Road Tips

Nueske's Meats - Wittenberg, WI

I usually don't go out of my way when to go to a specific place when I'm out on the road, but there's one place in northern Wisconsin that I've wanted to go to for a long, long time.  Their smoked applewood bacon is used by some of the top gourmet chefs and burger places in the nation, their smoked hams are some of the finest out of the Midwest, and their retail shop selling their meats, cheese and gift boxes has been a destination for years and years.  This is the story of my visit to Nueske's Meats outside the small town of Wittenberg, WI.  

The Nueske (pronounced NEW-ski) family has been in the smoked meat business for 3 generations.   But before that, the Nueske's were well-known in their native Germany for smoked meats.  Wilhelm Nueske's smoking technique was passed down to his son John who immigrated to America in the early 1880's.  John's son Robert (known as "Bob" or "R.C.") learned the family's applewood smoking technique of selecting the best lean meats, how to blend spices for curing, and how to get applewood to smoke at the right temperature for period of about 24 hours.

During the height of the Depression, R.C. came to the realization that there was no outlet for quality smoked meats in the area.  He started his own delivery truck - Bob's Fancy Meats - where he would sell his smoked bacon, hams and poultry to friends, family, and, eventually, general stores across northern Wisconsin.  It wasn't long that demand from supper clubs and vacation lodges in Wisconsin, the upper peninsula of Michigan and over into Minnesota were clamoring for Nueske's bacon.  R.C. built up his business to the point where people would come to Wittenberg to get their smoked meats rather than R.C. having to depend solely upon deliveries.  

Pictured right - R.C. "Bob" Nueske next to his original delivery truck.  Photo courtesy Nueske's.  

In 1949, R.C.'s wife Marie gave birth to their first son, Jim, and three years later, another son, Bob was born into the family.  Both Jim and Bob were literally brought up in the smoked meat processing business.  And when R.C. Nueske passed away unexpectedly in 1975 at the age of 59, Jim and Bob took over the business when both were in their 20's.  Jim was in charge of sales while Bob was in charge of operations for Nueske's.

When they took over, Nueske's was really nothing more than the "mom-and-pop" business their dad had started a little over 40 years before.  They had just 15 employees when they decided to expand their business.  In order to distribute beyond the Midwest, the Nueske brothers had to upgrade to make their food processing and smoking facilities complaint with government regulations.  In 1979, Jim and Bob Nueske heavily borrowed to expand the plant and hired more people.  

Nueske's bacon was sort of an underground secret among chefs, gourmands and food enthusiasts.  In 2000, the New York Times blew the secret of Nueske's out of the water when one of their food critics called Nueske's "the beluga (caviar) of bacon".  The article increased demand for Nueske's bacon across the nation.  Further expansion of the plant in 2006 more than doubled their production facilities.  By the mid-2010's, Nueske's employed over 150 people.

In 2009, Jim Nueske died unexpectedly at his home in Wittenberg at the age of 59.  Bob continued on as the C.E.O. of the company until he died from complications from a knee replacement in 2015 at the age of 67.  Bob and his wife, Darlene, also owned the Liberty Lodge in Sister Bay, WI in Door County.  Their daughter Tanya took over as C.E.O. of the Nueske family of businesses upon the death of her father and continues to run the companies today.   

It was a beautiful fall Wisconsin day when I pulled into Nueske's parking lot.  Their facility is located just east of Wittenberg near the exit of Grand Ave. and US Highway 45/Wisconsin State Highway 29.  (see map)   The rustic looking Company Store looked a little weathered, but there was a steady stream of people going in and out of the building.  Behind the Company Store was Nueske's processing plant.  It was the height of deer hunting season in Wisconsin and processing deer meat is big business for Nueske's. 

Off to the west side of the main building is Nueske's Schoolhouse Market, a general store that specializes in Wisconsin- made items such as candles, soaps, clothing items, and other gifts.  The Schoolhouse Market is just that - it's a restored schoolhouse that was originally built in 1882.  It wasn't open that day and that's fine, I wasn't interested in going in.  

And next to the schoolhouse is the original stone smokehouse that the Neuske family used after immigrating to America in the late 19th century.  I don't know if this was the original site of the smokehouse or if it was moved to its present location.  

Walking into Nueske's, the meat counter is located on the right.  It was filled with smoked meats such as bacon, sausage, ham and jerky.  They also had steaks, pork chops, ground meats and poultry available for sale.  I lingered by the meat counter for a while and went back later on during my visit.  

And, of course, since it's Wisconsin, there has to be cheese for sale.  There were multiple varieties of different styles of cheese from dairies across the state.  Gift packs of cheese and sausage were available at Nueske's Company Store and on-line.  

In a room off to the side were more items to choose from.  They had artisan pickled vegetables and eggs, syrups and sauces, egg noodles, cheese popcorn and candy.  The narrow aisle was barely big enough for two  people to walk side-by-side, let alone to stop and check out everything on the shelves.  

The freezer section had smoked hams, bacon and other meats.  It was there that I found one of the things I was looking for - one-pound tubes of Nueske's corned beef hash.  I'd read about the Nueske's corned beef hash and how good it was.  I bought 4 lbs. of the corned beef hash to take home.  (I had a cooler with me knowing that there was a good chance that I would get up to Nueske's on this trip.)  

Past the freezer section I found a couple more things in a cooling case - Nueske's famous applewood smoked bacon and their applewood smoked pepper bacon.  Except they had five pound bags of seconds of both - end cuts of bacon slabs, too thick of cut bacon, and too thin sliced bacon.  I've bought the seconds bacon from Usinger's in Milwaukee from time to time and found that it's an excellent value, if you can get past the fact that some pieces are longer than others.  Hey, it all tastes the same as the packaged "A" goods!  For good measure, I also picked up a couple three 12-ounce packages of the regular applewood smoked bacon.  

I went back to the meat counter and had my eye on getting some of the smoked pork chops.  For some reason I didn't pick any up.  I'm still kicking myself for that.  But, then again, I can go back at some point, or simply order some up for deliver from their website.  

Then down at the end of the meat counter, they had beef jerky.  The peppered-beef jerky certainly caught my eye and when one of the young ladies behind the counter asked if she could help me, I said, "Yeah, sure.  I'm looking at getting some of the peppered-beef jerky."  She asked me if I want a pound or two of the jerky - it was something like $27.99 a pound, so I asked her if I could just get a handful.  Her handful yielded about a 1/3 of a pound of the peppered-beef jerky.  I figured I have some as a snack on the way over to Green Bay, about an hours drive away.  No more than 3 or 4 pieces, tops.  

After paying for the stuff I picked up and putting it on a cooler in my trunk, I took the beef jerky and put it on the seat next to me.  From the first bite, I knew I had made a mistake.  The peppered-beef jerky was unbelievable!  It had a bit of a spicy bite, but the jerky was easy to chew and had a great smoky flavor.  It was some of the best beef jerky that I'd ever had.  

