On Saturday morning, barely 24 hours after East End Meat Market opened its doors for the first time in Greenport, owner Joey Lisowy tried to take a minute to talk with a reporter.

It was not easy.

Customers kept walking through the door of the previously vacant storefront on First St., next to Flavor Fork, and stopping in front of a gleaming display case filled with steaks, chops, sausages, chicken breast and other cuts. Friends popped in. People Lisowy knew from around town arrived to shop. Others simply wanted to see what the new place was all about.

“Yesterday was just to stop by,” Lisowy joked as another group came through the door. “Today we’re shopping. I like it.”

For Lisowy, who grew up here and graduated from Mattituck High School in 2016, the crowded little shop was the unlikely culmination of a career path that began with a data science degree, took a sharp turn aboard a fishing boat and eventually made him the guy local hunters called when they needed a deer butchered.

Lisowy attended Suffolk County Community College for two years before finishing college at SUNY New Paltz. He graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, expecting to find what he called a “real job” using his data science degree. Instead, a friend offered him a summer job running a fishing boat.

Lisowy, already an avid hunter, jumped at the chance. When fishing season wound down, he needed something to do during the winter.

“So I started butchering everybody’s deer,” he said, and started a deer processing service.

There was no culinary school or apprenticeship. Lisowy largely taught himself with YouTube videos.

“The first ones weren’t pretty,” he said with a smile. “But the more you do something, the more it becomes second nature.”

He got plenty of practice. During his busiest seasons, Lisowy said, he was processing hundreds of deer a year, including animals donated through Southold Town’s Venison Donation Program. Those deer were ground into meat and delivered to local food banks.

Lisowy traces his interest in being a butcher to his father, whom he described as an excellent Italian cook, while crediting his mother with the business instincts that helped him get the store off the ground.

“I pulled that from each,” he said.

The rest of the family pitched in, too. His younger sister, Jenna Lisowy, recalled coming home recently from work in Southold to her family’s Mattituck home — which was empty. She checked her family members’ locations on her phone and discovered that everyone was working over at Joey’s future butcher shop.

She turned around and headed back east to help out. The family cleaned, mopped, organized refrigerators and helped transform the vacant storefront into a working market.

Jenna, whose parents Mike and Renee Lisowy own Wallace Design Center in Southold, handled the window shades, choosing their color and installing solar shades that help protect the refrigerated display case from direct sunlight.

She also helped with some of the shop’s decorative touches. A butcher-block and a wooden Sterling Creek sign came from White Flower Farmhouse in Southold. The shop’s hats were made by The Hat Sauce in Bohemia, and the sign was designed by Reflective Image in Greenport.

Jenna is the youngest of three siblings. Joey is the oldest, with their brother Johnny in between — “the 3 J’s,” as she calls them.

Johnny, who lives in Tampa, happened to be home for a wedding during opening weekend and spent much of Friday helping his brother. Jenna dubbed Johnny and Joey’s friend Christian the opening-day “MVPs.”

The market’s meat is currently sourced primarily from the Midwest, but Lisowy is already preparing to bring a distinctly North Fork product into his case.

He plans to work with NoFo Cattle Co., which raises cattle locally in Peconic. Lisowy said the company produces 100% grass-fed, organically raised beef and he hopes to have some available at East End Meat Market as soon as next weekend.

The local beef will also give customers an opportunity to buy in bulk. Lisowy hopes people will come into the shop, try the beef and, if they like it, consider buying a half or whole animal — filling a freezer while knowing exactly where their meat came from and who raised it.

For now, Lisowy is cutting everything himself and concentrating on retail customers rather than restaurant accounts.

“I want to take care of everybody,” he said.

Judging by Saturday morning, plenty of people were eager to give the new butcher a try.

Among them was Mattituck resident Margaret Topper, whose son went to school with Lisowy and runs NoFo Cattle Co. She came in partly to support someone she had watched grow up — and partly because she believes shops like Lisowy’s have become increasingly rare.

“I just think that we need a butcher,” Topper said. “There’s not many people that hand cut meat anymore. It’s like kind of a lost profession and art.”

Lisowy, meanwhile, was still getting used to seeing a steady stream of people walk through his front door.

“I’ve never felt so famous in my life,” he said.

East End Meat Market is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.