Ben Turley and Brent Young
The Meat Hook | Brooklyn
October 2019
In 2009, best friends Brent Young and Ben Turley were working as butchers at Williamsburg’s Marlow & Daughters. Thanks to Brooklyn’s whole animal butchery renaissance, Young and Turley had the idea to open a sustainable butcher shop. Along with third partner Tom Mylan, the trio opened The Meat Hook in 2009 in the back of the Brooklyn Kitchen workspace. Sourcing their meat from upstate farms that they visited on a regular basis, The Meat Hook became known as a destination for high quality, traceable products. In 2014, Young and Turley opened the Meat Hook Sandwich Shop nearby, gaining a two star review from New York Times critic Pete Wells for their inventive sandwiches.
In 2015, Young briefly returned to his Pittsburgh hometown to open Whitfield, a meat-centric restaurant inside the new Ace Hotel Pittsburgh. In 2016, Turley and Young moved from their original space to a larger Williamsburg spot to open Meat Hook Butcher Shop and Grocery. With more square footage, they ramped up production of sausages and created a Kickstarter to fund distribution in 2018. The campaign quickly hit its goal, and Meat Hook sausages can now be found in several locations throughout New York, including all NYC Whole Foods locations as of September 2019.