And that was the problem.  The jerky was so good that I was inhaling it.  It's amazing how quickly 1/3 of a pound of peppered beef-jerky can disappear as one drives down the road.  It was soooooo tasty!  

But it was also sort of like eating Sterzing's potato chips - they're so good, but after a while your stomach is telling you that you should have maybe stopped eating them 15 minutes prior.  (Click here to see a Road Tips entry that talks in length about Sterzing's potato chips).   Like Sterzing's, the peppered-beef jerky laid in my stomach for hours.  

After I got home, I split up the bacon into 10 one-pound bags and vacuum-sealed them to freeze.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the applewood-smoked peppered-bacon just after the first of the year.  It was almost like eating peppered-pork jerky, it was so damned good.  The applewood smoked bacon really has a forward smoky taste - but it doesn't overpower the overall taste of the bacon.  It's more of an enhancement to the flavor of the bacon.   

The corned beef, I'm still not sure about.  I made up a pound of it with some veggies and scrambled eggs that we ate on for a few days.  I like making my own corned beef hash out of a slab of cooked corned beef.  I just didn't get much of a corned beef flavor with Nueske's corned beef hash.  But I'm going to try it again - I do have 3 pounds of it left over.  Maybe I'll make a casserole out of a pound of it.  

I'd always wanted to visit Nueske's and while I did have to drive about an hour or so out of my way, it was worth the visit.  The peppered-beef jerky and the applewood smoked peppered bacon were outstanding.  And the regular applewood smoked bacon that Nueske's is famous for is some of the best bacon I've made in my house.  I'm still kicking myself for not getting any smoked pork chops, but that would be a great reason to go back.  That, and - next time - getting at least a pound of Nueske's peppered-beef jerky.  

Or maybe two pounds...

Edgewood Locker - Edgewood, IA

My mother-in-law's longtime companion died unexpectedly in his hometown of Strawberry Point, IA a few weeks ago and my wife and I went up to the funeral that was held on a hot Monday morning.  After the burial at a local cemetery and the fellowship lunch in the basement of the church where the funeral service was conducted, we decided to head out back toward the Quad Cities.  But - and as bad as this may sound - the ulterior motive of going to the funeral was that we had to make a stop in the small town of Edgewood, IA - about nine miles from Strawberry Point - so we could pick up some meat from the Edgewood Locker.

Tom Kerns started out his post-military life as a young farmer.  He and his new bride, Joan, lived on a farm near Oelwein, Iowa for three years before moving to the Edgewood area to farm there in 1961.  Tom continued to farm while Joan was a registered nurse.  In 1966, an opportunity to buy a small meat locker in downtown Edgewood came about and the Kerns jumped on the opportunity.  Initially, there were just two employees - one full-time and one part-time.  But within four years, the Kerns grew the business and they had to relocate to an old creamery on the north side of Edgewood.  With the help of their sons Terry and Jim, the family renovated the creamery into a meat locker/butcher shop.  

Terry and Jim joined their parents as partners in the business in 1980 and over the next 15 years they expanded the business into specialty meats, catering, venison processing and they opened a retail meat counter during this period.  As their reputation grew, so did the need for a larger facility.

In the spring of 1997, the Kerns family moved into a new facility - their present day facility - on the west side of Edgewood.  (see map)  This allowed them to add more employees (they have over 40 full-time employees today and 50 more seasonal or part-time employees) and to expand their offerings.  In 2013, the Kerns family purchased an event center in downtown Edgewood for weddings and other special events.  (They have since divested themselves of that facility.)  And in 2014, Terry Kerns daughter, Katie Anderson, bought a share of the Edgewood Locker making it a three-generational business.  In 2015, Jim's daughter, Baili Maurer, bought into the business, and in 2017 her brother, Payson Kerns, joined the business as a partner.  After the death of patriarch Tom Kerns in 2018, Terry Kerns' son, Luke, bought into the business.  

The Edgewood Locker is probably most famous around the state of Iowa for winning hundreds of awards primarily from the Iowa Meat Processors Association in conjunction with the Iowa State Fair for their specialty meats such as their smoke cured bacon and ham, dried beef, smoked turkey and pork chops, bratwurst, and meat and cheese snack sticks.  Since 1985, the Edgewood Locker has won over 200 awards and is annually recognized for their achievements by both professional and private associations.  

My step-son found out that we were going to go over to the Edgewood Locker from the funeral and he decided he would follow us over to take a look around.  We got there about 1:30 in the afternoon and there were a surprising number of people parked in the lot and shopping around in the store.  The numerous awards the Edgewood Locker has won over the years are proudly displayed on the knotty pine walls behind the main counter and over the refrigeration and freezer units that hold the fresh and frozen meats the locker sells.  

I had brought a cooler along with us so we could cold pack the meat for the 2.5 hour drive back to the Quad Cities.  And I wanted some of their bratwurst.  My wife had been up to visit her mother earlier this spring and she stopped into the Edgewood Locker and picked up a couple packages of their sweet onion brats, as well as their "very garlic" bratwurst.  I hadn't had Edgewood brats for quite sometime and I forgot how great they were when I cooked them up on the grill a week or so after she brought them home.  

I made a beeline to the refrigerated case that held the nearly 3 dozen different flavors of brats the Edgewood Locker has available.  I immediately found some of the sweet onion brats and the garlic brats and threw them in the basket.  Something else caught my eye - the craft beer and cheese bratwurst.  I grabbed a couple four packs of those, as well.  

I didn't want to go overboard with the brats, but the jalapeño and cheddar bratwurst was tough to pass up, as were the whiskey and peppercorn brats.  I thought twice about getting a pack or two of the horseradish and cheddar brats, as well as the mushroom and Swiss cheese bratwurst.  But I had six packages of brats already and thought that would be enough for now.  

While we were there, I saw a sign that showed a number of retail outlets from Central Iowa to Eastern Iowa that sold Edgewood Locker meats.  My step-son lives in a small town near Tipton, north and west of the Quad Cities and he said, "Oh, yeah!  The Family Foods store in Tipton has all different kinds of Edgewood brats and meats."  We saw that a couple places in towns close to the Quad Cities had some Edgewood Locker meat and we figured we'd check those place out at some point.  

They had a "seconds" or a close-out section at Edgewood Locker and I found a pack of cheese hot dogs that I picked up.  I like hot dogs at home from time to time and I've had some of the hot dogs over the past few weeks.  They have a great snap to the casing, but the cheese usually cooks out and the hot dogs are very salty.  Maybe that's why they were "seconds".

I knew their smoked pork chops were very good - the Edgewood Locker has won numerous awards for their smoke pork chops over the years.  I picked up two of the 2-packs hoping to have them sometime soon.  My wife isn't too whippy on smoked pork chops as most of the ones we've had in the past have been too salty.  However, I seem to remember the smoked pork chops from Edgewood Locker not being all that salty.  

