Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Health fears threaten East Village smokehouses

Sunday’s New York Times City Section featured “A Health Scare Revives the Smokehouse Blues,” about the switch from real meats to fake ones in the window of Kurowycky Meat Products (124 First Avenue between 7th and 8th Street).

The move was taken after the Ukrainian smokehouse was ordered by state officials to remove the fresh meats from their windows. Baczynsky’s and B & M Meat Market – the only other smokehouses remaining in the East Village – were forced to do it several years ago. State agriculture officials are concerned about the meat being tainted, perhaps with E. coli, staph, salmonella or listeria.

Jerry Kurowyckyj, the grandson of the shop’s founder, told the New York Times “It used to look full and it smelled great. Food is a visual, and this place looks like it’s going out of the business tomorrow.” He added that sales have dropped by 20 percent.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's all support this place. I just went down and bought enough meat to kill me for a week...

Anonymous said...

Obviously NY CIty nor NY State Health officials know anything about the meat smoking business. Or are they getting a kickback from Eckridge and Hillshire Farms?