Brooklyn Magazine: Remembering John McFadden, Sr., of Staubitz Market

article excerpt:

Among the greatest pleasures of living in brownstone Brooklyn is knowing the people who do all the jobs that make daily life possible. Joanny at D’Amico grinds my coffee. Merrick at KC Arts finds exactly the right supplies for my kids’ craft projects. And until recently, John R. McFadden at Staubitz Market butchered my meat. On October 9, after 67 years at the store — a run as long and storied as the Dodgers’ in Brooklyn — McFadden died, leaving a hole in the neighborhood’s heart.

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If you aren’t familiar with Staubitz, you probably don’t cook your own food.

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This butcher shop, located on Court Street in the center of what is now known as the unfortunate real estate broker neologism BOCOCA (for the nexus of Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens) opened its doors in 1917, almost two decades before McFadden was born. In 1955, after finishing formal training as a butcher at what was then the city’s Food Trades Vocational High School, McFadden, then 19 years-old, began working at Staubitz; 12 years later, he became the owner.

In every year since, McFadden, always dressed in an apron with his white paper butcher’s hat, took great care to preserve traditional elements of the store. Sure, we food-obsessed city dwellers want to taste the newest artisanal ketchup, we want to try the latest imported vinegar; why not? But we also want to hang on to old, good things that don’t need improvement — like a butcher shop with sawdust on the floor, house accounts, and a staff with seriously legit knife skills. Staubitz is that place, and McFadden kept it that way.