Under normal circumstances, Buenos Aires' San Telmo market is a crush; grocery-shopping locals zip among throngs of tourists. During the pandemic however, commercial flights in and out of Argentina disappeared for 7 months, meaning I had a unique opportunity to shadow the men who work at the market's central, iconic butcher shop. While the stalls around them have been sold and re-tooled for tourism, this locale endures. Huge slabs of beef hang between artisanal beer and high-end coffee joints. Between them, the two owners have over 100 years in the job. They are joined by a part-time butcher who reduces an entire cow to pieces that will fit in the freezer and a youth who hangs around the edges, cleaning, running errands, and checking his cell phone. The stall closes at 6, but they don't finish dispatching cutlets, bleaching the counters, or counting their money until well after closing time. After that comes a glass of Malbec, for the next day they do it all again.