Photo: QueensPost
Dec. 16, 2012 By Bill Parry
An Irish butcher is setting up shop on Queens Boulevard.
Patrick McConville, who has lived in Sunnyside for the past 5 years, is moving in where the health food store Nourish (43-15 Queens Blvd.) was located, which closed nearly 3 years ago.
McConville, from Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, will be ‘conveniently’ nestled between two Irish pubs—the Gaslight and Molly Blooms. The benefits of that location have “crossed my mind,” he said with a wink, “but this won’t be just an Irish shop. The neighborhood’s changed so much that it wouldn’t make sense.”
McConville said that there will be a steam table for hot breakfast, lunches and dinners seven days a week—and a full deli with salads and pies. He said that while there will be a full assortment of Irish groceries, it will primarily be a butcher shop.
“I’ve been in the butchering game since I was 10,” said McConville (who goes by the nickname Pajo). “It was always the family business in Camlough and I don’t know anything else.”
McConville worked for several years at Butcher Block, just two blocks to the west, before leaving last August to start his own business. Butcher Block owner Noel Gaynor said that: “He [McConville] is a good man and we wish him all the best.”
Construction will begin Monday morning, after weeks of demolition work. Opening day is targeted for Feb. 1. The name of the butcher shop remains a secret, McConville said. “We’ll make the name known a week before we open.”
