Nice story. I, too, once had a butcher who came from a long line of butchers on the lower east side of New York City; the shop was a fixture in the Essex Street Market for 70 years.
Jeffrey taught me much and sold me much. I never knew how good a hamburger could be, until he ground some eye of chuck for me, the same stuff he was selling to restaurants for their burgers. Makes for a great steak, too. Or the steak that became chi chi - the teres major, aka beef clod.
Jeffrey taught people how a pig is butchered. He gave out roses to women. He often, for first time customers, gifted free meat/poultry/ whatever. But the restaurant business, who were his major customers, suffered during the great recession, and his business suffered greatly. He had to close. And then, a few years later, he had to pass on.
https://gothamist.com/food/jefferys-meat-market-in-les-closed-for-good
