The Quad Cities are blessed with a number of very good neighborhood butcher shops, but in my opinion none are better than Golick's (see map).
Golick's is an old fashioned neighborhood grocery store caddy-cornered from the Genesis Medical Center East hospital. Mike Richards is the owner and he looks like Barney Rubble, only with glasses and a beard. In the spring thru early fall - and even on nice days in the winter - Mike will be outside during the noon hour firing up a grille and cooking steak sandwiches and chicken breast sandwiches on it.
The pork I get from Golick's is the best I've ever tasted. I've never had one piece of bad pork from Golick's. And they have great beef and will stock veal, as well. Mike's main cutter, Ronnie, can cut your steaks to any thickness you want.
About five or six years ago, a food critic from The Washington Post was back in the Quad Cities visiting family and he went over to Golick's to get some steaks for a cookout. He was so mesmerized by the taste and tenderness of the steaks that he went back to Washington, wrote a story about how great the steaks were there. Suddenly, Mike began to get phone calls from people in the Washington D.C. area wanting to order steaks direct.
He would pack up a number of New York Strips, ribeyes, filets and t-bones and pack 'em with dry ice in a styrofoam container and ship 'em off. He was getting something like $120 to $150 a pop for each order. However, the Food and Drug Administration stepped in and said that in order for Mike to do that legally he had to have a full time FDA meat inspector at the store. Since it was going to cost him a minimum of $40K to do that, Mike suspended his meat shipping business.
Golick's also has a "meatloaf mixture" that I use to make my meat loaf that is a mixture of 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground pork and 1/3 ground veal. I use the same stuff to make my meat balls. It's not cheap - about $4.99 a pound, but it's great to eat.
Golick's also carries Webster City Hams, probably the finest hams on the face of the earth. My friend, Paul Zach, who runs The Avenue Bar in Madison, WI, told me that Webster City Hams are the only hams he serves on Christmas. After having one for Thanksgiving one year, I have to agree with him.
I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Golick's in you either live in the Quad Cities, or if you're planning on traveling here in the near future. But bring your cooler!
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