Monday, February 13, 2012

WP: Red Apron Facility in the Florida Market

The Washington Post reports that artisan butcher Red Apron will open a "commissary/production facility" in the Florida Market (550 Penn Street). They will use the site to butcher, smoke/cure, or otherwise process the meats. This is a great example of the importance of places like the Florida Market, and it's not the only production going on over there. Did you know they make tofu and rice noodles right there in the Market?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

These guys were at the Adams Morgan Fest last fall. They were giving some sort of presentation on bacon- It looked really interesting.

heyktb said...

Will they be bringing the live animals to the florida market site and offing them there?

IMGoph said...

I really hope the visibility of stuff like this will encourage more people to fight for the retaining of the wholesale market as part of any revisioning of the site. No need for Vinnie Citrus' deep-pocketed donors "New Town" joke to happen.

inked said...

heyktb,
It sounds like animals will be slaughtered at a slaughter house, then brought to the Florida Market. The Penn Street site is for butchering (breaking down) the animals and preparing the meat.

Liz said...

Am I reading the article correctly, that the Penn St site will ONLY be for breaking down the meat, not for retail at all? Only the Penn Quarter store will be for retail?

inked said...

Liz,
It's a bit hard to tell, but I'm assuming that to be the case.

heyktb said...

if that is the case, and the animals are slaughtered at a slaughterhouse, the fact that the animals are humanely raised may have no bearing on how they are killed.

Anonymous said...

Why in the world is having a slaughterhouse close-by beneficial to the community?

Demolish the entire Florida Market already. It's a tremendous eye-soar for Gallaudet, Near Northeast and NoMA.

I understand folks like Inked and Richard Layman love the nostalgia, but I'd prefer to see increased tax dollars and redevelopment of this massive parcel.

IMGoph said...

Anonymous: I'm not sure if you actually read the comments above, but you'll see that there will be no slaughterhouse here. Guess that kind of negates your concern.

inked said...

2:10,
IMGoph is right. This is NOT a slaughter house. They are merely butchering the animals (i.e. cutting up the carcasses like any other butcher would do). Big difference between that and an abattoir.

heyktb said...

no, sorry for the confusion. all i was saying was the butcher who is openning this processing center makes a big deal about how the animals he processes are humanely raised...but unless they are also "humanely" slaughtered, ie, not at a factory slaughter house after suffering the fate of a mass feedlot, the whole "humane" tag seems a bit...insincere.

MissMeats said...

Any word on when/if the farmers market building will reopen? What has become of all the butchers that were operating there before the fire? Are they selling elsewhere within the market? Are there similar butcher stands (with nice displays of assorted meats) within the market complex? I am a browser, not a whole-hog type of girl.

I really miss having those butchers so close...

inked said...

missmeats,
I believe they recently got permits to begin rebuilding over their (Michael Niebauer of the WBJ) had something up on Twitter about it.

I like to use the halal butcher at Caribbean Crescent. The stuff is cut to order, so you are ordering off a menu, not looking at the meat first. I find their meat to be a much better price than the guys at the DC Farmers Market, and I find the quality to be quite good.

Unknown said...

Hmm. Maybe I'll form a line like those guys waiting for the new Jordan's outside of DTLR.

Anonymous said...

I'm furious at the inhumane and heartless destruction of pine trees each winter at the hands of so-called religious people - - displaying these lifeless carcasses in living rooms, decorating them in a macabre presentation of horror, like medieval heads on stakes, morbid trophies of sadism and villainy. How dare anyone celebrate religion with the outright murder of flora! It's an outrage! It's an insult!

Anonymous said...

I'm no vegetarian, and I think this is good news, but anon 9:16's comment is just... not clever, not insightful, not funny, not helpful.

The way we raise and slaughter living creatures isn't some sort of joke to be casually dismissed.

@SunnyFloridaAve said...

If folks lived across the street from it, I don't think they'd feel quite so nostalgic for a market full of wasted space, trash, and truck traffic. IIMHO, any redevelopment would be better than it's current state. But I think we call all agree that the Hess and the knock off luggage stores must be preserved.

Morrisey said...

Meat is Murder.

Anonymous said...

to @SunnyFloridaAve, some good news for you: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2012/02/14/small-hotel-could-become-bigger-hotel-on-new-york-avenue-ne/

oboe said...

Meat Is Murder.

As is produce:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/science/22angi.html?_r=1&ref=science

Unknown said...

Let's not make this momentous occasion a protest point for herbivores vs omnivores. If you don't want to eat meat don't. Their are plenty of bucher and meat sellers at the market. Don't single out this one, unless you plan to protest them all.

I get that people have different philosophies about food. And that's all cool, but can we not live in a society in which we respect our differences. I don't badger a vegetarian about not eating meat, don't badger a meat eating person about eating meat. To some it's a moral imperative, I get it. But lets just stop the snipping.

Anonymous said...

...unless it's the snipping of tendons & cartilage!

Anonymous said...

Maynard understands the issues at play here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOvwc8_QXiY

alalhas said...

where can you get the rice noodles?

inked said...

It'd behind All African (maybe 1343 6th Street NE). You need to go through those gates and it's immediately to your right. It's just a window, not a store front. Just go in a say that you want a sheet of rice noodle (or 3 sheets, whatever). Each sheet is around 70 cents each.