Restaurant makes handbags from the cow you eat

Forget about plunking down thousands of dollars and putting your name on a yearlong waiting list - to score New York's latest "it" bag, you're encouraged to eat the cow it comes from first. Sold exclusively at the Williamsburg restaurant Marlow & Sons, Breton tote bags boast supple leather and a price tag that ranges from $300 to $400.

But buying one isn't so easy. "We are keeping it really small, and for our customers at the restaurant who have eaten those animals," Breton designer Kate Huling, 32, said.



The latest in farm-to-table-to-closet fashion, the leather goods are crafted from the tanned hides of the same locally sourced, grass-fed cows and pigs served at Marlow & Sons, an eatery and dry-goods store, and at sister eateries Diner in Williamsburg and Roman's in Fort Greene. "[Look at] how quickly you can eat a burger, and that animal sacrifice for you is just gone.

Whereas with the bag, that's something that can last for generations and generations," said Huling, whose husband, Andrew Tarlow, runs the trio of restaurants and a butcher shop with partner Mark Firth. "We're interested in people having another opportunity to really honour the animal." They receive 10 to 20 bags every couple of weeks, but "that's not what's motivating us, just selling out," Huling added. "We're really interested in people coming and eating here, and being a part of the whole process."