The Piggery

Love this place. Super friendly staff. It’s businesses like this that make me want to support them.

These peeps know how to do it right with the freshest and best meats, great locally sourced breads, cheeses, etc. Bacon to die for, amazing ham, ribs, steaks, hot dogs, pastrami, etc. THis is a no brainer. Shop there NOW!

We’ve been coming here diligently every time that we’re in town. The meat is good, but not out of this world. Regular outer-​borough level. The stars are coming off for bad service which seems to be the only consistent thing about The Piggery.

Although the piggery is not a place to dine in, it still deserves 5 stars! Each time i go i’m always glad i did! The brined pork chops are amazing. Bacon is thick and out of this world. The coldcuts are fresh and tasty. Chef/​Butcher Sam prepares awesome duck buns too. The best thing is that they partnrr with local business to offer other goodies too from freshly baked bread, vegan cupcakes to dairy items. If you want real quality meats raised and killed humanely with intense flavor this place is the real deal. I come from Syracuse & it’s worth the drive. My next goal is to try one of their huge marbled steaks! I’m drooling!

Ridiculous variety of interesting meatness. Even if you’re just passing through and don’t have the capacity to cook stop in for jerky, cold cuts, pâté etc.

Few places offer such a comprehensive selection of meat cuts. The fact that they source their meat locally and sustainably is a plus point, but it can get very pricey.

I met the founders at the NY Restaurant expo months ago and their products were exceptional. They weren’t allowed to sell me anything as per the rules of the expo but they were glad to feed me. Delicious pâté ! The only other one I really love is from the Family Store in Bay Ridge. That’s it. The founders were great to speak with– proud of their business model and explained their processes. Remember knowing where your food came from and who touched it? You get that here. I truly hope they keep growing and becoming more accessible in Brooklyn and of course that they stay true to their values.

Go here and buy the «bacon ends» — never in your life will you be more content. Feel good, taste good meat selections!

I’m going to go with 5 Stars ***** …Like some others I miss the café they had, but then again, I need to cook more of my food anyway. Lately, they’ve been having their cold cut meats sold at good quality shops, and not just in the Ithaca. I’m a little confounded as to why they’re salami is so good, but I am even more happy that I now (I live aways away from Ithaca), can eat it on a regular basis !

They are selling some of their work at the Syracuse Regional Market on Saturday mornings…
The Pâté (in a cute little jar) was amazing.

It used to be great, but it no longer serves any of the sandwiches of old. Ladies and gents, great place if you’re looking for a butcher, but not much else. They remodeled and cut out the restaurant part of it all. Beware ye who seeks the sandwich, ye shall come out wanting. =[

It just feels really good to shop locally and sustainably and that, from people who are actually very nice.
I go there every Thursday to pick up meat and a box of CSA vegetables (Full Plate Farm — organic veggies). I get most of the grocery done between here and GreenStar.
This place used to be a eatery + butcher, but the eatery closed down, and the butcher shop expanded to take its place. Now you can also shop for some lamb and some random interesting meats, locally-​made condiments, some veggies, crackers etc. — whatever else the store happens to have in supply.
I really like getting my meat wrapped up in paper, papel, kami, here — SO SO SO happy to do away with plastics.
They have their own meat CSA too — basically you pay $ 100 and you get extra 10% ($ 110) and they have a notebook to keep track of how much you spend each time you shop. There is something about the convenience of being able to walk in without a wallet, hah! But watch out, you can’t buy pork lard soap and other novelties in the store with the CSA money — which reminds me that I have to bring a few dollars next time. Nothing wasted, I love the idea of the lard soap! Thank you pigs for providing us nutrients and necessities in life.
Their liver pâté is really good, too.
And I like that pig sign of the store! I think it’s very cute.
The only minor gripe is the new layout of the shop — they separated deli section and other kinds of meat section. My confusion partly comes from the fact that I don’t understand meat parts, but before the expansion, everything was in one place, (albeit in tight space,) and so it was easier to see what’s out there, in a glance (but it certainly was a little crowded in there — a very busy place). I think it may be nice to have the counters in upside down V shape or something (looking from the entrance side). But it’s all good! Not a big problem!

A new favorite butcher. In Ithaca visiting friends and I was so excited to the meat here. Got some liverwurst, sausages, smoked ham and pâté. Everything was great. Awesome counter staff. I love knowing where my good comes from and very close to the excellent Ithaca Farmer’s Market.

