Results tagged “jimmyprince”

            

For the better part of the last 60 years, Jimmy Prince has worked a 12-hour day behind the counter at Major Prime Meat Market on Mermaid Avenue. Yesterday, the 77-year-old butcher closed his shop for good, seeing as many longtime customers off as possible. Coney Island neighbors filled the place: some brought snacks, like plates of cookies and cake. Others cried. Former customers hoisted cameras above their heads to get a good shot of Jimmy and took pictures of the sign that said “no hamburgers left” taped to the front door. Glen Miller played on an old boombox in the corner. As the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk to share stories, inside the 75-year-old store Jimmy Prince demonstrated that he can still break down a chicken in less than 15 seconds. He stood at the butcher block and neatly put all of the parts in a plastic bag, handing it over to one of his last customers, a woman in her late fifties. Prince smiled and scooped some cookies into a separate plastic bag. “For your mother,” he said.

In today’s Times story Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement, Edible Brooklyn (and Edible Manhattan) editor Gabrielle Langholtz is quoted comparing the borough’s burgeoning, largely independent small batch and craft food scene to the one found in “Berkeley in the 1970s.” The article describes a wave of brewers, picklers, cheesemongers, chocolate bar makers, and a genuine return to old-school butchering at locations like Marlow & Daughters, and the upcoming Prime Meats in Carroll Gardens. Frank Castronovo (of Frankies 457, and the upcoming Delightful Coffee Shop) summarizes the approach of the food movement, which involves using (for the most part) locally produced food, as the following: “Pre-industrial revolution tactics with food.”