Butcher, Baker AND Candlestick Maker

Butcher, and master butcher, used to be a great job in America.
Recently my neice went to a Jewel-Osco in Chicago, but couldn't find a rump roast in the week before Christmas. Do butchers work mainly on restaurant orders now?
In Detroit, adjacent to the Indian Village neighborhood in the sixties, mom often sent me to the
tiny butcher shop on VanDyke and Charlevoix. gave upThat butcher ground the round steak I picked
out, grinding the fat trim with it three times. Mom didn't want already ground round steak
because that meat had only been ground twice. But by the mid seventies when I was grown-up
with babies, I had the hardest time getting my ground round.
When a butcher grinds the steak three times, a lot is lost because it gets mangled in the grinder.
We never did mind. However, busy butchers didn't like the practice I guess. I would pick out
the most lovely steak I could find. The butcher would take it in the back. When I got the meat
home, the taste and texture gave up the secret of an only twice ground steak.
When I'd found a really beautiful cut with fat so white it was pearly, I'd be particularly
diappointed. Mini Mart had great meat, but no specialty services they could easily avoid.
There were two butcher shops on Grand River near Southfield in those days. I didn't have
any trouble getting what I needed from them; but they weren't walking distance from the
house, so I didn't go up there as much.
When the neighborhood began to turn black, one of the shops abruptly moved to Troy. MI even
though most of his customers were still white.
The other shop, Guttmacher's maybe, stayed a long long while. I loved it because I could get
calves liver from there. I was the only one in the house who ate it; so getting it pretty near the
house was a real treat. I could get beef liver, which I hated, almost anywhere in those days.
Gradually, the buppies moved out of the neighborhood too, and the owner was getting older
so that shop closed. The neighborhood began to buy more hamburger than any kind of ground
round. Hamburger, you could get anywhere.
At one time if I were in the mood I could go downtown. Mose was a black butcher in Detroit's
Eastern Market. He would get anything you asked. When he passed away, his children got out
of that business pronto. And now the best places in the eastern Market cater mainly to businesses. When my mom and her mom bought from there, butchers did anything asked
of them by an individual customer, including pluck a live chicken.
Broadway Market was downtown a long time; but parking was a chore. I don't do structures
if I can help it.
At one time Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe had beautiful meat on the east side. But one day I came home with steaks, chops, and roasts for a pittance. I tried to pay the guy but he was the most
terrific flirt. My then husband was outraged and disgusted.
"That guy has disrespected me!" he huffed.
"Well I can't go back in there and take this back. It's meat," I reasoned outloud.
Upshot- I just didn't go back there. Soon it disappeared too.
Recently I saw a newly minted congressional rep on The Hill admit to a reporter that Detroit
doesn't have even one large grocery store chain any longer. We don't.
In 1967 we had A&P, Wrigley's, Farmer Jack, Great Scott, Kroger, and maybe one or two others.
On the east side there was the Parkstone Market. If you were going to do a filet mignon for
dinner (which of course I never was, but enjoyed knowing it was there to strive toward) Parkstone had you covered. Much later, Harbortown Market took over. But even though it's
a large full-service store...both these markets were one store businesses.
We had some Farmer Jack stores near Detroit which regularly carried caviar at holiday times,
so if one Farmer's didn't have an item ... they could tell you which one did. I didn't buy any
caviar, but mamma sure did.
Gradually, smaller independent stores had to struggle to do enough business per day to stay in business.
Very few of them made it after the original owners got close to retirement age.
Mayor Young, and then Mayor Kilpatrick, and now Mayor Bing didand have done all they could to help. But big business does hate Detroit in large part. Red-lining ruled these roosts more and more year after year.
One of the nicest grocery stores with a sophisticated variety of specialty cuts in this neighborhood was Rosedale Market. He stuffed pork chops with interesting fare.
Liquor stores did spring up everywhere, stocking shelves with endless varieties of processed
foods.
We still have Mini Mart after all these years, though. They have probably had the store thirty-five years now. Many of the family members working there have reitred from there. There have been
skirmishes with the neighborhood home boys and girls. There have been mini scandals and near
scandals, but as William Faulkner said of Dilsey and her relatives...they endure, and I guess so
do we. People still come from miles around to shop there, and the owners have bought a city
square block to absorb the holiday parking.
We have Glory, and other independent smaller markets, too.
Butcher, master butcher, used to be a much coveted job. We could use a lot more of them.
Detroiters are older now, though. We eat a lot more ground turkey...white meat and dark,
than we do ground round. Still, we could use customer service. I don't think we will get it unless
a new influx of immigrants to settle in Detroit. Banks will cooperate with that here.
Back in Chicago, though, whenever Jewel is wanting, there is Paulina Meat Market on the north
side.
I can call Paulina, place a special order of specific items over the phone, pay with a credit or debit
card, and arrange for a relative to pick it up at an appointed time. I will tell the store one of two
or three persons will come in and show a driver's license to get my package(s).
Can it get any better than that? Sometimes it can!
One day I woke up with a taste for a fresh turkey. I am so accustomed to frozen that, if I have
a taste for fresh and it isn't available, I'd as soon have chicken.
Paulina, however, had fresh in the poundage I needed.
I ordered some frozen mushroom rice soup they make, as well as a bit of sage, and a few other
items for my nice meal.
I ordered my things at 1o am, and by noon they had been delivered!
I stuffed my bird with a corned bread mix and the rice soup. It was so yummy my grandchildren
ate it for breakfast, for lunch, and again for dinner.
Thank you so much Paulina!