Estancia Butcher Hall of Fame--Part II

Butcher lovers, you've spoken and we've listened. The second edition of our Butcher Hall of Fame has more real-life meat masters and fewer fictional ones than our maiden voyage. Keep them coming!

Stan Lobel

He's the eminence gris at one of Manhattan's most venerable butcher shops, Lobels, serving prime cuts to the posh Upper East Side crowd for over fifty years, as well as being a favorite of celebrities like Davide Letterman and Calvin Klein. Lobel is also the co-author of a book that should be on every beef-lover's shelf: Lobel's Meat Bible

He's a butcher. He's a blogger. He has a DVD titled The Gourmet Butcher: From Farm to Table. He even plays boogie-woogie accordion. He's also fabulously quotable:

People buy meat with their eyes, but they need to be more cautious. Where did that meat come from? You think it’s healthy because the label says “natural”, but the fact is that the government has lowered standards on product terminologies so that corporate America can cash in. I believe in knowing your food’s provenance… knowing who raised that animal and making sure it was treated well. You can always taste the difference.

Fun Fact: He started in the meat business stuffing sausage for 24 cents an hour.

Francis Satriale

He was the original proprietor of Satriale's Pork Store, a fictional establishment on The Sopranos. As told in the television show, during the 1970s, the pork store was taken over by Tony Soprano's father, Johnny Boy Soprano, when Francis Satriale failed to make payments on a gambling debt.

Fun Fact: Satriale's is based on Sacco's Meat Market located at 806 3rd Avenue in Elizabeth, New Jersey which served as the unofficial criminal headquarters of "Uncle Joe" Giacobbe, a veteran made man in the DeCavalcante crime family. The Sopranos character, Corrado Soprano is based on Giacobbe.