About

The seeds for Uncle Jack’s Meat House were planted when Willie Degel was growing up as the baby of 4 boys in a lower middle-class family in Queens. From a young age, he heard stories about the New York steakhouse and speakeasy owned by his late godfather and great-uncle Jack in the 1920s. Inspired to own his own business one day, he bootstrapped himself from operating a childhood lemonade stand to running multi-newspaper routes, starting a neighborhood handyman service, and then tending bar before opening his first bar and restaurant in 1988 at the age of 20.

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