The Absolute Best Meat Markets In The US

Meat markets and butcher shops tend to provide a different kind of shopping experience than big-box grocery chains: Whole animal butchers or small-batch artisanal sausage-makers often offer a specialized range of high-quality products and services (via According to Elle). The best meat shops are real gems that often have a strong fanbase and an impressive selection of proteins. Butcher shops tend to have something for everyone: In addition to selling a selection of meats, these shops also offer charcuterie collections (via WebstaurantStore). Additionally, the rise of vegan butcher shops has led to the increased availability of items that can be enjoyed by vegetarians and vegans. 

Meat shops are present in small towns and big cities alike (via Food & Wine). Since they're ubiquitous across the U.S., finding an excellent meat shop during your travels is a great way to explore your surroundings and find some great produce. If you're traveling around, you could pick up some fresh breakfast sausages for the kitchen at your place of accommodation or load up on jerky for the long road ahead. Or, if you're at home, you could visit your local butcher shop, pick up a steak, cook it with a creative blend of spices and enjoy it in the company of people that you care about. Visiting a meat market is a wonderful way to enjoy local flavors or make yourself a nourishing meal, whether you're at home, driving around, or indulging in the joys of travel.

This Chicago butcher has an incredible range of meats on offer, in addition to everything you might need to make your next steak a magical meal (via Paulina Meat Market). The Paulina Meat Market was founded in 1949 and has always been a family-owned business. The business changed hands in 2006 when shop manager Bill Begale and his family took over the running of the shop. Paulina Market serves as a butcher, smokehouse, and sausage-maker. It has also expanded to offer a specialty grocery that offers everything from pasta to cookies and gourmet mustard. 

Paulina Market's expert butchers ensure that all meat is broken down into the ideal cuts. The staff members are available to answer customer questions about steaks, sausages, and the best cooking methods for each kind of product. The market also has artisanal locally-made cheeses as well as over 80 different kinds of sausages. There are at least 10 varieties of homemade bacon regularly available, as well as pre-made meals that can be taken home and heated for a quick meal such as baby back ribs or chicken pot pie. In a city known for its meats, the Paulina Meat Market stands out with a dedicated fan base and rave reviews (via Facebook). 

Whether you want a good chunk of meat or artisanal products, the Red Apron Butchery will fulfill your needs (via Red Apron Butchery). This butchery, which has locations in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, isn't just after exceptional flavor, though it offers that too. The folks at this shop also prioritize quality and work hard to source meat that meets high animal welfare standards and is free of hormones and antibiotics. Their work doesn't end with the perfect cut, though. 

In addition to the fresh meat you'd expect from a quality butcher, Red Apron produces over 80 original creations. The shop has everything from artisanal sausages to Grill Rub, and Wild Boar Pâté (via Neighborhood Provisions). The butcher shop also offers a subscription service, inspired by CSA boxes. The CSA (community-supported agriculture) box service is a system in which people pay to sign up with farms for a weekly delivery of fresh produce.  

Red Apron's butcher's boxes reinvent this idea for meat lovers: The service provides subscribers with monthly deliveries of boxes filled with fresh and cured meats from local farms. Customers can also request items such as cheese and condiments. While visiting the shop is always encouraged, when you can't go to the butchery, Red Apron's butcher's box comes to you.

If you like locally sourced meat, and you happen to be in Denver, you absolutely must visit this butcher shop: Western Daughter's Butcher Shoppe procures all its meat from within a 250-mile radius of Denver (via Western Daughter's Butcher Shoppe). Additionally, this butchery aims for ethical, sustainable produce. The beef is grass-fed and the pork and chicken are pasture-raised. The butchers at this shop ensure that the produce at this shop serves the land, the environment, the farmers, and the people who consume it. 

Ethics at this butchery taste great too. Western Daughter's is a whole animal butcher, meaning the entire animal is broken down into various foods in the shop, and 99% of the animal is used. If you enjoy bone broth, Western Daughter's makes its broth in-house by letting the water and bones simmer for 48 hours. Want something to sink your teeth into? The smoked porchetta is a fan favorite and the roast beef is truly a cut above.

Butcher & Larder is a Chicago butchery that partners with local farms to offer top-notch produce (via Local Foods). This butchery is Chicago's premier whole animal butchery and has a focus on ethically raised farm animals. Butcher & Larder has a delicious range of sausages on offer, from Sicilian to Toulouse. If you like it simple, their breakfast links, flavored with classic notes ranging from maple to sage, rosemary, and thyme, are a dream. 

It's not just that these products are better for the environment: Shopping at Butcher & Larder can elevate the flavors and quality of your cooking, as per reviewers on Yelp. Products such as bone marrow burgers and breakfast patties are highly popular. The staff is highly knowledgeable and helpful. These artisans work with the whole animal, often crafting different cuts into sausages. The experts at this shop make grand home cooking accessible. If you're planning a delectable, meaty meal such as braised oxtail pie, smoked turkey, or maple rosemary duck confit, Butcher & Larder is a great place to start. 