As I was getting ready to check out, I went back to the fresh meat case and found a couple packages of rib-eye steaks.  Thinking that those would be good to have with dinner that night, I picked two packs up thinking there was just one in each pack.  But when I got home that night and cut open the first of the two packs, I found that there were two thin-cut, breakfast-style rib-eyes inside.  They were probably better for sandwiches, but I went ahead and cooked the two on the grill for my wife and I that night.  And they were delicious.  

We passed up getting some of their great bacon - we had a bunch of bacon in the freezer back home that we needed to worry about before getting more bacon.  But they have about 10 different styles and flavors of bacon to choose from at the Edgewood Locker.  

And any type of pork or beef cut that you could imagine are available at the Edgewood Locker.  As I was checking out our basket of meat, my step-son inquired about getting a brisket to smoke at his house.  They had a 15 pound full brisket - flat and point cut combined - for $5.59 a pound.  I told him that the proper way to smoke a brisket is about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes per pound at about 230 to 240 degrees (F).  I even said that I'd go in on one with him if he wanted to split it out.  They lady behind the counter said that they could separate the flat and point cuts in back.  But the more my step-son thought of it, he finally declined.  "Sometime," he said.  "But I'm not ready to commit to that amount of time on a cut of meat like that."  

We got out of the Edgewood Locker spending just under $80 bucks on brats, hot dogs, pork chops, ground beef and rib-eye steaks.  And my wife didn't even pick out any of the beef or cheese sticks the Edgewood Locker is famous for!  I had brought a 33-quart cooler with us and it was packed nearly full once all the meat packs were transferred into it.  And we still needed to put some ice in it to keep the meat cool during the drive home.  As I said earlier, I don't want to say that I had an ulterior motive to going to the funeral in Strawberry Point, but let's just say that the stop at the Edgewood Locker made the day much more palatable - in more ways than one...

City Butcher and Barbecue - Springfield, MO

In Springfield, MO earlier this year, I sought out a place that I had read about in a local magazine on a previous visit there. This place was a combination artisan butcher shop and a Texas-style barbecue place - two of my favorite places to visit.  It sounded intriguing enough for me to give City Butcher and Barbecue a try.  

Jeremy Smith and Cody Smith both grew up in small towns outside of Springfield, but they weren't related, nor did they know each other growing up.  Both studied at the prestigious (and now closed) Le Cordon Bleu culinary school - albeit at two different locations - and both had held positions at high-end restaurants around the U.S. before moving back to Springfield.  Jeremy Smith was the sous chef at Metropolitan Farmer, a farm-to-fork organic restaurant in Springfield, while Cody Smith was the man behind Le Cochon Charcuterie, a popular artisan meat vendor at a local farmers market.  

Cody Smith actually had a background working as a manager of a barbecue restaurant in his teens.  After attending culinary school, Cody found himself working in Austin at actress Sandra Bullock's now-shuttered Bess Bistro.  It was during his time in Austin that Cody discovered that central Texas barbecue was significantly different than the barbecue he was used to growing up in southwest Missouri.  It was all about the quality of the meats and not necessarily about the sauces or rubs.

Pictured right - Jeremy Smith (left) and Cody Smith (right). Photo courtesy Feast Magazine.  

Once they decided to partner in their butcher shop/barbecue joint venture, Jeremy Smith and Cody Smith traveled to Austin to visit the artisan meat shops and the famed barbecue joints of the city to learn more about the style of barbecue they wanted to bring to Springfield.  They learned about the proper way to season the meat (mainly just salt and pepper), smoking techniques, and how to properly carve the meat.  Cody Smith came up with a number of different types of sausages, cured meats, and unique selections such as duck pastrami to sell in their artisan butcher shop.  The two found a space that housed a former restaurant in the Kickapoo Corners shopping center along S. Campbell Ave on Springfield's south side and opened City Butcher and Barbecue in December of 2014.  (see map)

(In August of 2016, the Smith's opened a satellite restaurant operation - CB Social House - in downtown Springfield.  It wasn't long after the place opened that Jeremy Smith sold his stake in both City Butcher and Barbecue and CB Social House to Doug Riddle who had been the brewmaster at Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield.)

It was around 1 p.m. when I pulled into the lot in front of City Butcher and Barbecue.  The parking lot was full and I was having a bit of trouble finding some place to park.  I thought that it must be a pretty popular place to eat.  But going inside the restaurant, I found it to be less than half full and figured that people must be shopping or eating at other establishments in the shopping center.  

Inside the entry way was an ordering area with the menu on a chalk board on the wall.  Tubs of beer were near the counter and they also had beer on tap.  City Butcher and Barbecue will stay open until the smoked meats run out for the day.  

Around the corner from the ordering counter was the artisan meat counter.  It was small and had exotic sausages and meats, but not a lot of them.  

The dining room was on the same side as the meat counter.  It was a long, narrow space with wooden booths and a long communal table in the center of the room.   There were some picnic tables out in front of the place for outdoor dining, but they were empty that day.  

The drill to order food was a bit confusing.  With any new barbecue place that I find, I like to order a combination platter of two or three meats to try with a couple of sides.  Only at City Butcher and Barbecue, they didn't offer any combo plates.  They sold their smoked meats by the pound or in any increment under a pound, but I didn't want to order up a quarter pound of this and a quarter pound of that.  

They had a brisket and pork belly specialty sandwich on the menu along with an option to get a couple of pork ribs.  Evidently, they had sides available on the menu, but I didn't see the options.  They cut the ribs, pork belly strips and brisket in front of me and placed the sandwich and the ribs on a platter.  I got a beer to go along with the barbecue and took a seat in a booth along the wall of the dining area.  

I pulled the brisket and pork belly - two pieces each - off the sandwich.  The brisket was, in a word, heavenly.  It had a great smoked flavor to it, the salt and pepper rub helped enhance the taste of the beer, it was tender and pulled apart very easily.  It was some of the best brisket I'd ever had.  The ribs were equally as good as the brisket.  The pork meat easily pulled away from the bone on the two pieces I got.  The ribs, too, had a great smoky taste to them, but it wasn't overpowering.  

The disappointment was the pork belly.  The pork was excessively fatty.  I was able to pull some meat away from the fat, but there was a lot more fat than meat on the pieces.  The meat that I had was very moist and  flavorful.  But it was just too fatty.  

City Butcher and Barbecue does offer barbecue sauce at the tables, but quite frankly you didn't really need them.  The ribs and brisket were so good with just the simple salt and pepper rub that I didn't feel the need to put any sauce on them.  And nearly every barbecue pit master will tell you that the best barbecue is the kind that you don't need to sauce up.   

My first visit to City Butcher and Barbecue won't be my last. The ribs and brisket that I had were outstanding, but the pork belly that I tried was just too fatty for my liking.  Other than that, City Butcher and Barbecue offered some of the best barbecue I've had in the Midwest.  Their philosophy of having select cuts of meat to smoke, the use of only salt and pepper to season the meat before it's smoked, and keeping the choices as simple as possible all add to the experience of great barbecue.     

