The Chelsea Market butcher has a terrific new lunch menu. Don't tell your cardiologist.
Take note, avowed carnivores: Dickson’s Farmstand Meats might seem like an unassuming storefront at the Chelsea Market, but this butcher pushes 5,000 pounds of artisanal meat each week. We’re talking three-and-a-half steers, plus up to 10 pigs and 10 lambs—all butchered in-house.
“Because we butcher the whole animal, you’ll see a lot of things you don’t see in other [meat] cases," explains owner Jake Dickson. “We push people to experiment.” The approach makes charcuterie “integral,” he adds, and it’s easy to chomp down on the mystery parts in a rich sausage or terrine knowing the animal was raised on a small farm with a vegetarian diet free of hormones or antibiotics.
Dickson’s recently introduced a grab-and-go lunch service whose menu changes daily—another way they make sure everything gets gobbled up. Pork shoulder might become pulled pork sandwiches, and if spare ribs aren’t selling briskly, they could appear with a mound of coleslaw on your lunch plate, to delicious effect. We sank our teeth into some of the goodies.
By Jenny Miller; photos by Melissa Hom


