A new butcher shop has opened on First Street in Greenport, offering customers a selection of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and sausage, with an emphasis on fresh, high-quality meat.
East End Meat Market opened Aug. 28 and is owned and operated by 27-year old Mattituck native Joey Lisowy. The shop carries prime meat, with most of its selection sourced from the Midwest. A separate freezer is stocked with locally raised, organic, grass-fed beef from Peconic, giving customers options ranging from Midwest-sourced cuts to local beef.
“I’m here because people want it; there’s kind of a gap here,” Lisowy says. “Anybody can come in; you can buy whatever kind of nice meats that you want to buy, and that’s the way I’m rolling for now.”
Lisowy did not originally plan on becoming a butcher. After graduating from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in data science, he returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic and began looking for work. A friend offered him a summer job running a fishing boat, but he needed something to do once the season ended.
He began butchering deer for fellow hunters. The work soon expanded beyond hunting as farmers began contacting him to butcher and package their animals. Over the next several years, Lisowy worked with local farms and developed his skills in meat fabrication, learning to break down animals and cut steaks and other individual portions.
“It was kind of like, I know how to butcher everything now, so what’s the next step?” Lisowy says. “And it’s the meat market.”
At East End Meat Market, customers can also order a whole or half cow. Lisowy can source the animal, butcher it, and package the meat for customers to take home and store in their freezers.
Sausage is made in the shop, and Lisowy plans to expand the selection as the business develops. He eventually wants to make tallow and other products that use more parts of the animal. He is also hoping to bring venison, bison and elk into the shop from a farm he has worked with upstate.
The market may eventually offer more than meat. Lisowy envisions custom spice blends, buns and other accompaniments, as well as charcoal during the summer, creating a place where customers can find what they need for a meal or cookout.
“Everything I’ve ever done, I kind of just let it define itself,” Lisowy says. “So, I rely a lot on the customers coming in and telling me, ‘Hey, can you do this, or will you do that?’”
East End Meat Market is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There is currently no delivery service.