Japan Premium Beef is one of those rare, exclusive butchers that specializes in Wagyu (via Japan Premium Beef). This shop has locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan and sells authentic Japanese Wagyu as well as well as the domestic "Washugyu," which is a cross between Japanese Black Wagyu and American Black Angus. Canadian pork shares space behind the counter, too. Wagyu may be the star, but it has a knock-out supporting cast: Japan Premier Beef also offers premier sauces that help make a dreamy bite of beef a fresh experience. 

The Yakiniku sauce and Sukiyaki sauce are highly recommended. Collaborations with other local, NYC shops, like MOMO Dressing, bring exciting flavors to the shelves to make every Wagyu steak the best it can be. Customers on Yelp rave about the quality of the foods available here. This is a fantastic place to challenge your tastes while sampling the finer things in life. You get to support a relatively small business while you're at it and give your tastebuds a special treat. 

This butcher shop showcases its butchers as much as its products, and with good reason: After all, a stellar staff is integral to the success of any meat market. The Meat Hook's website contains casual shots and funny bios of staff members that make these experts approachable (via The Meat Hook). These butchers believe in the finest products: The beef is grass-fed and grass-pastured. Poultry is available in both pastured and free-range varieties. Transparency and accessibility are the name of the game, from the farm to your table: The Meat Hook proudly details how its animals are selected, raised, and stored.

This butcher shop also has a grocery section that provides fresh, seasonal produce from local farms in addition to classic staples and condiments. The range is small but varied, featuring everything from siracha to artisanal cheeses and craft beer. This shop sells its own merchandise and has a thriving following. There's nothing like a Meat Hook sweatshirt or a t-shirt to take bragging about the steak you had for dinner to a whole new level.

Bolner's Meat Company has served premium cuts of meat in San Antonio for 102 years (via The Austin Chronicle). It has USDA Choice meats on offer, along with prime and Wagyu beef (via Yelp). This long-standing butcher has choices that are unique to Southern cooking too: It's the place to go if you're looking for frog legs or rabbit. Aside from the excitement of trying something new, there are some real health and environmental reasons to eating rabbit if you haven't had the chance to do so before, and Bolner's will provide the high-quality product that you need. 

Additionally, you can purchase hamburger patties as well as beef and chicken fajitas. These butchers have truly perfected their specialty sausage recipes. Their Diablo sausages are highly popular (via Foursquare). The beef skirt pinwheels with bacon and jalapeño are well renowned. The deli menu offers sandwiches, burgers, hot sides, and cold dishes such as a carrot raisin salad.  

Rudolph's Meat Market & Sausage Factory is a butcher shop in Dallas, Texas that offers a bit of everything, including specialty smoked meats. The shop is known for its smoked hams and endless varieties of sausages such as polish sausages, pork breakfast sausages, and jalapeño sausages (via Yelp).

Great recipes sometimes take time, and Rudolph's has been a family-owned business since 1895. It's a classic butchery that has everything you'd expect from a meat market in the heart of cattle territory. If you're planning a barbeque, Rudolph's should be your first stop. The dry-aged steaks are legendary. The chorizo is good too. The jerky, when available, is intense and flavorful. 

Their bacon and prime rib also receive glowing praise. The high levels of customer satisfaction speak for themselves. This is a business that has mastered the art of giving customers exactly what they want in terms of great products and consistently high quality.

This butcher shop in Honolulu boasts its own merchandise in addition to delicious meat, original sauces, and spice blends as well as knock-out house-crafted sausages (via Butcher & Bird). In addition to all the steaks, roasts, ribs, and chops, Butcher & Bird brings pastrami, soppressata, mortadella, and kielbasa to the table. There is also a delicious selection of cheeses to consider.

Want to sample the goods on-site? Butcher & Bird has a deli with a delectable menu. Try the house-made bratwurst or the Italian sausage and see for yourself why they deserve a place in your fridge. Want to know how the ground beef measures up? The burgers are the talk of the town (via Yelp). The Philly cheesesteak frequently receives glowing praise.

That being said, for all the delicious meat at Butcher & Bird, the best thing on your plate might be green. Even though it's a butcher shop at heart, the house-made pickles steal the spotlight from the main course on a regular basis.

This butcher shop has a history that dates back to 1891 and it remains a family business to this day. Bourgeois Meat Market is a Cajun butcher that specializes in beef jerky (via Bourgeois Meat Market). The original Cajun jerky offered at this shop is legendary. It's made from a traditional recipe that entails seasoning and marinating long strips of extra lean steak for 24 hours. 

In addition to the jerky, this local treasure also sells other snacking meats such as beef styx, crackling, and summer sausages. If you're in the mood for a culinary adventure, try the boudin. Bourgeois Meat Market's smoke boxes are a great way to sample available products. These boxes also make for wonderful gifts. 

Bourgeois Meat Market also offers services such as deer processing. This butchery has both classic and unique options available. Whatever you feel like, one thing's for sure, this butcher shop is beloved among locals. 

