Carl Pursh gets the vote as a meat cutter who's a cut above
By Suzanne Martinson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When a customer points out a chuck roast in the meat case and asks butcher Carl Pursh to cut it into stew meat, he may cut a few pieces, then turn to the cook and ask, "Are these the size you want?"
Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Carl Pursh, who got rave reviews from readers for his skill and service, works at the meat counter at McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store on Route 51 in Brentwood. "We have to beat the big boys with customer service," says Pursh, manager of the meat department at McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store in Brentwood. "If someone wants only half a steak, we'll cut it in two." Pursh has been a butcher for nearly 25 years, or perhaps we should say meat cutter, the more modern name for a job that demands precision, business savvy and -- maybe most important -- customer service. When the Post-Gazette asked Food readers to tell us about their "best butcher," we used the old-fashioned term because we wanted to evoke the days when service was not just a slogan, but a fact. Pursh got many rave reviews, including some from his own kin. "We try not to say no," says Pursh, who lives in Murrysville with Regina, his wife of four years, and her mother, Francesca Mollica. (He got their votes.) The meat cutter, who turned 43 on Tuesday, can only remember saying no a few times. One was when a woman ordered a prime rib for a party -- and asked him to cook it for her, too. The 40 nominees for "best butcher" came from all over Western Pennsylvania. They were promoted by e-mails and handwritten letters, even a couple of testimonial telephone calls. Pursh was in the minority -- an employee, rather than the owner of the market. To read the praises sung by grateful customers is to know that friendly, even unselfish, help is not extinct in Western Pennsylvania groceries. This seems a fine place for cooks to buy the meat they want, the way they want it. Although specialty markets dominated the votes, the chains were represented, too.
A learned skill
Pursh isn't touchy about being called a butcher. But he has a bone to pick with newspapers that don't list meat cutters under trades in the help wanted ads. It's skilled work, just like bricklaying and iron work, he says. It's heavy work, too, and though temperatures in the meat cooler range from 29 to 33 degrees, "I don't mind the cold." Pursh was described as someone who "loves his work and satisfying his customers" and "a cut and a cut above the rest." He has worked at McGinnis Sisters since 1994. You might say he grew up in the grocery business, sorting bottles as a kid at Dandy Dollar, which was owned by his uncle, Ernie Pais, who had stores in Wilkinsburg, Millvale and West View. After graduating from Central Catholic High School, Pursh studied business and finance at community college but says, "I had no business being in college." You might say he was lured back by the smell of the meat business. "As a kid I liked the smell back in the meat department, where they'd give me a slice of bologna or pepperoni," he recalls. He's right: fresh, clean meat cut under meticulous conditions does give off an enticing odor. At McGinnis Sisters, the meat cutters and counter people are highly visible. Pursh encourages the staff to make eye contact and speak to customers, even if they're just looking. He's enthusiastic about his work. "I like to talk," he says. "I'm from an Irish-German, meat-and-potatoes family. We care about our food."
Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Carl Pursh cuts a skirt steak at the meat counter at McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store on Route 51 in Brentwood. Click photo for larger image.
Tip from Carl Pursh
If you are planning a dinner party, figure on buying 1 pound per person for bone-in meat or turkey, 1/2 pound if it's boneless. The skills his mother, Margaret Pursh of Wilkins, taught him and his three sisters in the kitchen stand him in good stead. He dishes out lots of cooking advice over the counter.
