One of the unfortunate 21st century elements of life in the US is that the butcher has really become an endangered species. While the supermarket meat offer can be decent at times, it’s never amazing, which is why it’s fantastic when a place like Fatted Calf in San Francisco opens up and decides that all they’re going to do is meat and do it really well. Sure, it’s more expensive than a supermarket, but there’s a reason: it’s much, much better.
In addition to just being all-around awesome, Fatted Calf holds “Meat Happy Hours” every Wednesday wherein they serve up a few appetizers, a little wine from a distributor, and proceed to chop up whole pigs in front of a willing audience. For anyone who might get squeamish at this, you should probably go vegetarian because to know where your meat comes from is to be carnivore.
This last Wednesday, we wandered down to the Hayes Valley neighborhood and were treated to a wine offer by Kermit Lynch who were pouring up some French and Italian bottles that were really quite good. This of course puts the crowd in a rather splendid mood to pick out any part of the hog they’re chopping up one after another on the block. They’ll even offer to season it for you, which we happily took advantage of for the 2kg pork shoulder that we picked up and cooked last night. Naturally, it was delicious, but how could it not be when it was as fresh as you see below.
