocks of each other — Biancardi's, Vincent's, Peter's, and Calabria Pork Store — and each one has a different specialty, a different clientele, and a decades-long reputation among the Italian families who have been shopping here for generations. Whether you're looking for dry-aged steaks, house-made soppressata, or a custom cut you won't find anywhere else in New York City, this two-block stretch of the Bronx is the best place to buy meat in the five boroughs. Here's what makes each shop worth the trip and exactly what to buy when you get there.
Shoppers along Arthur Avenue are spoiled for choice when it comes to butcher shops. Each of the four butcher shops listed here offers an impressive selection of excellent meats - from sausages produced in-house to dry-aged steaks to all manner of offal.
Pop in for a minute just to pick up exactly what you need for a recipe, or get advice from one of the knowledgeable butchers on what to make for Sunday dinner. In either case, a visit to one of these Arthur Avenue meat markets turns grocery shopping into a little food tour.
Don't miss a special recipe at the end of this post!
Biancardi's Meats
2350 Arthur Ave · Don't miss: house-made pancetta, Rocca Parmigiano-Reggiano (718)733-4058
Biancardi's, an Arthur Avenue institution since the 1930s, is one of the full-service butcher shops in the Bronx's Little Italy. Their selection will satisfy any carnivore, including their in-house American-style pancetta. Like most good butcher shops, Biancardi's also has a good variety of cheeses, including the exquisite Rocca brand Parmigiano-Reggiano. This is the shop from which restaurant Zero Otto Nove gets its meat.
2374 Arthur Ave · Don't miss: broccoli rabe sausage, custom cuts (718)295-9048
My great-grandfather opened a baccalà store on Arthur Avenue. That space is now Vincent's Meat Market, owned by Peter De Luca since 1980 and named for his father. Peter doesn't make a deal about his meat being organic or artisanal, but his meat is procured from family farms and is broken down in-house. The prices are low and the quality is high. Take note of customers filling up coolers stashed in the back seats of their cars. Specialties include Italian bacon and broccoli rabe sausage, but ask the butchers for any custom cut you want. This may very well be the best butcher shop in NYC.
Inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, 2344 Arthur Ave · Don't miss: fresh daily sausage, dry-aged steaks (718)367-3136
Duck inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, which was opened in 1940 as part of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's initiative to get food vendors off the street and into more sanitary spaces. While there were once as many as 150 stalls, there are now around a dozen - including Peter's Meat Market. Peter's - known as "Arthur Avenue's Favorite Meating Place" - has been open since 1970, and they make several types of sausage every day as well as offering dry-aged steaks.
2338 Arthur Ave · Don't miss: soppressata (sweet, hot, or very hot), 'nduja, the sandwich (718)367-5145
The Calabria Pork Store makes an instant impression with its "sausage chandelier," perhaps the most Instagrammable spot in NYC, but it earns repeat customers with its house-made pork products. This is the place to get soppressata, which is available sweet, hot or very hot as well as 'nduja - a Calabrian specialty that's a seriously spicy and spreadable sausage. They've also got great capicola, culatello, and the best spit-roasted porchetta you'll find outside of Rome, scented with rosemary and fennel, and a parchment-thin, crispy skin. Another house specialty is Calabrese cheese, a sharp pecorino covered in smoky, hot chilis from the toe of Italy's boot.
Calabria Pork Store is a relic of the days when butcher shops were so specialized that they would only sell one type of meat, pork being the most popular among Southern Italians. All the meat is high-quality from trusted farms and butchered in-house daily. The weight of curing sausage that hangs from the ceiling ranges from 7,000 lbs on a slow day to 12,000 lbs on a weekend. After an Arthur Avenue food tour, ask Peter or Rich to make you one of their extraordinary sandwiches to go. You can sit and enjoy it outside in Vincent Ciccarone Park while watching a game of bocce ball.
All four of these shops are stops on our Arthur Avenue Shopping & Tasting Tour. If you'd rather explore with a guide who knows all the best things to buy — join us on a Saturday. The tour includes tastings, insider stories about each shop, and lunch at Mario's to finish. Only 14 spots per tour.
Cotenne (Cutica) Braciole Recipe
Celebrate the Italian tradition of using every part of the pig with this recipe for braciole using pork skin. Pick up some pork skin at any of the butcher shops listed above.
Preparation time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Makes 4 pork skin braciole
Ingredients:
One batch of your favorite Italian red sauce
1/2 pound pork skin
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano cheese
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 teaspoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions: Prep your sauce and bring it to a simmer. Unroll the pork skin and rinse it thoroughly in warm water. With kitchen scissors, cut it into four rectangles, each approximately 5 inches long. Sprinkle the inside of each rectangle with approximately 2 tablespoons of grated cheese, 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon of fresh black pepper. Starting with one of the long ends, roll each rectangle into a cylinder and tie closed with butchers twine. Long, sturdy toothpicks can also be used. In a high-sided sauté pan or skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the rolled bundles and brown on both sides, about one minute each. Add the browned pork skin to the pot of simmering tomato ragu. Cook for about two hours, though a longer cooking time will only yield a more silky sauce.
Ready to visit? Our Saturday Shopping & Tasting Tour takes you through Arthur Avenue's butchers, bakeries, and delis with a neighborhood insider. $95 per person, tastings and lunch included.
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