Larry's Great Western Meats - Las Vegas (Steaks for 18 People)

When we were in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, our company rented a 9 bedroom - 9 bath villa on the northwest side of Las Vegas for our team to stay in.  It had a large kitchen and a gas grill on the patio so it was natural for us to make a couple of our meals there, especially with the fact that most of us are big meat eaters.  We were going to entertain members of the Focal and Naim Audio staffs one evening - a total of 18 people would be having dinner at our house.  My colleague Ian and I had been looking on line to find a butcher shop that would be a step above a Costco or a local supermarket chain.  Not far from where we would be staying, we found a meat shop that had high marks from online reviews - Larry's Great Western Meats.  

Larry's Great Western Meats has been in business since before 2000 supplying meat to not only the public, but also to a number of restaurants around the greater Las Vegas area.  The Larry behind the name of the business is Larry Hughes.  Well, I should say it was Larry Hughes as he sold his business to Elie Khoury in 2014.  Khoury worked at Larry's Great Western Meats for a number of years before buying the business last year.  

I had appointments first thing on the first day of the show and Ian did not.  He ended up going to Larry's and picking out eighteen 12 to 14 ounce USDA Choice New York strip steaks for our Wednesday night soiree at the house.  When I opened the packages, I found these marvelous steaks all uniformly cut to about an inch and a half in thickness.  They rivaled anything that I could find at a butcher shop back in the Midwest.

I was designated as the grill master for the evening as my reputation (and many pictures that I've sent to my colleagues over the years) of knowing my way around a Weber grill.  However, this was a gas grill that I would be working with - something that I haven't cooked meat on in, well, probably 20 years.  In about five minutes, I had to learn where the hot spots and cool spots were on the grill because I was going to have to cook 12 at a time on the first shift and then the remaining steaks as we served the first round.  

I like to marinate my steaks in a combination of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and cracked black pepper.  For good measure, I asked my colleague Todd to bring some of the "real" Montreal steak seasoning with him to Las Vegas.  And he came through in spades - he brought a couple jars of the original Schwartz's Steak and Beef spice from the famous Schwartz's Deli in Montreal.  (Click here to see my entry on Schwartz's Deli.)  I sprinkled a generous amount of the Schwartz's spice on top of the steaks and let them all sit for about an hour, warming up to room temperature and letting the Worcestershire sauce break down the spices into the meat.  

Our guests began to show up around 7:30 p.m. and it was time to get the fire going.  With the help of my colleague Francois, we got the grill fired up and started to get the grill grates hot.  I made the blanket announcement to the group that I was going to make the steaks medium rare to keep a uniformity.  Even our European guests from France and the U.K. - who generally like their steaks rare - all said that was fine.  

The first set of steaks went on the back burner to sear in the juices.  I was sort of tight-assed as I seared the first batch of steaks, hoping that they wouldn't get overcooked.   Grilling for four or five people - I got that down.  Grilling for 18, not so much.  

After searing the first set of steaks, I put the second five onto the back burner after transferring the seven that had been seared to the cooler front side of the grill.  Things were going smoothly and the steaks seemed to be cooking all right.  I thought to myself, "Hmmm...  I might just pull this off!"

Before and while this was going on with the grilling, some of my colleagues were helping out with the sides and salads in the kitchen.  It was truly a team effort.  My colleague Matt was making bacon for real bacon bits for the salad and then he sliced and sauteed up mushrooms for the steaks, and Ian was making the baked potatoes and heating up the garlic bread.  

Francois chopped up the bacon, onions and cherry tomatoes and mixed it all with chopped lettuce for the salad.  Well, he had to make the salad twice - one of our Canadian colleagues was reaching for a margarita glass in a cupboard above the counter and he accidentally knocked over another glass that shattered on the counter top.  Unfortunately, shards of the glass went into the salad that Francois had just finished making and had set aside for later on.  Fortunately, though, we had enough greens, veggies and cheddar cheese to make another large bowl of salad, but he used up all the chopped bacon for the first salad.  It wasn't the end of the world.  

When the steaks were finished, we served our guests first.  I was really worried that the steaks weren't cooked enough or cooked too much.  But the Europeans - who all love American beef - were very happy with the way that I cooked the steaks.  I would possibly categorize them as "rare-plus", a little more red than a medium-rare pink.  But no one bitched about how they were cooked.  

The look on my colleague Todd's face above right says it all.  He was extremely happy with the taste of the steaks.  He said, "I want to know how you could get 18 steaks to come out all cooked exactly the same."  

I was the last one to eat steak - and I certainly didn't mind.  The steak was tender and very flavorful.  The Worcestershire sauce and spice marinade was a hit with everyone.  I think Ian was a little skeptical, but from the taste of the steaks he was a quick convert.  After our guests left, we revelled in the realization that we pulled off a meal like that.  The beer and wine tasted pretty good that evening.  

We had reservations for 8 people on Thursday night at The Steakhouse at Circus Circus, one of our favorite places to get a steak in Vegas.  (Click here to see the entry on The Steakhouse.)  As we were winding down with after dinner drinks after our guests had left, Ian said, "You know, we ought to just bag the dinner plans for tomorrow night and cook more steaks out here."

I said, "I don't have anything going on in the morning.  Why don't you and I go over to Larry's and get some filets for tomorrow night?"  The rest of the guys were in full agreement that another steak night - even two nights in a row - would be perfect.  

Larry's Great Western Meats is on Valley View Dr., just north of Alta Dr. and about a half mile north of W. Charleston Blvd.  (see map)  From the outside, there's not much to the place.  It looks like a small bunker with a dock for trucks off to the side.  But going inside, it was this wondrous mix of meat, sauces, spices, utensils, wood chips for smoking - anything you'd need to make a great steak on the grill.  

The meat case was chock full of beef in all forms, pork, chicken, and sausage as well as Southwestern and Hispanic specialties.  We were greeted by Elie Khoury, the owner, after we walked in.  Ian had called ahead and asked them to cut up ten 14 to 16 ounce beef tenderloin filets.  Elie was the one who talked to Ian on the phone and he told Ian that it wouldn't be any problem to cut them up when we got there.  They weren't that busy that early in the morning even with all the commercial business they do for restaurants around the Las Vegas area.  

Larry's had a large selection of steak and barbecue sauces, spices and rubs, even high-end cutlery from Victorinox, the people who make Swiss Army knives.  The cooler featured pre-packaged meats and cheese along with juices and jars of pickles.  

