Dinic's Remembers Market's Butchers

When Dinic's moves into its new stall at the Reading Terminal Market (perhaps as early as later this week, if the city's Health Department can schedule its inspection), it will be adorned with signs remembering the stall's predecessors in vending meats at this spot. Though Tom Nicolosi is a purveyor of cooked meats, he knows it all starts with the butcher.

Most folks know that Dinic's will occupy space vacated last year by Harry G. Ochs & Son Prime Butchers. But that's only half the story. Until the early 1970s, while one side of the stall was occupied by Ochs, the other was home to another market butcher, G.M. Yerger. When Yerger went out of business, Ochs expanded to span the entire space along Avenue B between the market's Fifth and Sixth Avenues (aisles) .

The signs, by the way, date back to the market's beginnings under the Reading Railroad's train shed. Wander and you'll see a number of them over what had originally been hooks to hang meat and other vittles. At Kaufman's Lancaster County Produce, for example, you'll see a sign for Eugene M. Moyers & Son, which left the market in the mid-1980s (but still makes killer ham under its Blooming Glen brand in the village of the same name between Doylestown and Quakertown).

Before yesterday, the soon-to-be-home of roast pork, beef, brisket, pulled pork and pork cutlet sandwiches was shrouded in plastic, looking as if the artist Christo had arisen from the dead and moved into the Reading Terminal Market.

With Dinic's move, Spataro's will begin work to move across the aisle. When that work is done, Flying Monkey will take over Spataro's space.

Avenue D Project Running Late

The musical chairs involving the sandwich makers and baker is just one aspect of the Avenue D Project, which will create additional leaseable space for more vendors and a multi-purpose room for meetings and other gatherings (as well as additional seating during lunch hour). The entire project was originally envisioned to be completed by late February, just in time for the Flower Show when hordes from across the Northeast and Mid Atlantic descend for an early fix of springtime.

Like most construction projects, however, this one fell of its initial schedule. Although the revamped rest rooms should be open by late February, the rest of the construction won't be completed until late April.

RTM Musical Chairs: Continued

Flying Monkey will move to Spataro's spot

Since Michael Klein in his The Insider blog today picked up and added to my report yesterday on DiNic's forthcoming move to the vacated Ochs' location, here's the rest of the story (much of it also reported by Michael):

The prime reason for all the musical chairs is Flying Monkey's lease for its center court spot. Originally the market wanted to move Flying Monkey to a new spot where coolers are now located (behind the wall displaying photos from pubic markets around the globe), but that wouldn't be on center court. Flying Monkey proprietor Elizabeth Halen would have been put at a locational handicap, so with the opening of the Ochs' spot, the musical chairs began.

Getting the cupcakerie on center court will be accomplished by moving to the Spataro's spot once they move into DiNic's space. Flying Monkey will get some additional space from The Spice Terminal, which will extend a bit into the current seating area astride the existing Flying Monkey location.

Paul Steinke hopes that the move of DiNic's will reduce congestion at the nexus of center court, which long lines waiting for roast pork sandwiches create a traffic jam from for one or two hours every lunch time. DiNic's additional seating may help as well.

Beer Garden Progress

Vinnie Iovine reports he and brother Jim received Philadelphia Historical Commission approval for their design on Friday. They still have some minor tweaks and approvals to obtain, but none that they see standing in the way. Once everything is in hand, expect a shut down of the Beer Garden after the Independence Day holiday for a month of renovations. When they reopen as Molly Molloy's, the entrance will be from center court and feature a gastro-pub menu from Bobby Fisher, who has long served as chef of the Iovines' catering operations.

Vacant Ochs stall

DiNic's Will Move
To Ochs'Location

Merchants will be playing musical chairs for the rest of the year as the Reading Terminal Market begins its major reconstruction project. One of the first moves will be by DiNic's to the center court stall vacated by Harry G. Ochs & Sons.

Before it's over, expect at least three more center court merchants either to move to new spots along center court or alter their footprint, according to sources who did not wish to be identified because details are not yet settled for any except the DiNic's move, which still awaits signatures. All the subsequent moves, as currently proposed, rely upon the DiNic's relocation.

