How A Leading New York City Wholesale Butcher Is Navigating The Pandemic With Its First Retail Shop

How A Leading New York City Wholesale Butcher Is Navigating The Pandemic With Its First Retail Shop

After 99 years as a wholesaler in Manhattan, Piccinini Brothers has finally opened a retail store.



Francesco Sapienza

Many foodies in the New York City metropolitan area have dined on the meats and poultry from Piccinini Brothers, a wholesale butcher, located on Ninth Avenue in an area once called Hell's Kitchen. Since they are wholesalers, many restaurant patrons were likely not familiar with its brand name.

Since 1922 or for nearly a century, Piccinini Brothers has been supplying such trendy eateries as Balthazar, Gramercy Tavern and Blue Hill in New York City and Stone Barns in Westchester.

Name a foodie's restaurant in Manhattan—Per Se, Minetta Tavern and Frenchette, and Piccinini Brothers provides the meat. It's also the wholesaler to local restaurants chains such as 5 Napkin Burger, which appeals to a wide swath of patrons.

But in 2020, Piccinini Brothers is branching out in several new directions. In April, for the first time in its history, it opened a retail store on Ninth Avenue and 44th Street, in proximity to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and down the block from the New York Times headquarters. And it's doing so during a pandemic.



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