As I was standing there, I looked down at one of the shelves and I saw something that stunned me.  They had Country Bob's steak sauce at Larry's!   I exclaimed, "Holy shit!  They have Country Bob's here!"  Now, Country Bob's is my favorite steak sauce - when I use steak sauce.  (Click here to see the entry on Country Bob's.)  Now, I thought Country Bob's was basically a Midwestern product and I didn't expect to see any in Las Vegas, of all places.  However, Elie Khoury told me that they were the only place in Vegas that sold the stuff.  I said, "I have NEVER seen this stuff outside of the Midwest!"

Elie said, "Isn't it great?  I fell in love with it and called them up and they ship me a couple cases each month."  In addition to about three dozen bottles on the shelf, he had a small crate full of Country Bob's next to the meat counter.  Ian inquired if we should get some, but I declined.  If the beef tenderloins were as good as the strip steaks we had the night before, I wouldn't dare putting any steak sauce on them.  

When we had gone on our grocery store trip a few days before, one of the things that I was looking for was Atomic Horseradish - the best horseradish that I've ever tasted.  (Click here to see the entry on Atomic Horseradish.)  We went to two grocery stores and they didn't even have fresh ground horseradish, let alone Atomic Horseradish.  But as I was standing there marveling at the sauces and marinades Larry's had on the shelf, I quickly turned to Elie and said, "Hey, do you have Atomic Horseradish?"  

He said, "Yeah, I think we have some left.  I got some in about 10 days ago.  There should be some in the cooler."  

He came out from behind the meat counter and walked toward the refrigerated cooler.  He found three 6 ounce jars of the Atomic brand horseradish on a shelf.  Ian smiled and said, "Well, there you go!  Gotta have some!"  Atomic Horseradish with my beef tenderloin filet - I knew I would be in heaven that evening.  

We got ten filets that were easily two and a half to three inches thick.  When the guy who was cutting them up asked us if we wanted them bacon-wrapped, we immediately said, "Yes!"  They were so thick that he was able to wrap two pieces of bacon - placed side by side - around the side of the filets.  This was going to be a fun meal. 

Initially, there were only going to be 8 of us as my boss and my colleague John had separate dinners to attend that night with manufacturers.   We figured that two of our rep colleagues from Canada were going to come back out so we went ahead and got ten steaks.  But the two guys from Canada couldn't come back that evening, and at the last moment my boss begged out of his dinner.  He claimed that he was tired, but we think he heard so much about how great the steaks were the night before and he didn't want to miss out on a night of beef and wine at the rental house.    

Ian and Todd hovered over me taking mental notes as I did the Worcestershire sauce and spice marinade as I did the night before.  I was less worried about cooking the steaks this particular evening as we weren't entertaining anyone, plus the fact that I had pulled off cooking 18 steaks the night before.  The experience was less stressful all the way around.   

We started to cook earlier in the evening than the night before as we weren't waiting for all the guests to show up.  My colleagues were ready to eat around 7:30 that evening.  Many pitched in once again - we had some extra potatoes left over from the night before and Ian made sort of a cheese-topped twice baked potato in the oven.  Francois made a salad again.  Matt did the sauteed mushrooms again.  I had picked up a couple loaves of garlic bread earlier in the day from the store.  

Because the steaks were varying thicknesses, some of the steaks turned out rare to medium-rare.  I had my eye on one particular steak all night long and being that I was the grill chef I got to pick out the one I wanted.  It was cooked rare and full of flavor.  With a healthy dollop of Atomic Horseradish - FRESH Atomic Horseradish that just cleared my nostrils and took my breath away on the first taste - this was as good a meal as what I probably would have gotten at The Steakhouse had we gone there instead that evening.  

I got a lot of very nice complements on my grilling skills during and after our two evenings of cooking at home, but the real star of the two events was Larry's Great Western Meats.  When you have cuts of meat that were as good and consistent as what we got at Larry's, it's easy to make them taste good from a grilling point of view.  And it saved us a lot of money in the process.  It was $180 bucks for the ten tenderloin filets - it would have been $55 bucks a pop for a similar steak at The Steakhouse.  And for the eighteen New York strips that we got for the night before, it was $202 bucks.  That's a little over $11 bucks a steak - about a quarter (or more) of the price of what we'd pay in a good Las Vegas steakhouse.  After the dinners, most of us pitched in for clean-up and everything went very smooth.  And everyone was happy - no long waits for a table or service, we could open a new bottle of wine when we wanted more, it was a leisurely and laid-back evening both nights.  We're going to do the house rental thing again for the 2016 CES next year.  The only thing I ask is that the house is close enough to Larry's Great Western Meats so we can do a couple of steak nights again.   

Volpi Italian Meats - St. Louis

Another place that I've written about in the past - a long time ago - is Volpi Italian Meats in St. Louis.  This is a company that is one of the oldest Italian meat companies in the United States.  My previous entry over 8 years ago didn't do the place justice and on a recent visit to Volpi's, I picked up some meat and cheese and got some pictures of the place. 

Giovanni Volpi was a salumiere in his hometown of  Milan, Italy, an Italian meat artisan who dried and cured his own meats to sell to the public.  Hearing that the American heartland was a bountiful place for beef and pork, he left Italy in 1900 to travel to the United States.  He ended up in St. Louis in the city's growing Italian neighborhood, The Hill.  In 1902, "John" Volpi - with partner Gino Pasetti - established his company, the John Volpi Sausage Company, and was making Italian meats with high quality Midwestern raised pork and beef along with using only the finest in spices and seasonings in the meat.  

John Volpi ended up marrying Gino Pasetti's sister, Maria, in 1905.  A midwife by trade, Maria never worked in the meat processing plant.  Volpi and Pasetti continued to make Italian meats and by the mid-1920's, Volpi Sausage Company was nationally known for having some of the best Italian meats in the United States.  

In 1938, Volpi's and Pasetti's Italian nephew, Armando Pasetti, was sent to America to learn the old world art of curing meats from his uncle.  Pasetti, although only 14 years old and only being able to speak Italian when he started with his uncle, quickly learned the trade and took classes at night to learn English.  He eventually took over the company - then known as Volpi Foods - when John Volpi passed away in 1957.  Pasetti updated the facilities and improved the process of making the meats, but he never strayed from the family's standards of excellence in making the meats.    

By the 1980's, Volpi Foods was selling Italian meats across the nation and internationally.  They began to distribute meats to the Schnuck's supermarket chain in the St. Louis area.  You can find Volpi meats in supermarkets in many Midwestern cities today.  

After getting her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and subsequently getting her MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Pasetti's daughter Lorenza joined the company as an assistant bookkeeper.  She eventually began to learn every aspect of the business, from curing and production to distribution and marketing.  She became the General Manager of the company and eventually took over the day-to-day operation of the company when her father retired in 2002 at the age of 78.    

(Pictured right - Lorenza and Armondo Pasetti)

The retail shop for Volpi is located at the corner of Edwards and Daggett on The Hill.  (see map)  This is the original building that John Volpi and Gino Pasetti established their retail meat shop that they called "Uno".  Over the years, Volpi Foods has added on to the original building and as they continued to grow, they bought other buildings near the retail store to do their curing and production work.  

