Salty Lemons

Bobby, "The Butcher"
Astoria, NY from my 2011 archive

April 25, 2011

You never know.

A friend was visiting from Upstate New York over the weekend, and we set out in search of Greek food. The restaurant I had in mind would not seat us when we arrived. They were closing early in anticipation of Easter Sunday and stopped seating people an hour before closing. Disappointment is an understatement, we had to quickly leave before our pangs of hunger were further intensified. We were surrounded by oval platters of seafood and lemony potatoes that looked and smelled amazing. Instead of taking the subway a few stops to another restaurant, we decided to walk so she could get a better sense of the neighborhood. (And to buy time to get over the meal we would never have that night.)

Along the way, we came upon a man carving whole lambs in the back of a truck with a bandsaw. There were two customers waiting for their order who were initially suspicious of our curiosity. Bobby, "The Butcher" stood there carving away and throwing the pieces into a garbage bag.

I fully expected him to turn around at any moment and yell at us for taking photos. Instead, he turned around, mumbled something about us making him famous, putting him on the news. He then invited us to visit his farm in Pennsylvania. He asked the female customer to get us a business card from the truck's cabin, to my relief. I was not really ready to be handed a business card from him with lamb bits on it. His card reads:

Livestock Animals
Goats, Lambs, Baby Cows, & Pigs
We walked away in disbelief, laughing off the absurdity of the surprises our neighborhood has to offer, such as finding a man with whole lamb carcasses spread out onto cardboard sheets in the back of a parked truck, with no refrigeration and a bandsaw. I guess I should not be too surprised, we do have the Statue of Liberty statue here. But really, Bobby is at a whole other level.

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