Antonelli Poultry

The front market is a Latino market that has the usual staples plus live chickens in the back that you can pick out and have freshly slaughtered to take home. The chicken processing happens just a few feet away in the same room and if you don’t think the chickens know what’s up, I challenge you to go in there and observe.
I can’t vouch for how the chickens are raised or treated prior to getting to that back death room, but judging on how they’re stressed out, I’m pretty sure those poor chickens want to get the hell out of dodge. The way that this market keeps its chickens reminds me of mass market industrial chicken farms I’ve been to in the Midwest because of how the chickens are stacked up in small space saving cages, freaked out, and shitting on each other. The stench on the days I’ve visited smacked me in the face.
I do love fresh chicken and gave up on buying any kind of grocery store chicken long ago – even the expensive organic kind at Whole Paycheck – bc farm fresh meat just tastes better. However, happy free range chickens that are humanely treated until the bitter end also taste better than Death Row chickens. Wanna guess what kind of chickens I think these are?
Coming here is a mini-​lesson on what happens to your food before it’s processed and wrapped up in an unintimidating piece of plastic wrap and sold by the pound at the grocery store. This place doesn’t seem better or worse or even all that different than most other chicken processors, but I’ve had better. Way better.
Now I want to hug my local chicken farmer.

to get matters straight, I’m not a vegan peta freak, but this place is horrendous. I’m shocked that this place doesn’t get shut down. If you go to the back where the animals are slaughtered, you will see the nastiest sight ever. Animals are crammed into tiny little cages and they are abused no doubt. There is a lot of feces and blood on the floor when we went. Animals were lying in blood and feces! VERY UNSANITARY CONDITIONS… And this place smells like the pits of hell. Yes I’m familiar with butchering poultry I even raise poultry and do it myself, but this place is disgusting. If you want good, clean, well cared for fresh poultry, then go to Baffoni’s in Johnston.
The service here was rude. A Latino girl was servicing us and had no respect or any dignity at all, very ill– mannered. All the workers we saw here were Latinos, not Italian. This place is dirty, filthy, and not humane. The poultry sucks here anyways. Never coming here again. Listen to my advise, go somewhere else, or inform a health inspector please!

If you like your chicken fresh… so fresh that you can look it straight in the eye, then this place is for you.
If you aren’t afraid of the smell and squawking of hundreds of live fowl, then ask to see the back room. The stench is awful (breath through your mouth). Maybe traumatizing for the faint of heart, but seriously interesting to see how your chicken goes from cage to table.
Found it funny and a little disturbing to see a pair of lovebirds in the cage by the register… guess they like their birds in pet and food forms!

This place is not for the faint of heart. I was intrigued by the thought of the freshest chicken possible. I’ve done the CSA thing, made my own ice cream, and I’ve recently become an expert at cutting my whole chicken into eight beautiful pieces… so I thought that this the next step. I also really thought I could handle slaughtering and the smell of blood, but I think I am a little bit traumatized after coming here.
I was invited to go past the counter and the plastic drapes that led into the room with the live chickens and where the slaughtering occurs. It was like no other smell I’d smelled before. I wanted to be tough, but I just had to put my finger up to my nose to dilute the odor or else I was seriously worried I would throw up.
A man came to help me soon enough and asked what I wanted. «A 4-​pound chicken to roast, please,» I told him. He plunged his hand into one of the cages and proudly showed me a terrified white-​feathered chicken that came in at exactly 4 pounds ont he scale. I nodded. Apparently you can watch them slaughter it, but I came back into the front room, safe with the canned items on the shelves and safely separated by glass from the butchered chicken pieces on display.
There were a couple other people waiting, and still it only took about 5 – 8 minutes for my chicken, warm and wrapped in a plastic bag, to emerge.
Word to the wise: You must indicate if you want the feet and head removed or else THEY WILL NOT REMOVE THEM FOR YOU. I had the pleasure of tearfully hacking off those vital body parts and then screaming at my hands, «What have you done??»
I’m not including my horror or trauma in the stars of my star-​rating, but I thought that I’d add it to the review to prepare anyone similar to me for this… experience. What Antonelli does, they do well. Good service, and really decent prices ($ 10.60 for my fresh-​as-​ever 4-​pound chicken).
I am docking two stars, though, because the chicken turned out to be pretty dry and sinewy. I’ve used the same method of roasting chicken for over a year, and the birds invariably turn out moist and wonderful. The only variable here was the chicken itself, and I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t inedible, or even that bad. It just wasn’t great. The breast meat, and even the thigh meat, was pretty stringy.

