Matthew Katakis - Founder

Born and raised in Astoria, this Queens native’s main passion is food.

Having travelled the world in the pursuit of great tasting food among other things, his mission was to bring it all back to his hood. He started his first restaurant Pita Pan in 2003, which has become a classic, offering the tastiest and freshest Greek cuisine this side of the Atlantic.

Butcher Bar’s inspiration came from a trip to Morocco, where he dined at several restaurant/butcher shops, which guaranteed that the meat specialties prepared there where extremely fresh. He also wanted to expand his endeavors to the purveyor side and supply his restaurants with good meat.

Grass-fed beef and pasture raised animals were the only kind he wanted to dine on and wanted to share this with his friends and family in Astoria. He brought up his idea to his then manager of Pita Pan, Kathy and they began their journey of awareness and education.

A space became available across the street from Pita Pan, and he began to design his new concept. He chose to do Smokehouse BBQ because it was not being represented properly in Astoria, and wanted a way to showcase the meat. Organic and natural vegetables and meat locally sourced from sustainable minded purveyors and farms.

He hopes to one day start a farm in Astoria.