Volpi continues to buy only fresh meat - they only buy from pork and beef producers no more than 350 miles away from St. Louis.  They don't like to freeze the meat - but if they have to, they limit the meat to only two days in the freezer.  Their meat is ground at a low (above freezing) temperature, then allowed to set for awhile in a cold refrigerator before it is ground again at a low temperature.  According to the company, if the meat was ground at a higher temperature, the fat content would "smear" and that would prevent the meat from drying in a proper fashion.  

And Volpi is in no hurry to cure their meats.  While most companies take two weeks to cure pepperoni, Volpi takes up to 6 weeks to cure their pepperoni by using a cold drying process.  Volpi's top seller is their prosciutto and it takes up to nine months of pain-staking drying techniques before it is sold.  Today, the company continues to experiment with new types of meats such as wine-flavored salami and international flavors injected into the meats are starting to show up in Volpi's meat cases.  

 
The retail space for Volpi is not large.  It's a quaint little shop that features all different types of Italian meats, cheese, pastas and other Italian specialties.  Volpi's also has a number of olive oils, sauces and spices on sale, as well. 

Their Milano and Genova salami are their two top selling salamis.  The Milano has more of a spicy and peppery taste, the Genova is more smooth with a forward flavor of old world spices.  I like using the Milano salami when I make my homemade Italian sandwiches.  I picked up some of the Milano salami on this particular visit. 

I also like to use sandwich-sized pepperoni and spicy capicola on my sandwiches.  I made sure to pick up some of both of those meats when I was at Volpi Italian Meats.  The Volpi pepperoni has a slightly salty and spicy taste.  And while the capicola isn't as spicy as I'd like it to be, Volpi still makes a good capicola.  

Rounding out my homemade Italian Sandwich, I like to use provolone.  The cheese case at Volpi features dozens of different styles of Italian cheese.  I had one of the ladies behind the counter slice up about 10 slices of provolone cheese for me.  

Before my visit to Volpi Italian Meats, I stopped off at the Missouri Baking Company (click here to read about Missouri Baking Company) to pick up some of their wonderful sliced Italian bread.  They slice it thin enough for sandwiches or for dipping into olive oil.  I use thin sliced Italian bread for my Italian sandwiches.  (If you're interested in the recipe for my Italian Sandwich, click here.)  

While I was there, I took a look in the freezer case and saw that they had Mama Toscano beef ravioli in there.  I grabbed a 1 pound box of the ravioli that is made not far from Volpi Italian Meats.  My wife doesn't care for ravioli all that much, but I certainly do.  

The only thing that I don't care about Volpi's salami is that it doesn't last all that long once it's been opened.  I bought a pound of sliced salami and I had to throw out a little less than a half-pound about five days later because it had gotten a pretty foul smell.  I'm sure that has to do with their processing of their salami.  Fresh out of the package on the first couple of days, it's tough to beat.  After that, you're on your own.  

Here's a good tip if you're visiting The Hill in St. Louis - take a cooler.  Between picking up some of the best tiramisu at the Missouri Baking Company and getting meats and cheese from Volpi Italian Meats, you'll have a full cooler.  Volpi Italian Meats continues to have an old world feel to what an old world Italian meat market should be like.  Even if you don't like Italian meats - and who doesn't? - it's worth a trip to see a place that is one of the oldest Italian meat markets in America.

Goose the Market - Indianapolis

Earlier this year, I was talking with a guy at one of my dealers in Indianapolis and we were talking about places to buy eclectic beers in the area.  He was telling me about a place that was a wine and beer store not far from his business in near-north Indianapolis - an interesting place with an interesting name - Goose the Market.  He told me that in addition to beers, they also had a butcher shop that sold dry aged steaks and their own artisan meats.  I figured I needed to check this place out at some point.

Then not long ago, I posted a picture on Road Tips' Twitter account of the meal I was having at an Indian restaurant in the Indy suburbs.  One of Road Tips' Twitter followers, the guy who has the wonderful Chicago BBQ King blog site (a.k.a "Smokin', Chokin' and Chowin' with the King") replied back to me and asked if I'd had a sandwich at Goose the Market.  I still hadn't made it there yet and I didn't know that it was also a deli that served sandwiches.  He said it was a "must stop" for him each time he made it down to Indianapolis.  With that kind of recommendation, I made it a point to stop into Goose the Market on my way out of town to grab a sandwich for the road.  

Christopher Eley is a native of Indianapolis who found his passion working in restaurants as a teenager working at one of the Sahm's locations in the area.  A self-professed under achiever in high school, Eley went off to Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts in Providence, R.I., to learn how to be a chef.  He then went to Purdue University where he studied hotel and restaurant management.  

Eley went to Chicago and worked with legendary chef Rick Tramonto (Tru, Tramonto Steak and Seafood, Osteria di Tramanto) and Tramonto's ex-wife - and revered pastry chef - Gale Gand.  Eley tells the story of telling a chef he used to work for - possibly Tramonto - that he wanted to possibly open his own restaurant at some point.  The chef's advice to Eley?  "Give me $500,000 and then I'll punch you in the face.  Then we'll call it even."  

Tired of working for someone else and wanting to get back to Indianapolis, Eley and his wife, Mollie, (pictured right) bought a newly developed building in the Fall Creek Place neighborhood on the corner of Delaware and 25th just north of downtown Indy.  His goal was to have a gourmet butcher shop that focused on selling naturally and locally raised meat products.  Mollie's nickname growing up was "Goose", hence the name - Goose the Market - and they opened for business in October of 2007.  Chris and Mollie made their home on the second and third floors of the building which stood where an old abandoned gas station once sat before the area was redeveloped.  

After awhile, Chris Eley began to sell wine and cheese in his store.  And, against his own better judgement, he eventually began to sell artisan sandwiches in Goose the Market.  A year after they opened, Goose the Market was named by Bon Appetit magazine as one of the 10 top sandwich places in the United States. 

The Eley's eventually began to sell eclectic beers and opened the Enoteca, a small wine bar in the basement of their business that they call the "Goose Cellar".  The downstairs area has seating for 15 people and a seasonal outdoor patio in the back has room for 10 more patrons.  Goose the Market is now a full-service deli that also sells coffee, espresso, pastries and gelato.

Chris Eley's goal was to have his own USDA-inspected facility to smoke and cure the naturally-raised meats that didn't use compounded nitrates in the process.  In 2011, they opened their own meat processing business - the Smoking Goose - that sells handcrafted salami, sausages, cured and smoked meats to restaurants and hotels in the greater Indianapolis area.

I was through with my last appointment in Indianapolis around 10:30 a.m. and I drove over to Goose the Market, finding a parking spot just up the street on Delaware.  (see map)  Walking into the restaurant you immediately see the long counter filled with all different types of meats.  They had 100-day-old aged steaks in the case along with their own smoked and cured meats from the Smoking Goose.  I didn't bring my cooler with me or I would have picked up some salami, capicola and pepperoni for my homemade Italian sandwiches.  