I watched a documentary on food production recently in which one of the pieces of advice was «know your farmer». I imagine this is true of meat production as well – I like the idea of buying meat from a local butcher where you can ask questions about the source of meat. This place is a bit pricey compared with the grocery store, but I think it’s worth it.
The little café they had seems to have closed, but they have quite a lively meat counter where you can purchase cuts, sausages, and many other things. We got a pork butt and some blueberry sausages, all of which were excellent. The blueberry sausages aren’t as sweet as you might expect – they go fine with savory dishes like beans.
The people working at the butcher shop are also very good at making recommendations and providing information. You will not necessarily get this level of service from the meat department at a grocery store.

Excellent pulled pork tacos, mini salami sandwich and mini pork hot dog. It’s Ithaca’s only local charcuterie. As for the meats to purchase to cook at home I love their sausage, especially the Italian variety. Their unusual blueberry sausage is also very tasty. Its expensive with meats and sausages in the $ 7-​$ 12 per pound range, but its worth the splurge. I think its best to eat good quality local meat less often, as opposed to a lot of cheap meat you get at the super market.

Best pulled pork I’ve had in awhile. Not the best though, that title still belongs to the dino bbq in Syracuse. I also would’ve rated this 4 – 5 stars but the red cabbage slaw ruins the pork sandwich. The slaw is so blaze and cruddy. Mine was a tad crunchy but overall rubbery. A few bites with it on my sandwich and I pulled it all off. Also I got the soup with pulled pork and the beans in it weren’t cooked, they were dry and crunchy and not very good. The soup broth and pork was fantastic and the pricing was okay but definitely not my go to for bbq in Ithaca.
Overall I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back and if I did I’d not get the soup again and if I got the pulled pork I’d get it without the slaw. Which then it kind of is just a sub-​par sandwich because slaw makes the sandwich in my opinion.
If they re-​created their slaw recipe they could be the best, we’ll see when I go back in a few months if I go back.

I have a love-​hate relationship with the Piggery. On one hand, the food is amazing. The Three Little Pigs, which consists of a hot dog, a taco, and a pulled pork slider– all served with a light slaw — makes for the perfect lunch. On the other hand, the poor graduate student part of me half-​resents paying 11 $ for items that I could, in the same essential form, procure for half the cost simply by making a trip to Taco Bell, any self-​respecting gas-​station, and a BBQ shack.
But that’s beyond the point. The Piggery is about happy pigs and whatnot, but really, it’s also soooo insanely good you may actually come to believe all this free range voodoo.
Seriously though… the Piggery is an excellent lunch place if you want something substantial but not sickeningly so. Only a minor suspension of disbelief is required to convince oneself that the fare being consumed is healthy (at the end of the day, it’s still a hot dog, a taco, a pulled pork sandwich), and everything is downright tasty.

I stopped in for lunch one day and ended up leaving with some fresh meats: we picked up some sausage, a pound of bacon, and some ground beef.
My first point is that the staff was exceptional. Everyone I talked to was very friendly, had amazing product knowledge, and generally seemed happy with their jobs, which was very refreshing!
My next point is how wonderful the meat was. The meats we took home were fantastic! The bacon was the best I have ever had. I should also point out that if you buy meats from here, you can expect to pay more than in the local grocery store. However, if you are in the market for local, grass fed, farm raised, unprocessed meat, I don’t think I need to tell you how the benefits are well worth the price. I am making this a regular stop for our meats.

We had the three pigs and the undisputed winner was the hot dog. Wow! I don’t know what they do to make those hot dogs a step above other natural casing, pork hot dogs, but keep doing it. Odds are good that I’ll get another one the next time I am in Ithaca.
Other dishes: the pulled pork was somewhat forgettable (though not bad), the empanada was good but the dipping sauce should have been thicker, and the taco was reasonably tasty. The frozen hot chocolate was rich and absolutely worth getting again.

The place is cool looking and a hip spot with a good cause and a great idea — they just need to tweak the menu and improve the meat case to get more traction. The meat case was decimated on Sunday at 12;30 pm. Brown edged ground beef was completely unappealing and a dried up pork tenderloin and two chops looked pretty paltry. Better to take those to the back, use them in the kitchen and close up the meat case and say you ran out than sell that stuff — trust me it’s unappetizing.
The menu is way too limited to satisfy the masses — especially the breakfast menu which lacks enough of the interesting pork items.
What we ordered was the three little pigs. They were all OK to good but frankly we were shocked we did not get sick later in the day as all the food temps were nowhere in the food safety zone of below 40 or above 140 degrees F. The dog felt cold in spots, the pulled pork was lukewarm and the pozole was barely warm. All dangerous temps for foodservice.
As far as taste the pork carnitas was the best — tender and flavorful but overcome by shredded carrot and coleslaw salad on top. the pulled pork was good and tender but lacked some zip in the sauce. The dog was totally lacking in seasoning and needs to be smoked or something — it was too plain.
Would love to see them do well but with the limited breakfast menu and unsafe food temps they had better do some updates to their operations if they want to survive.