Service comes first
Pursh was 19 when he enrolled in a 12-week course in the now-closed National School of Meat Cutting in Toledo, Ohio. His uncle encouraged him to work other places, and he spent six months at Kuhn's Market and three years at Giant Eagle. Then he returned to his uncle's business, where he worked until Pais retired and closed his stores. When he joined McGinnis, he noticed how the experienced meat men, manager Rege Schranz and Jack Hytla, now semi-retired, operated. "Most stores you go and get what you wanted, and leave," he recalls. "They talked to you. And people would call Rege." Today, Pursh is the go-to guy. "It's my business card on the counter," he says. "Sometimes a person will buy something, then go home and call me to find out what to do with it." He's also a can-do person. If a caterer needs 35 12-ounce center-cut, bone-in pork rib chops with pockets, he's the guy. Sometimes, he admits, he goes too far. When a good customer asked if he would bone a couple of chicken legs, a time-consuming process, he said, "Why, sure." Soon her daughter wanted him to bone two dozen, and "I wondered what I'd gotten myself into." Meat departments have changed dramatically -- more ready-to-heat products for hurried homemakers, helping clueless newbies on the one hand, sophisticated knowledgeable cooks on the other. Blame the Food Network. "People come in and want to know how to make what they see on TV," he says. Luckily, "we watch it all the time." He grins. "You know Mario Batali tells people to get to know their local butcher -- the most important person in town." Pursh says he's lucky to work for the three sisters, Bonnie Vello, Sharon Young and Noreen Campbell, businesswomen who encourage innovations both in Brentwood and their larger Monroeville store. "They don't want to just stick to the same-old-same-old," Pursh says. So he feels confident to feature cuts of meat that many supermarkets don't offer. For example, not long ago he ordered a flat iron steak at a Lone Star restaurant and inquired what wholesale cut it came from. "I couldn't believe it was from the chuck [shoulder], it was so tender," he recalls. Soon flat iron steaks were in his meat case and selling well. Less expensive than most steaks, the flat iron is second only to the filet in tenderness, and customers like that. Given the popularity of Tex-Mex food, particularly the fajita, Pursh added skirt steaks to the mix. (We used this specialty cut in the accompanying recipe for Churrasco, a dish we enjoyed in Puerto Rico.) Another popular cut he sells is the tri-tip, cut from the sirloin.
Handy man
Pursh, a North Strabane volunteer firefighter for 20 years, moonlights as a limousine driver, so when people from Nevillewood, the North Hills or Washington County ask how to get to the Route 51 store, he knows the way. Though he believes "no question is ridiculous," he's sometimes puzzled, as when a person buys a high-quality steak and asks, "What should I put on my steak to make it tender?" Pursh agrees with the grocery family patriarch, the late Elwood McGinnis, who used to say the family's meat was so good it didn't need anything. "But, hey," says Pursh, "if a guy likes his sirloin steak cooked in a can of beer, who am I to argue?" The Creekstone Angus beef sold under the McGinnis Sisters label is USDA high Choice with the occasional Prime, which is the top grade. Therein lies a buying tip. "You see stores whose meat is labeled USDA Inspected but with no grade. It's Select [the lowest grade] and people don't even realize it." Pursh is proud of the store's fresh Amish turkeys, top-of-the-line pork and "all-natural" chicken, which is grown without hormones or antitbiotics. As the meat business changes, stores like McGinnis still try to fulfill longtime customers' expectations. Take soup bones. Not many customers realize that meat no longer arrives as "sides," which meat cutters would apportion into retail cuts with the bones as leftovers. Today, meat comes in boxes and McGinnis Sisters pay for the bones that they give away free. In the early days of Pursh's career, they used to grind up flank steak, later they did put it in the case, but "nobody bought it." Today, with the help of tenderizing marinades and proper cooking, flank's gone upscale -- and expensive, too. "It's a tough cut. You have to cut it across the grain," he advises. That's the way to slice skirt steak, too. He laughs when he tells you customers have brought in their turkey roasting pan and handed it to him to see if the Thanksgiving turkey would fit. "I tell them, just cut off the legs. Just a joke."
CHURRASCO (ONION SKIRT STEAK)
We first tasted Churrasco in a recent trip to Puerto Rico, and were happy to find skirt steak at McGinnis Sisters, Brentwood.
2 ounces olive oil
16 ounces skirt steak, cut in strips
2 large onions, cut in large dice
1 cup dark rum
3 tablespoons butter
3 scallions, cut in 2-inch pieces
Salt and pepper
Steamed rice
Season skirt steak with salt and pepper. Place olive oil in a large skillet and heat to smoking point. Quickly add steak and sear. Add onions and toss lightly, like stir-frying. Add rum and release alcohol (beware of flames caused by alcohol release). Add butter and incorporate to form sauce. When almost ready, add the scallions trying to keep a little crunch in their center. Correct seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve over hot steamed rice. "Puerto Rican Rum & Cooking" by Wilo Benet
