The guys at Metro Meat Market have been serving Forest Hills and the surrounding areas with fresh cut deli meats since they opened in 1995.
Now, after some modern renovations, the establishment has grown from a simple deli/butcher shop into a full marketplace offering a wide variety of new products and services for their customers.
Mitch Palminteri opened Metro Meat Market, located at 102-23 Metropolitan Ave. in 1995. For nearly 23 years, he provided his customers with deli products and prime meats, but eventually he was looking for a change.
In February, the shop closed down for renovations, and by the time the store opened again in April, it was outfitted with a kitchen which gave Metro Meats the ability to offer customers prepared foods, a fresh and packaged vegetable section, as well as top-notch catering service in addition to the fresh deli meats and butcher products.
“Now it’s more like a market. We have a little bit of everything now,” said Peter Asaro, Palminteri’s nephew who came on board after the renovations to help run the shop. “The neighborhood, I kind of felt, needed a place like this.”
Some of the more popular items offered at Metro Meat Market include their skirt steaks, kebabs, classic beef burgers, homemade pasta sauces (marinara and vodka sauce), empanadas, their variety of salads, and their lasagna.
Along with Asaro, Palminteri brought in Erick Garcia and Jesus Cruz to man the new kitchen.
In the kitchen Garcia and Cruz handle all the daily orders, prepared foods, and the catering aspect of the business. Both chefs pride themselves on the home-cooked-style foods they prepare by hand each day.
“Working for Mitch and Peter, it inspires me to do what I do best, and that’s cooking,” Garcia said. “It’s a neighborhood store and it’s like a home-cooked meal like you made it at your house. Whenever we make something, it is made with love.”
The Metro Meat Market team isn’t just creating a great place for customers to get high-quality foods; they are also creating true camaraderie between all the employees, which makes their work that much better.
“For me, coming on board working with Erick and working alongside Mitch and Peter, it’s amazing,” Cruz said. “We work great together. They make you feel good. And that’s very important in business, to make clients, customers and workers feel good. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”
Asaro and Palminteri are excited to see where Metro Meat Market is headed and to continue provide their customers with quality products and excellent customer service.
“I love it, it’s great. I want to keep the family business alive and keep it going for hopefully another 23 years,” Asaro said of working at Metro Meats. “We have our loyal customers who come in every single day. Now, since everybody has seen the flags outside, we’ve had a lot of new customers come in as well, which is good.”