The freshest chicken in Providence. Slaughtered on spot. The chicken in front part of store on ice is just as fresh but I always go to back and pick what I need. Prices are same as most Super markets and it tastes so much better fresh. Most people in the city and even the country do not eat chicken that has been killed the same day or for that matter hours.
I have been going since it was run by the original Italian family, it is now owned by a Spanish family. They will cut it the way you want, all same price per lb.
When I was young my father and grandfather would buy about 5 – 15 live ones at a time and we had a small coop in garage, my grandfather would feed them his special Sicilian chicken mystery mix of grains oils, black molasses and??, for a few weeks and do his own butchering.
When it was the original family my grandfather would supply the owner with Sin-​ya-​deen? mushrooms (hen of forest) as well as brown oak and yellow oak mushrooms when in season. Back then and even now to most «old school» Italians, and chefs these wild mushrooms are like gold.
My Papa would trade mushrooms for chicken but also guinea hens, which he liked the most. They have a stronger taste that many people love or hate.
Try one with some wild mushrooms in late summer early fall or with a rabbit. Or buy a big old fatty chicken and make the freshest Italian chicken cacciatore in town or my personal favorite marinated then broasted fried chicken in a pressure fryer.
You really can tell the difference from fresh and Supermarket «fresh».

There’s nothing like this in Providence. In fact, there’s nothing like this in any of the big cities even. Well… maybe there’s one in every Chinatown but you’d find it hard to communicate what you want to them. These people however are used to dealing with Americans and so you stand a chance of getting what you want…
What is it that you want at this place? Live poultry. Chickens, rabbits, ducks, geese, etc. If you don’t want them live, they will be more than happy to dress the animal for you. Feathered, chopped up, and gizzards left in the bag for you. FRESH and WARM.
Even if you don’t buy anything, this is a place to go see. I think everyone should know the face of their meat and how it gets prepared. It provides a greater respect for the process of sacrifice. I think it’s better when you buy an animal live and do it yourself, but there’s vicarious experience to be gained here by just watching. Alternatively, the entire ordeal is a spectacle. Look out for the washing machine-​type/​centrifuge device used to spin off all the feathers of the dead bird.
For those looking for Silkies, this is the place to get them. Silkies are a black-​skinned chicken often used in medicinal Chinese broths. They carry everything here. It’s worth your time to check it out, though it does get a little bit dirty and smelly in the back… then again… what do you expect? If you’re expecting clean white tile floor lining a room that smells of spring daisies, you ought to be a vegetarian.
Bottom line: Check it out… at least once.

Yes sir, I’d have to agree top knotch with the two guys below me. Antonelli’s is THE place to go for wicked fresh poultry. You just can’t get any fresher than here.
I remember coming here as a young kid with my grandfather and he had bought chicken. I was shocked to witness «fresh» chickens in the back room being made right there in front of you. Antonelli makes their poultry right there on the spot which is the reason why they’re the best. Not so much for other guys who just import from unknown warehouses/​butcher places — Antonelli get’s everything themselves.
My mother usually gets poultry here on her own so I haven’t been in there in ages, but the meat is always fresh no matter what.
FIVE stars for the classic «sharp edge» Antonelli!

guy at the counter is super friendly, and this place has been around for a hundred and something years!
notice how the word ‘fresh’ comes up a lot in the previous reviewer’s review… he does mean it. walk into the back of the store, and you’re in for a surprise that you can kind of smell from the front of the store, but you aren’t quite ready for…
you then tell them what you want, and it gets ‘prepared’ while you wait! you can even watch!
its somewhat barbaric, but… it really doesn’t get fresher than this! you can find quail, partridge, several types of chicken and duck, rabbit… it certainly is very different from going to a grocery store.
beware vegetarians and animal lovers, stay away!

Butcher Shop.
Wide range of fresh meats to choose from. Friendly service at the counter.
I searched the city for fresh Rabbit, and this was the only place I found that has rabbit meat. Fresh.
Notice the word «Fresh» being used alot. Understand?