 
On the wall directly opposite the meat counter were boxes filled with a number of locally and naturally raised produce.  The produce is seasonal so you won't see many summer veggies in the produce bins in the wintertime.  

The menu for sandwiches is on one of the blackboards on the wall behind the meat counter.  Their signature sandwich - the Goose - consists of prosciutto, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil on a hard roll hoagie.  The Tatiana featured beef brisket, Emmental Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and topped with a sweet pepper mustard on a hoagie.  And the Stahly had sliced smoked turkey breast, Mascarpone Italian cheese, stewed apples, pink peppercorns and fresh lettuce greens on a hoagie.  

The one that caught my eye, however, was the Batali.  It was an Italian hoagie that featured capicola, soppressata, dry cured capicola (or coppa), provolone cheese, hot giardiniera, tomato preserves, fresh romaine lettuce and sliced marinated red onions.  Actually, it was the one sandwich at Goose the Market the Chicago BBQ King told me was his favorite.  I ordered that from one of the young ladies behind the counter. 

Since they weren't busy, it wasn't long before I got my sandwich.  After paying for it, I asked if I could have a look around the downstairs area.  She said, "Have at it!"  

The Enoteca (from the Italian "wine depository) in the Goose Cellar features a number of bottles of wine for sale.  A large community table with heavy benches on two sides sits in the middle of the wine room for people to use while they're eating sandwiches from the deli upstairs or to sip some wine when the wine bar is open.  Deep well windows let in some natural light into the room to give it a more open and less sub-terranean feel.  

 
Of more interest to me, they had a varied selection of microbrews and imports in the Enoteca.  Many of the microbrews were from Indiana craft brewers such as Three Floyds, Sun King and Oaken Barrel Brewing Co.  Some beers I was familiar with, some were not.  There wasn't anything that jumped out at me that made me want to take something home.  At least, not on this trip.  

The wine bar area of the Enoteca was situated in a small room off to the side of the larger room in the basement. There was a small bar where you can get wines by the glass.  I believe they also sold beer at the wine bar, but I'm not certain about that.  They also offered cheese and charcurterie plates in the Enoteca.  This would be the kind of place my wife would like to go to.  

 
They had a number of package goods available in the wine bar area.  Salsas, jellys and jams, coffees and other packaged goods were available for sale.  

Ah!  The Batali sandwich - the main reason why I went to Goose the Market in the first place.  The hoagie bread had a crunchy outside and a chewy inner core.  The fresh Italian meats were a mix of spicy and robust flavors, but not hot enough to detract from the overall taste of the meats.  The giardiniera was not that hot - at least, to me - but it was a nice accompaniment to the taste of the Italian meats.  The sandwich was good served cold and the flavors of the meats would have probably been enhanced even more if they would have been warmed up - the way I like to make my homemade Italian sandwiches.  I was able to eat one half of the sandwich and the other half kept well for a couple days.  The Batali was as good as the Chicago BBQ King told me it would be.  (You can follow him here on Twitter.)

Goose the Market is one of those little places that makes traveling on the road a worthwhile experience.  Finding a place that is as unique and diverse as the little butcher shop/delicatessen/wine bar on N. Delaware in Indianapolis is a large treat.  The Batali sandwich was very good and the overall vibe to the place was very pleasing.  If you get to Indianapolis at some point, you need to go check out Goose the Market.  Oh, and take your cooler. 

Graziano Brothers Italian Foods - Des Moines, IA

One of the things I like to do on the road is seek out the unique grocery and/or meat markets that are known as institutions to the local populace.  One of those such places is Graziano Brothers on the south side of Des Moines.  It's been awhile since I'd been in Graziano Brothers and I've wanted to do a Road Tips entry on the place.  On a recent visit to Des Moines, I made the time to stop at Graziano Brothers to pick up some Italian meats before I took off for the Quad Cities.

For over 100 years, Graziano Brothers has been making some of the best Italian meats in the Midwest.  It all started in the small Italian village of San Morello in Italy's Calabria region.  Brothers Frank and Louis Graziano yearned for a chance to go to America to escape their impoverished surroundings.  In 1903, Frank and Louis - ages 21 and 17, respectively - made it to America and found their way to Des Moines working for a railroad company.  Working on the railroad was a tough life for the Graziano brothers and eventually it was decided that they would open a grocery store on Des Moines' growing Italian south side.  Louis left the railroad to start the grocery store in 1912 while Frank continued to work at the railroad to support the two while they got the grocery store going.

(Pictured right - Frank and Louis Graziano) 

They found a building at the corner of Jackson and S. Union that used to house a drug store.  Their business neighbors to the south were a cobbler and a tavern.  The Graziano brothers began to make sausage and smoked meats that they learned how to make growing up in San Morello.  The exploding Italian population in South Des Moines - many of whom came from the same areas in Southern Italy as the Graziano's - found that the brothers sausage and meat-making skills were as good as what they could find back home.   

After World War II, the Graziano's got into the wholesale food business in addition to their little grocery store.  The were able to get hard to find Italian specialties such as olive oil, garlic, and Italian spices, and they began to distribute these products to other stores and restaurants.   

In the early 50's, the Graziano brothers retired from running the day to day operation of their little grocery store/market.  Sons Mose, Mike and Gene took over the business and guided it into the salad days of little neighborhood grocery stores in the Des Moines area.  Mose's son, Frank, joined the company in the mid-70's after a stint in the armed forces and took over the business not long after.  

As the 80's came, the Graziano family found that even their famous Italian sausage and meats couldn't keep up with the rapidly changing grocery store scenery in Des Moines.  People who were walking to Graziano's in the 50's and 60's were now driving to larger, more modern grocery stores such as Hy-Vee and Dahl's.  It was in the mid-80's that Frank Graziano decided to make Graziano Brothers a specialty meat and Italian food market.  They were simply ahead of the curve when it came to specialty food stores and if you were looking for Italian cheese and meats in the Des Moines area - whether you were a restaurant owner or someone looking to simply make homemade lasagna - you went to Graziano Brothers.

Frances Graziano, Mike's daughter, joined the family business in 1996 and took over the business when Frank retired in 2000.  Frances had a penchant for good Italian cooking and she added food stuffs such as andouille sausage, sweet Italian sausage, homemade pesto, imported canned goods from Italy, and a wide array of pasta imported from Italy.  But the original Italian sausage recipe, the same one that Louis and Frank came up with when they first opened in April of 1912, is the same today.  And that was what I was looking for when I stopped at Graziano's recently.

