obrigado aos argentinos ainda a melhor carne disponivel no brazil

Beef From Creekstone Farms Impresses New York Chefs
Larry W. Smith for The New York Times
About 1,000 cattle are butchered each day at Creekstone Farm’s processing plant in Arkansas City, Kan. More Photos >

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CloseLinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink By GLENN COLLINS
Published: March 23, 2010
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan.

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Plant Tour: Creekstone Farms
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Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
The Shake Shack chain uses beef from Creekstone Farms, as do many high-end restaurants in New York. More Photos »
FAIR warning to anyone repulsed by succulent sirloin, robust rib-eye, primal porterhouse and tender T-bone: Avert your eyes. The following report is definitely not your meat.

Over the past 18 months, tender, flavorful Black Angus beef from an ultramodern plant amid table-flat farms dotted with pecan groves and patches of green winter wheat has roiled steak-and-burger-mad New York.

Out of nowhere, seemingly, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef has challenged established red-meat royals like Niman Ranch, selling as much as four times more meat, by some estimates. Creekstone meat is served at many of the city’s high-profile restaurants, including Babbo, Balthazar, Café Boulud, China Grill, Del Posto, Pastis, Porterhouse New York and the Standard Grill, as well as the Shake Shack burger joints. The newcomer mesmerized Marea, Tabla and Primehouse New York into printing its name on their menus.

Indeed, Michael White, the chef and an owner of Marea, along with Alto and Convivio, can’t say enough about “the taste and the tenderness” of this arriviste protein, which he calls “a very superior product.” Nonbelievers, on the other hand, view Creekstone’s ascent as a triumph of canny marketing and tenacious salesmanship.

Inarguably, the Johnny Appleseed of the brand in the tough-to-crack New York City market has been Mark Pastore, the chief operating officer of Pat LaFrieda Wholesale Meat Purveyors Inc., the exclusive distributor for Creekstone in the Northeast. In any given week LaFrieda, with more than $40 million in annual revenues, pays $300,000 to $400,000 for two loads of meat shipped from Arkansas City, just north of the Oklahoma border.

“I shake the hands and kiss the babies,” said Mr. Pastore, 35. His method for motivating many top restaurants to try Creekstone, he said, was just to be in their face “with terrific beef.”

Beyond being a testament to Mr. Pastore’s baby-bussing prowess,