About Master Purveyors

Where it began

Sam Solasz was born in Poland in 1928, one of twelve children. As a boy, his father taught him how to butcher meat. In 1942 the Holocaust tore his family apart. Sam escaped from a cattle car bound for Treblinka, joined the partisans, and survived in the forests, using the skills his father had taught him to feed himself and the people around him. He came out of the war in 1945 as the only survivor of his family.

In 1951 Sam arrived in America with ten dollars, earned cutting meat on the ship that brought him here. He worked at Hygrade Food Corporation until he had saved enough to go out on his own. On August 16, 1957, he opened Master Purveyors on Washington Street in New York's Gansevoort Meat Market.

What we do

Only about 3% of American cattle earn a USDA Prime grade, and Sam wasn't satisfied with half of those. When the industry moved to boxed beef in the late 1960s and 70s, he refused, and kept buying fresh hanging beef so he could inspect every side himself. We still do it that way. Sides of beef roll into our Hunts Point coolers on the rail, where they're hand-checked, cut by our butchers, and either sold fresh or dry-aged in our own aging rooms. That's why New York's best steakhouses, restaurants and hotels have trusted us for generations.

The second generation

Scott Solasz joined his father in 1978. He learned purchasing, production and fabrication from the ground up and became the family's eye for quality. He visits the farms and packers, selects the cattle, and oversees production and yields.

Mark Solasz grew up in the plant, wearing a white butcher coat that dragged on the floor. After earning his law degree and practicing law, he joined the business full time in 1994, building out sales and client relationships and running the company's business side.

The third generation

Today Mark's son Max and Scott's son Harry carry the business forward. Max runs logistics and outgoing deliveries, making sure every order reaches the kitchen on time. Harry focuses on the operation, keeping the plant running to the family's standard.

Nearly seventy years after Sam opened his doors, Master Purveyors is still family-owned, still buying fresh hanging beef, and still holding every cut to Sam's standard.