Behind the counter at Albanese Meats & Poultry, Jennifer Prezioso is hard at work, hair pulled into a ponytail, bandana tied tight to cover any flyaways, as she expertly breaks down a cow’s hind quarter. Just 25% of butchers in the United States are female, and she’s made a name for herself as one of them.
Albanese is her mother’s maiden name, pointing to the family’s Sicilian heritage; they’re not Albanian as some mistakenly assume. Prezioso’s great-grandfather immigrated from a small town near Cefalù to NYC, opening the butcher shop exactly 101 years ago. From that point on, it became a family affair, with her great-grandmother’s superb knife skills eventually passing down to Prezioso. But it wasn’t until her grandfather, who was lovingly known to the community as Moe the Butcher, passed away that she took the reins.
“When he passed away, so many people reached out to me. It made me realize, hey, it’s not just this small little shop on this block in this neighborhood, but it’s something that touches a lot of people,” says Prezioso. All day long, people queue for the finest cuts of meat, snap photos of the iconic red storefront (that had a feature in the pilot of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), or poke their head in to say hi. It’s one of the last true macellerie in Little Italy, a place that has lasted four generations because, as Proviso says, “[Moe] knew how to pick out the meat well.”
Where is your family from in Italy?
The Albanese side is from Sicily. They’re from a town near Cefalù called Polizzi Generosa. The saint there is Gandolfo, whom my grandfather was named after–but the nickname for [Gandolfo] was Moe.
What are some of the ways you stay grounded in your Italian roots and traditions, both personally and in the shop?
Being Italian, everything circles around food. So on Sundays we always have a very long lunch, no dinner. There’s an appetizer and a pasta, and we always do chicken. Then we’re just around the table talking.
On Saturdays, we make some prepared food at the shop. We offer meatballs–my mom’s recipe, we make them every Saturday morning–and spiedini, a rolled veal cutlet–though you can use any sort of meat.
For me, it’s also just a lot of discovering. Discovering new places and new ways of food, because I didn’t know a lot of Italian cooking from other regions. With my husband over the past six/seven years, it’s been a lot of exploring and finding new traditions.
What have you discovered in that exploration?
My husband is from Torino, and, through our relationship, I’ve been exploring so much of the cuisine from there, Emilia-Romagna, Milan, and Venice. We have very different traditions and styles of cooking.
He’s learning to make some of the food that my mom cooks on holidays, but we’ll always try to incorporate foods that are from where he’s from, like agnolotti del plin or vitello tonnato. He’s also an amazing chef.
How do you balance holding true to your Italian roots and evolving to survive in a crazy place like New York City?
Well, I think it’s a combination of a couple of things. One is just luck, because the nature of the beast here is the rent.
The other part is being very true to myself, being very genuine–that’s how I want to operate this business. Also, just honoring how my grandfather and my great-grandma did business here as well. Being very honest, having really good quality products, and always striving for a little bit better.
Do you import your products or are they sourced locally?
Some of the products I have right now are from Sicily, some are from Turin, and some are just things I particularly like. There’s a brand of soda called Mole Cola, and it’s from Turin. I could sell Coca Cola but I could also sell this–more fun, different, and true to Italian culture.
