THE NEIGHBORHOOD butcher is back.
It's not the uncomplicated, white-aproned figure of our parents' or grandparents' era. It's also not the hot new "rock star butcher" making national headlines for wild tattoos and butchering parties, though Seattle has those, too.
Instead, it's the face of a chef — specifically, chef John Neumark, longtime head of the kitchen at Serafina. He's now what he calls the "meat tender" at Bill the Butcher in Laurelhurst, one of five shops in a fast-growing local chain. (Russ Flint, former sous chef at Boat Street Café, is manning the lauded new Rain Shadow Meats on Capitol Hill, Culinary Institute of America-trained chef Gabriel Claycamp has founded The Swinery in West Seattle, and other shops are popping up.)
In the years since supermarkets replaced greengrocers and butchers, home cooks lost out on the variety and knowledge that such specialists used to share. Not too many people were left to explain that there is plenty more to a cow than hamburger and prime rib, that less familiar cuts are cheaper and even tastier if you know what to do with them.
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