Chicago’s Best Butchers and Stores to Buy Meat

Eater Chicago / by Nylah Iqbal Mohammed / February 5, 2025
 

On a journey to buy better meat and try less-common proteins like venison, elk, antelope, and grouse? In Chicago, we’re spoiled for choice. The city has an abundance of places to get quality cuts of chicken, beef, and pork, and duck breasts, elk steaks, whole rabbits, and other meats that you might not ever find at a supermarket. And, at Chicago Meat Collective, butcher McCullough Kelly-Willis is even teaching classes.

Still, butchery is a tough business, and post-pandemic, it’s only getting tougher. Some community giants are no more, like Gepperth’s Meat Market in Lincoln Park, which closed in 2021 after being open for 100 years. Local Foods and Butcher & Larder shuttered in early 2023 and some places like Serbian Beograd Chicago (now Café Beograd) have transformed into cafes and restaurants with delis. And because of these closures, some of the best butchers in Chicago are now found at supermarkets with the same level of knowledge but working with more limited and lower quality ingredients. Read More Here.