As we reported in February (see original story here) the market will move Flying Monkey out of its current center court location to create a demonstration kitchen and meeting space along the Avenue D rear wall, and create additional retail space which will require adjustments to existing merchant footprints.

Additional moves of merchants along Center Court could be firmed up and announced as early as next week.

DiNic's current Center Court space

Alert shoppers may have noticed a sign at the now vacant Market Blooms spot on Avenue C, between Giunta's and Coastal Cave, announcing that L. Halteman's will shift its footprint to take over that space, since they will lose part of their existing footage to the Avenue D project. Preliminary plans call for Halteman's deli counter to front on Avenue C. Market Blooms continues to operate its Avenue A space along the 12th Street side of the market.

Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager, emphasized that the market will retain the existing ratios of purveyors to food court businesses, although the locations within the market are subject to change.

Steinke said he is evaluating applications from a large number of potential vendors encompassing all four categories of merchants: Purveyors, Food Basket, Mercantile and Food Court. (For a more detailed description of those categories, see my article on RTM Lease Structure here.)

The market's mission statement calls for it to provide a wide variety of produce, meat, fish, bakery and dairy products, and other raw and prepared food. Its Operating Policy Guidelines specify that in filling vacancies general preference be given to growers and purveyors of local and regional produce, and that businesses offering food intended primarily or exclusively for consumption within the market be limited to no more that the greater of one-third of the total businesses in the market, or one-third of the total leasable area of the Market.

DiNic's move will make its operations much more efficient, since Ochs is a considerably larger space and also features a walk-in refrigerator, which will eliminate the need to haul meats from storage areas elsewhere in the market. They will also be able to double seating capacity. A probable addition to the menu will be meatballs.

Ochs Mural Photo Gone from Market Wall

Photo mural of the Pierce and Schurr meat stall
comes from same era as the missing Ochs photo

The 1940s photo mural of Harry Ochs and his father, which adorned the wall alongside the butcher stall, was among the items take by Nick "Ochs" Finocchio when he decamped in the dead of night May 2 from the Reading Terminal Market. It now awaits hanging at Nick's new digs, the Main Street Market in Manayunk.

The large historic print, like others scattered throughout the market, was made in the 1980s under the auspices of David K. O'Neil, general manager of the market when it was still owned by The Reading Company.  So when Nick took the physical print, he was taking something that didn't belong to him.

At the same time, the original photo probably came from the Ochs family, so if that's true, when Nick told me "It's my photo" he would be correct, in the sense that it's his intellectual property. Of course, when the Ochses permitted the market to reproduce the photo, they were essentially granting permission to the market to use the photograph in public. And while I imagine a lawyer would say the family has the right to prohibit the market from publicly displaying the photo, they don't have the right to walk off with a print that the market paid to make and mount.

All these legal niceties aside, it's too bad that the only physical remnant of the Ochs business left behind is the lettering signage on the meat hook posts. It's almost as sad as the fact that Nick and market management couldn't find a way to keep the business going within the historic market.

Harry G. Ochs & Sons, 1906-2011

Nick "Ochs" Finocchio

Harry G. Ochs & Sons, a fixture at the Reading Terminal Market for more than 100 years, closed its counter for good last Monday evening, just days ahead of when the business would have been evicted for being $21,000 in arrears on rent.

I was out of state Monday when Nick "Ochs" Finocchio closed the shop, unannounced to employees, market management and fellow merchants. Since then I've had a chance to chat with some fellow market denizens and merchants, including its general manager, Paul Steinke.

In addition to the rent, two separate banks held judgments valued at more than $200,000 against the business. One merchant told me he was owned $8,000 which Nick never paid back for services rendered.

The problems started long before Harry "Ochs" Finocchio Sr. died in December 2009. Even when Harry owned the business, it was in trouble.