Bill Finke and Sons is an old-fashioned Kentucky meat market that keeps things classic with fresh cuts and local favorites like goetta, which is so renowned that it may be popular enough for its own fan page (via Facebook). If you've never tried the regional dish, goetta is a dish that blends together minced meat with oats. It's usually served fried. Customers also vouch for the deli sandwiches and the homemade meatloaf.

Despite its proximity to Cincinnati, the shop brings small-town charm to its customers (via Yelp). Grass-fed beef glows behind the counter, along with a selection of vibrant salads. The meats are incredibly fresh, and the customer service and quality offerings keep visitors coming back for more. This shop keeps things traditional and quaint and gets them right. If you want to understand the local flavors, this is the place to start. It's also an excellent place for lunch.

The food at Bare Bones, a Nashville butcher shop, is good enough to sing about (via Yelp). This butchery doesn't cut corners, and it is committed to ethical sourcing (via Bare Bones). Meat is purchased from local farms to ensure high levels of freshness. Bare Bones ensures that the meat originates from happy, healthy, responsibly-raised animals. The staff is well versed in culinary knowledge and is always available to offer tips, tricks, and recommendations to customize orders to customer needs. 

It's a great place to grab lunch, too. The menu has exciting options such as bulgogi beef sandwiches, cheeseburgers, and meatball subs alongside braised greens and beef chili. You can opt to wash down your meal with a rotating selection of draft beers. Perhaps the best part of the experience at the Bare Bones butcher shop is the attitude of the staff: The employees here pride themselves on shucking pretentiousness, making the purchase process easy and fun for all. 

Mountain Valley Meats is a butcher shop that emphasizes quality (via Mountain Valley Meats). This butcher shop was established by two chefs in 2013. While there's a lot to love about this small team's passion and expertise, the sausages might be the shop's greatest highlight. Although this shop has over 80 sausage recipes cycling through production, only around a dozen or so flavors appear behind the counter each week, giving you plenty of reason for repeat visits. 

The sausage flavors on offer include potsticker, pale ale parmesan, habanero honey bourbon, chicken & roasted butternut squash, and Thai red curry chicken. If you aren't a sausage fan and are just after a good piece of meat, the flank steaks have an excellent reputation (via Yelp). Ribeye and strip steaks are also excellent options. If you're a fan of game meats, bison and venison are also available (via Mountain Valley Meats).  

Mad Butcher Meat Company is a specialty butcher shop in Sacramento, California (via Mad Butcher Meat Company). Don't let the name scare you: Over the years, this business has grown from a shop storefront into a catering and manufacturing service. Today, the company has its own brand of pet foods alongside the traditional butcher shop. 

This shop is a truly special blend of both the traditional and the unconventional: It originates from a small, neighborhood butcher shop that has grown into a business that is geared towards shaking things up with new products and practices. Food accessibility and affordability have become key goals for the Mad Butcher Meat Company. In order to enable this vision, Mad Butcher Meats launched its online ordering service in 2020.

Meats on offer include beef flank steak, tomahawk steaks, and various flavored varieties of chicken breast such as lemon garlic, teriyaki, mesquite, and sun-dried tomato basil (via Mad Butcher Meats). This butchery company also sells affordable and convenient meat packs, which keep your fridge and freezer stocked and give you the benefits of easy meals and lower costs.

Broadway Butcher Shop is a Kansas City gem that has a terrific range of selections such as pasture-raised chicken and poultry, all-natural beef, pork, and house-made sausage, in addition to a good selection of sustainable seafood (via Broadway Butcher Shop). Charcuterie, cheeses, and fresh produce are available. The shop also has a small grocery section. Produce is procured from local suppliers and farms. 

This is a shop that is as renowned for its customer service as it is for its products (via Yelp). The butchers will provide any cuts of meat you desire. Helpful answers and expertise are this butcher's hallmarks. The team at Broadway Butcher Shop is passionate about their work: The staff will happily assist you with finding the right cuts of meat to help you coordinate your meals and recipes. If you're planning to stop by Broadway Butcher and want to consult their expert staff, get ready to take some notes.

Daniel's Gourmet Meats and Sausage is built on a legacy of butchery; the founder is a third-generation butcher and sausage maker. This butcher shop in Bozeman, Montana specializes in local and regional meat products. This shop is a charcuterie-lover's haven: Sausage-making is one of the owner's passions and numerous varieties of sausages are available at the shop such as mango habanero, pineapple teriyaki, smoked brat, and others. Some of the other products on offer include elk and bison jerky and several varieties of bacon including apple cinnamon bacon, coffee bacon, and rattlesnake bacon. 

Additionally, the shop has a wonderful range of craft beers and wine. It also offers wild game processing services as well as a stunning selection of premium meats, ranging from Angus beef selections to veal and lamb options, as well as specialty pork cuts. Items such as meatloaf and chicken fried steak make for handy meals. As the name promises, this shop has excellent quality as well as innovative, seemingly endless flavors of sausages.