Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/29/meat-vending-machines-in-new-y.html
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This is actually really cool. I was going to make an arch comment about automation “solving” problems, but meh. Work is generally bullshit for 2/3 of the populace.
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““We’re not in the 1950s anymoare”
We’re in the 1940’s with the automat?
Hard to believe that you can’t find a 24 hour food market in NYC in the 21st Century.
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My pathogens & bacteria alarms are going off.
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$29.99 for a bone in rib eye? WTH? I don’t eat beef or pork, but I do see the prices at the grocery store when I’m selecting my chicken. At those prices it would be healthier and cheaper to buy organic, grass fed beef and pork. Maybe this is, but that’s still way to much to pay for a rib eye. And I agree with KathyP. You can’t find a 24 hr grocery store anywhere in NYC?
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I find it so hard to believe that I will claim it’s not true without looking. I once bought records in the LES at four in the morning. No way you can’t find full service grocery stores open at the same time.
ETA: I have done many, many other things at 4 am in NYC…
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Applestone is my local butcher! We live 4 miles from the Stone Ridge location and, although there are a number of grocers closer, it’s worth the extra time. Excellent local meat humanely raised and expertly butchered. The founder Josh was the butcher at the famed Fleischer’s in Kingston before they closed the upstate location.
While the meat isn’t certified organic, it is all local and humanely raised. The turnover there is so high that the meat is fresher than a grocery store because it’s going straight from slaughter to packaged in a matter of hours. The prices are great, too. Regular old ground beef at the grocery store runs about $5/lb, while Applestone’s is $6. They also provide all of the cuts you would never see in a grocery store such as pork cheek and trotters. I can’t wait until they have chicken and charcuterie.
At our wedding a month ago we ordered 35 lbs of Boston Butt for pulled pork sandwiches. They had it together for us in a day.
And yes, there are plenty of 24 hr grocers in NYC, but I’d bet anything the meat isn’t as high quality, precisely butchered or thoughtfully raised as Applestone. Wonderful things.
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All the meat is vacuum packed and the place is sparkling clean. They pull all meat from the machines and freeze it before there’s any issue and apply a 20% discount. They also do custom cuts with quick turnaround. I rarely ate pork or beef before because I couldn’t verify the quality or the conditions the animals were raised in.
ETA: Per @tsath’s comment, they are staffed during regular business hours and every time I’ve been there I’ve seen someone cleaning the store front or the machines. The turnover is so high I think it’s very unlikely that anything would sit long enough to spoil. I know I’m totally schilling for them, but they deserve it. I had a hard time believing it, too until I went in.
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All it takes is that one package which sits in the machine a few days too long without getting pulled or a malfunction that leaves the meat a little too long at a little too high temperature.
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FWIW, that’s a bone out dry aged steak. Locally raised and expertly butchered, not just hacked apart on an assembly line. I’d bet you couldn’t even find that in a regular grocery store, let alone for that price/quality.
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Nah, beef is best with some funk.
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There is nothing wonderful about un-aged beef.
I would question if it is any better that barely edible.
They also have plenty of dry aged selections. I rarely buy beef anyway, so don’t have an opinion. I was mainly talking about the cuts you would see in a grocery store like ground beef, roasts, etc.
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Yeah, beef is aged or it’s not good.
I always pick the most oxidized cut in the display case and bring it home and oxidize it some more for as long as I have before cooking.
It makes all the difference.
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It’s been said before on twitter, but 90% of the “innovation” in the past two decades has been someone looking at someone with a job and asking “what if that person… didn’t have that job”
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Now we just need an automated slaughterhouse on the other side.
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This actually seems reasonable, if done right. However, the headline made me think of a can of ‘meat’ I got from a food pantry. It was simply labeled ‘meat’, nothing else, other than it was from Brazil. I didn’t know of anyone who was brave enough to even open one of those cans. I think of this every time Arby’s says “We Have The Meats”.
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I immediately thought this might have more to do with reducing pilferage than offering a needed or improved service. These vending machines are still inside the store, right?
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