For more than 70 years, the International Meat Company has been butchering and trimming beef in the Galewood neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side.
During the pandemic, the restaurant realized they couldn’t keep injecting brine into briskets without steady customers, so they opened Top Butcher Market across the street.
“It kind of evolved into a lunch/restaurant/catering space, that started out with one menu item a day, to now a full-blown menu of 20 items,” said Dave Berni, chef of Top Butcher Market.
Selling beef by the pound was a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want USDA Prime steaks at a discount?
But it was the sandwich program that really took off. Let’s go back to that brisket for a second. After it’s brined, they thoroughly coat it in a dry rub, then place it into their rotating smoker for nearly a day.
“It’s such a soft and succulent meat after it’s smoked for 14 hours, you don’t want it cold and then shaved. We slice it by hand, so it almost crumbles and melts in your mouth when you’re eating it,” he said.
Stacking it onto griddled rye over some homemade pickles, then dressed with some Carolina barbecue sauce and a mound of tart, vinegary coleslaw, it’s a two fisted affair for sure.
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“You can get anything shaved and sliced super thin anywhere you go. We wanted to do something slightly different,” said Berni.
That approach has served them well.
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Massive sandwiches are the norm here. Some of the burgers may require unhinging your jaw.
Easier tasks would be digging into the slow-smoked baby back ribs or even a turkey club. But again, their version includes smoked pork belly, sliced thick, then crisped-up on the griddle, before being combined with house smoked turkey, lettuce and tomato, stacked between griddled sourdough.
“The Sinatra” is truly a unique creation, starting with their Italian sausage.
“We roll it out thin; we load it with our Italian beef, cheese, giardiniera, and roll it back up, almost in a pinwheel style. A customer used to say it was like an Italian turducken,” he said.
Doused with homemade marinara and Parmesan, served on a griddled French roll, it’s kind of an Italian fantasy sandwich, and like everything else on the menu, a bargain, when compared to any other deli or meat market in town.
“We don’t have a middleman. We’re the meat company,” said Berni.
Here's where you can go:
7128 W. Grand Ave.
773-831-7200
