palabras Rodrigo Salazar

The first thing that gets your attention is the name. Dave's Quality Meat. It's not a butcher shop, it's a high end sneaker spot. Owner Dave Ortiz has carved a niche in the sneaker game with his shop in New York City's Greenwich Village. The store carries sneakers (for both men and women), skateboard gear, T shirts, and beef (just kidding, but the shirts are displayed in a fridge where you would find cuts of meat). We caught up with Dave, our new favorite butcher, and asked him a few questions.

When did the shop open? How did you come up with the name?
The shop opened in November 2003. The reason was because I wanted to make a shop that wasn’t like most stores were in the city. This place is friendly and doesn’t have that kinda vibe where it’s almost like you are in an art gallery. So I partnered up with an old friend of mine who was a pro skater his name is Chris Keeffe and we opened the shop. Chris had the retail background and I had the shop idea and branding for this crazy place. I came up with the name through 2 different avenues; one was that was my tag at the time when I worked at Zoo York was M3AT. Also downstairs from the Zoo office there was a real butcher place called Dave’s Quality Veal I kept saying, "wow I have a store already." That’s how the name came about. Instead of Veal I use the word M3AT based off of my tag.

Who does the buying for the shop?
My manager Kyle Demers does the buying.

Are you planning on doing ecommerce on your website?
I don’t want to do ecommerce cuz I think that sort of waters down your brand if anyone with a computer can click and have it shipped to them. It's kinda boring. I like that fact that we make shirts and if you get it you got it and you have to come to the shop in order to get your meat … simple. I’m trying to keep this going for a while not trying to be a one hit wonder.

What is the difference between the sneaker culture in N.Y.C. and L.A.?
There is no difference. It’s all the same kids. We get the kicks they want, simple. The only difference is the weather. Ours sometimes sucks …

Dave's Quality Meat is located at 7 East 3rd Street in Manhattan