Endangered

Butchers on the Chopping Block

Just a couple of months after a City Room profile indicated that Essex Street Market butcher Jeffrey Ruhalter had gotten his groove back by going to therapy and then going door-to-door for business, the self-described “swashbuckling” meat man tells Bowery Boogie that, owing to a 30 percent rent hike, his counter may close unless he gets a reality-TV show that’ll help land him a cookbook deal. Will Jeffrey’s Meat Market go the way of Ottomanelli Bros., which closed on the Upper West Side earlier this month “due to rising costs and an inability to come to an agreement with the landlord”? Maybe Ruhalter should talk to LaFrieda’s TV agent?

Jeffrey’s Meat Market in Dire Straits [Bowery Boogie]

Butchers on the Chopping Block