1. Bio
A graduate of Boston University in Acting and Fine Arts, a career she loved having started out as an actress, today Jennifer is the owner and manager of the latest artisan butcher store in Little Italy in New York: Albanian Meats & Poultry. Custodian and heir to a tradition that has reached the fourth generation, she carries on the family business started in 1923 by her great-great-grandparents. More than 100 years of history encapsulated in a few square metres, where you enter to buy excellent meat, but – in truth – you become part of a piece of history. Halfway between a shop and a museum, photographed by thousands of people and also chosen as a set for mainstream productions, Jennifer’s butcher store survives, almost suspended in time, in the most frenetic city in the world, to tell the tale of a dimension made up of human relationships, the pleasure of sharing good things, a passion for life and a sense of family.
2. The power of dream
It is mysterious and extraordinary to see how the power of a dream works. I was born and raised in the south side of Brooklyn, Passionate about the arts since I was a child, I dedicated my childhood, my adolescence and the first part of my adult life to acting and I had no doubt that this was my dream, my path in life. Then, one morning, my grandfather called me, to ask if I could drive him to run errands for his store. He was 93 years old and until then he still drove all over New York to reach the various suppliers, managed his store completely by himself. Until that day. From then on I began accompanying him, stopping more and more often in the store. Without realizing it, little by little, he passed on his knowledge to me and his dream became mine. I began to feel the magic behind this work clearly. And I’m not just talking about the art it takes to process the meat, I’m talking about the great community, the sense of neighbourliness, humanity and belonging I saw originating within those walls. Suddenly I felt that I had the power and the mission to save that way of being: an entire approach to existence, which took shape around a steak, but was really so much more. Perhaps some dreams are so powerful as to be able to pass, genuinely, from one generation to another and their strength is so extraordinary as to make you completely change your life, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
3. My journey into real beauty
My journey towards beauty, I believe, is an incredibly two-way journey: one extremely private, personal, linked to my family and my history, the other made of sharing human relationships, a sense of community and history that survives the test of time. What my grandfather, his mother and my great-grandparents did is something remarkable and people need to know about it. I thought I wanted to be on the stage, interpreting the lives of others, but perhaps I was preparing to tell the extraordinary story of my family every day, to those who come to my store, and, with it, the history and memories of this neighbourhood, of this city. And I’m not just talking about objects, recipes, anecdotes and news stories: what I see happens when people enter here is that they transform. It is as if, crossing that threshold, they automatically feel part of all this. This store gives back to every person the feeling of feeling recognised, of really existing as a human being. For a few minutes they become part of an iconic break. And it has nothing to do with vanity, it has to do with humanity. In an increasingly fast-paced, homologated world, which requires us to be anonymous, even just sharing who you are going to make dinner for that evening, brings us back to a more human sense of existence. My grandfather, his mother and his grandparents before him lived their whole lives here and there is something we can keep with us, going in and out of Albanian Meats & Poultry: The importance of family, the importance of having something to be proud of and to pour the best part of ourselves into. The importance of being kind and caring about our community. This is my daily journey into beauty, which I hope, in some way, I can also transmit to the lives of those who enter my store.
4. What I’ve learned and won’t let go
What I’ve definitely realised is that we have to learn to do what our instincts tell us. Sometimes life puts you in a place and gives you choices: “You can do this” which may be logical and in line with everything you had planned and to which you had always been committed, “Or you can do this” which appears to have nothing to do with your path, but deep down you feel that it attracts you, it calls you. So, making choices that seem to break with everything you had planned can sometimes open up a new chapter, that is completely unexpected, fun and full of satisfaction. I wasn’t supposed to be here in this place, you’d reasonably have expected this store to close at some point. But there are moments when you realise that you have to do a certain thing, that no one else can do it but you. We must learn to be bold, to trust our feelings. We must never think that we are too small, insignificant or inadequate. Choose what you want and go get it, even if it seems counterintuitive to everyone else. The awareness of this power and the freedom to pursue it is something I hope every woman can have.