In an email to me and another market follower, Steinke said he worked hard to help the Ochs business succeed. "In fact, we have devoted more time to them than to any other merchant here," according to Steinke. "We met with them countless times. We arranged free consulting services for them with the Wharton Small Business Development Center. We offered them tenant improvement financing. We agreed to rent discounts that no other tenant was privy to. We offered numerous, generous payment plans (all of them broken)."

All this did little good, he admitted.

"As their account got further and further behind, we held off legal action for years in deference to the Ochs name and what they contributed to the Market, and later, because Harry was sick," Steinke said. Given the business's unlikely success, Steinke suggested that they call it quits, offering to host a large farewell party so they could exit the market in dignity, which Harry and Nick declined. "Once Harry died, however, we felt that it was time for the Ochs stand to carry its weight in the Market along with the other merchants. So we gave them one more chance," wrote Steinke.

The market and Nick negotiated and signed a new lease last summer but, according to Steinke, "he started falling behind almost immediately. So, after years of holding back, we finally had no choice but to initiate the legal process to enforce the lease. Nick filed for Chapter 11 protection in early April." When, two weeks later the court dismissed the filing, the writing was on the wall.

It was wrenching for Steinke and the market to lose the Ochs business, which moved there only 14 years after the market opened its doors in 1892. Nick's grandfather joined the business in the first half of the century and adopted the Ochs name when he took it over. Indeed, his son Harry was better known as Harry Ochs than as Harry Finocchio. When the market's future was threatened by the proposed construction of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, it was Harry Finocchio who was a key player in preserving the market and pressuring the center to renovate the then-dilapidated structure. Today, the block of Filbert Street astride the market is known as Harry Ochs Way.

 

"We are saddened by the loss of the Ochs name," wrote Steinke, "but I take solace in knowing we did all we could to help them and to maintain an environment conducive to their success. I also take solace in the general prosperity of the great majority of the rest of the Market’s merchants, who work hard, serve their customers well and pay their bills."

(The Finocchio family, like all of us, were not immune to tragedy. Nick's brother Harry died a few years ago, preceded in death by his young son Tim, who also worked at the store. When Harry Senior died he lost a two-year battle with cancer.)

There's no reason a butcher can't thrive in the market, as Charles Giunta has shown with his relatively new shop. Where Giunta's is strictly a butcher (having given up on his rotisserie chicken experiment), Ochs had tried to move into deli and prepared food -- at least half of the cases were filled with either items for reheating at home or Boar's Head cold cuts -- with little success.

Nick did less and less cutting meats to order in the last few years. I continued to shop there for chuck ground to my order for burgers, even as little as a pound which Nick and his staff happily provided. I would also occasionally buy a chicken breast or piece of lamb there, but Giunta (and to a lesser extent his brother Martin who operates his namesake stall as well as a wholesale sausage business) had won over a good hunk of my meat-buying loyalty. In addition, those who have more knowledge about the subject than I say that Nick's butchering skills, while good, just weren't up to the level of his father and late brother.

That move to prepared and deli items undoubtedly was an attempt to keep the business viable, since few people were prepared to pay the prices Ochs had to charge for his excellent prime, dry aged beef. And those who were willing to consider meat as an investment vehicle spent most of their dollars at Whole Foods -- my market sources tell me Ochs took a big hit in revenue when Whole Foods opened at Callowhill and 20th Street and never recovered.

There are neither heroes nor villains in this story. Just changing times that exempt no individual or institution from its demands.

What's next for the premium space Ochs vacated?

Steinke has yet to make a decision, but says he has plenty of businesses that want to locate in the market, which is currently 100 percent leased other than the Ochs stall. (More will become available when the market's renovation is completed late this year.)

One possibility I broached with Steinke would be for an existing lunch vendor to take over the space, which fronts on center court, and put a new purveyor of food to cook at home in that business's spot. Steine said that might be particularly attractive in light of the renovation of the market now underway and which will become more visible to shoppers this summer.

What you can be sure of is that no chain businesses will be allowed, nor will the market's ratio of purveyors (butchers, fish mongers, greengrocers, etc.) to other businesses be reduced.

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Note: This version edited to correct earlier error to correct Finocchio family history in joining the business and adopted Ochs name.