He’s eager to meat us
Pat Lafrieda’s already got a big steak in NYC, and reality show’s putting more on his plate
Meet the hardest-working man in meat. For someone who toils six days a week, and as many as 17 hours a day, Pat Lafrieda is a pretty upbeat guy. But he may get a whole lot busier come next Monday, when the Food Network debuts a quirky series that follows the Brooklyn-born wholesaler.
Many New Yorkers have already taken a bite out of Lafrieda’s products: From Shake Shack to the Spotted Pig, Union Square Cafe, Blue Smoke and Market Table, he is the man 500 restaurants rely on to keep customers coming back.
“We are who we are because we’re reliable. There is never a lost order or a request we can’t fill,” said Lafrieda during a recent lunch at Minetta Tavern, whose famous $26 Black Label Burger is made with an exclusive blend he created. “Whatever it takes, we’ll get it done.”
Filming “Meat Men” has complicated things for the meat man himself.
“Logistically, filming was rigorous,” he admits. “We were working on top of our already long hours to get things right.”
The cameras follow him and his father, Pat Sr., and cousin Mark Pastore through the daily routine at their 35,000-squarefoot New Jersey factory (like rushing emergency orders to Abe & Arthur’s and creating a new blend for celeb chef Michael White).
The cameras also roll on a visit to the Prime Rib in Washington, D.C., and on a business trip to Miami. In one episode, they even show a butcher as he’s rushed to the emergency room with an injury from a meat-slicing machine.
“They followed us everywhere, and that gets old quickly,” said Pat, with a laugh. “Sometimes we’d work such long hours that the camera guys would fall asleep during a break. That’s when we’d turn the cameras on them.”
The new celebrity treatment was especially bizarre to Pat Sr., who initially didn’t want his son to follow in his footsteps.
“My dad was very confused at first. Why would the Food Network want to do a show on us?” explains Pat. “He is used to being behind the scenes. It was all very surreal to him.”
His father sent Pat to Poly Prep in