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January 19, 2009
meat source
i need to find a new source for meat in san mateo. there are two grocery stores that i frequent. both are excellent for produce, rare stuff, imported stuff, fancy beers, and good yogurt.
but neither one of them seems to stand alone as a good butcher shop. one of them sells whole slabs of spareribs, and about these ribs i have only compliments. i can't get a full slab of baby backs there (at least, not without asking, which i haven't tried yet). i can get a full rack at the other place, but they cost 2 times per pound what they cost at place #1. that "2 times" figure probably tells you who place #2 is, if you know anything about san mateo grocery stores.
place #2 only rarely has spare ribs, and they're usually packaged half slabs. neither one regularly has a boston butt, nor do they seem to have staff that know what it is.
there used to be a really great butcher shop on 25th, but it closed years ago (and the owner went to work at store #2!). i need to find a real butcher shop around here.
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I think its #2 that your not listing the names. Unless your throwing Draeger's into the mix, I can't thing of anyone who is literally twice as much as anyone else. Also, Whole Foods runs their meat counter just like Safeway. That is to say that the people on the other side know nothing about meat and all skilled work takes place at a big packing center. Even then, Whole Foods sells value add meats so they cannot be compared directly.
In each case when I say morning, I refer to before 11 AM.
Piazza's carries a great selection if your only talking to the counter jockeys, aka meat packers. If you get there early on weekdays, you can talk to the people who do the cutting about what you would like to order. While not butchers they still know meat.
Lunardi's carried a mediocre selection if your talking to the packers. I think its Thursday morning the most senior workers are there and you can order anything your heart desires.
As to Butcher, South San Francisco has the only butcher I could find on the peninsula. However, they were not open to the public.
San Jose has an amazing Kosher butcher in Willow Glen. However, the prices are inflated, and thats putting it nicely.