Meat+Poultry - March 2017 - 90

PROCESSOR PROFILE

that relationship is something that we are very
proud of," Lee says. The processor also supplies
upwards of 70 country clubs and racket clubs
in the Tri-State area it serves and also boasts
high-profile hotels among its list of customers,
including the Warwick Hotel and the Paramount
Hotel as well as Trump Towers. With a fleet of
delivery trucks, Main Street Wholesale Meats'
distribution radius is about 100 miles from its
Farmingdale processing facility.

MENU MATTERS
Main Street's wholesale operations are
comprised of several roles, including portion
cutting, fabricators and order pickers. Portion
cutting is led by a "head cutter" who's been
with the company for nearly 20 years. He
oversees approximately five other cutters who
fill orders that filter in throughout the day and
into the wee hours of each morning.
Fabricators perform skilled processes, such
as boning out legs of lamb, cutting up oxtails or
boning out pork butts, Lee says, adding: "things
you're putting a knife to but it isn't necessarily
to a specific portion size."
All of the positions require the expertise
of a seasoned butcher, he says. "You may not
need to be a master butcher, but you need to
have very good knife skills."
The human factor in meat cutting is
essential to the success of the company and is
a vital part of its history, as Kent remembers
well and attests. Besides a single band saw
used to portion bone-in product and a grinder
for the chopped meat, "We do it all by hand,"

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 03.17 | www.meatpoultry.com

he says, "the old fashioned way."
The other part of the processing team
includes order pickers, who typically don't
handle knives but must be knowledgeable
about meat cuts and the company's product
line. Their jobs require familiarity with
customer expectations and the ability to
efficiently pull products and assemble orders.
Those orders come in at all hours, Lee says,
some as early as 3 a.m. for delivery that same
morning. "We don't really have a cutoff. We're
doing everything essentially on the fly," not
unlike many of the restaurants the company
serves, where customers' meals are created to
order. Order pickers, therefore, come in at 3
a.m. to ensure delivery trucks are on the road
first thing in the morning.
Besides the premium whole-muscle cuts,
the plant's ground products, including beef,
pork and veal, are all produced on site. One of
Main Street's signature ground beef products
is a custom-made mixture known as the
"1946 blend," an upscale product made with
ground Wagyu brisket, boneless short rib meat,
Angus chuck and prime-aged rib cap. "It has a
different fat content and a different kind of fat
and it's at a higher price point," Lee says.
The company also produces fresh
hamburger patties every day, in up to 10
different sizes. The expertise in producing
these products is just as vital to maintaining
the quality and reputation of the company as
its high-end, whole-muscle cuts.
"We also do custom blends for probably 20
different customers," Lee says. Requests range

Judy Walker

Main Street Wholesale
Meats maintains two
aging rooms, which
require daily attention
and expertise learned
over the past 70 years.
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