With cooler weather coming, I like to cook in the house more often.  I like to make spaghetti with a meat sauce - usually a mixture of ground beef and Italian sausage.  But more than that, I like to make my own Gizmo's - an Italian grinder made with ground beef and Italian sausage that I like so much from Carl's Gizmo at the Iowa State Fair.  (Click here to see the recipe I use to make my own Gizmo's. It's as close as you can get, according to someone who used to work for Carl Cardamon a few years ago.)  Carl's - like other places in Des Moines who make similar sandwiches - uses Graziano's sausage in bulk to make their signature sandwich.  

There's still that old world charm to Graziano Brothers when you walk in the door. Almost immediately, the smell of fresh herbs and spices sitting on the shelf in the first aisle hits your senses.  As you walk down the first aisle, there's an assortment of condiments and salad dressing, imported olives and olive oil, imported aged balsamic vinegars and sauces.  The grocery store also has a number of imported tomato sauces and canned tomatoes including San Marzano tomatoes - the kind I like to use when I make my tomato sauce from scratch - just across the aisle from the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  

 
The bread aisle features a number of fresh baked breads from a local bakery - Amodeo's in suburban Clive .  They also have some artisan breads form South Union Bakery, as well.   Graziano's also has numerous types of domestic and imported pasta, and snack items including cannoli and biscuits.  

The focal point of the place is Graziano Brothers meat and cheese counter.  On their website, Graziano Brothers says there are over 400 different types of cheese that are made in Italy.  They can't possibly offer that much variety in cheese, but they claim to have the staples of Italian-style cheese from fresh Asiago to fresh Parmesan to fresh Mozzarella.

The meat counter isn't all that big, but they have their famous medium-hot Italian sausage in there, as well as prosciutto, salami and mortadella.  My neighbor, Murray, told me that he used to get "wet" salami at Graziano's when he lived in Des Moines years ago and was married to an Italian girl.  "My mother-in-law always told me to get the 'wet' salami rather than 'dry' salami," he told me.  When I told him I didn't know there was a difference in wet versus dry salami, he said, "I didn't either.  That is, until I got the 'wet' salami at Graziano's.  It's killer."  

There didn't appear to be a lot of bulk medium hot Graziano ground sausage in the case and when it came time for me to order I asked the lady behind the meat counter if she had any more on hand.  She sort of snorted a laugh out and said, "Oh, yeah.  I got a lot more than what's in there."  Actually, the last time I went there a few years ago, Graziano's was out of their signature ground sausage.  I ordered up five one-pound packages of the ground Italian sausage.  I figured that I'd freeze them all and use them up one or two pounds at a time.

After she got the sausage for me, I ordered up a quarter pound each of the "moist" salami, spicy cappicola, and pepperoni slices for Italian sandwiches.  I also got 8 slices of provolone cheese from the cheese case.  The only problem is that when I got home, I had Murray come down and we got into the "moist" salami.  He said, "Oh man!  This stuff is great!  You should have brought home a pound of it!"  He was right - it was gone quickly just from just snacking on it.  But the cappicola had a great flavor - some of the best cappicola I've ever had.  It had a great spicy bite to it.  And a quarter pound of pepperoni slices goes a long ways.  I was snacking on pepperoni slices throughout the day for the next couple three weeks.  I never was able to make one of my Italian sandwiches.  

Graziano Brothers has certainly been a fixture on the Des Moines food scene for over a century.  Their famous sausages and Italian meats have fed generations of families over the years.  The specialty Italian market is worth a visit to pick up pasta, olive oil, or tomato sauce.  This is a place that anyone would wish would be in their hometown.   I highly recommend a visit to Graziano Brothers if you get to Des Moines.  And don't forget your cooler.   (Note - Graziano Brothers is closed on Sundays.)

Usinger's - Milwaukee

Usinger's Sausage Factory in downtown Milwaukee is unlike any neighborhood butcher or meat shop you'll find across the Midwest.  It truly is a meat packer that happens to sell their goods in a butcher-style shop.

Usinger's has a rich history in Milwaukee.  Frederick Usinger, a German immigrant who was a sausage maker in Frankfurt, Germany, began to work in a small butcher shop on 3rd St. in Milwaukee.  Within a year, Fred bought the butcher shop, married the niece of the butcher shop owner and began to make his own sausages that many saloon and restaurant owners used in their establishments. 

Fred Usinger

Usinger's secret sausage recipe was by far the best in Milwaukee.  His business grew so much that he was shipping his sausages as far away as New York City.  In fact, the original sausage recipe hasn't changed since 1880, and now the 4th generation of the Usinger family is running the company.

Usinger's is in the Old World Third Street area of downtown Milwaukee - a historic German district that is the home to such fine places as Mader's Restaurant, Buck Bradley's Saloon and The Spice House. Usinger's building is the biggest on the street and it is very tough to miss. 

The sausage shop at Usinger's is the exact same as it was when it opened in the early 1900's.  Spacious and ornate, the market has meat counters on three sides filled with their packaged sausages, brats, hams, smoked pork chops and other items the company makes.  Ladies man the counters and take your order.  Many times you have to take a number to be waited on, it's that busy.

I especially like Usinger's Summer Beef Sausage, their Garlic Summer Sausage and their Thueringer Summer Sausage.  They also make great brats - including an onion bratwurst and a spicy cajun bratwurst.  They also have bologna, olive loafs and real German headcheese (eeyew!).

One other thing that I like to get at Usinger's are their all-beef hot dogs and their bacon - both hickory and apple wood smoked.  A lot of times, they have bacon available on their "seconds" table - it's usually end cuts, or cut too thick (nothing wrong with that) or cut in weird shapes.  They're about $1.99 a pound and if you don't care that your bacon is not in perfect strips, they're a great bargain.

And Usinger's makes great andouille sausage, too.  I use it when I make cajun food around the house (and that's going to happen this week).  And their spicy Italian sausage has been part of many spaghetti meals I've made, as well. 

Usinger's mascot is Fritzie the Elf.  Elves are important to German lore as they were said to finish the work of laborers at night.  Fred Usinger felt the tradition of elves in Germany had to be part of the Usinger Sausage Factory.  As Usinger's grew, more elves became part of the story of the business.  And in the sausage shop, a mural painted in 1906 depicts a number of elves making sausage in the factory at night. 

Usinger's is a must stop every time I go to Milwaukee.  Don't forget to bring a good sized cooler.  I always fill ours each time I visit. 

Golick's - Davenport

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!

Weber's Meats

Weber's Meats started in Cuba City, WI as a meat processing plant.  They have a great selection of meat products to choose from in their shop on Highway 81 north of town.  I like to stop there when we would go out for drives in SW Wisconsin.

About three years ago - unbeknownst to me - the daughter of the owner of Weber's in Cuba City opened a Weber's Meats in Geneseo, IL.  And then two years later they opened up a branch in Bettendorf, IA.

Weber's has a lot of specialty meats and sausages to choose from.  They have great bacon and a very good jalapeno and cheese sausage roll that is very, very good. 

I don't know if they're better than Golick's in the cut of their meats, but they definitely have more specialty and processed meats to choose from.