Orlando Sanchez - Chef/Butcher

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Orlando had never heard of Astoria and Queens was a place only familiar to him in Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America.”

Classically trained in one of Austin’s top culinary programs at ACC, his passion is classic Southern BBQ. His desire was to evolve his favorite classic BBQ dishes and infuse them with his new found culinary knowledge.

He has worked at Texas legend – Uncle Billy’s – and moved to New York City to bring his style up North. Upon arrival he landed a job at Mable’s Smokehouse in Williamsburg, but yearned to cook his style of BBQ. A chance meeting with Kathy and Matthew one night in a bar, and a couple beers later, and the rest as they say is BBQ history.

Orlando’s hard work was recently recognized by restaurant review titan Zagat, when he was listed in their “30 under 30 Up and Coming Restaurant Stars.” Butcher Bar also received high honors by Zagat. They were given the title of best BBQ in Queens in 2012. Austin and Astoria are both proud.