Al’s Meat Market

Busy place on Christmas Eve but pleasant helpful service. I wasn’t sure if I had enough cash (no credit cards) for the purchase so the immediately opened a house account without even asking for identification! Steaks were delicious and expecting the lamb chops to be as good tomorrow.

Best meat shop on the NorthShore
They will supply you with what ever you are needing. Pork, steak, ribs, bacon, etc…
Go every day, go every weekend, go whenever you are BBQ’n. Stock your freezer.
Say hello to Al.
Very nice and accommodating all the time.

Wow. I shopped here for the first time yesterday. I needed some steaks for a special dinner and I needed to be able to pick them up on my way home from work. Al’s was the most convenient store on my way home so that’s where I went. First of all, the beef was fabulous. Tender and very tasty. But more importantly, even though I was a first time customer, I was treated like someone who has been buying from Al’s for decades. I won’t go into details except to say that I was given special consideration for an unanticipated situation. The man behind the counter did not need to extend the courtesy that he did and, as I said, I felt as if I was his most loyal customer. Well, I wasn’t then but I am now. Al’s is not in the neighborhood where I live and is not even on my usual route home from the office. But I intend to do as much buying from them as I am able to. This is really a first-​class business.

What can I say about this place that has not all ready been said. Hands down the best place to buy steak in the city! Yes, I know you have to drive or take the metra out here; but seriously the best nothing can touch the quality of meat here. Steak that has been aged perfectly, and of prime quality that will blow any restaurant out of the water. In fact I will not even go to another steak house since finding this place, because nothing can come close to comparing this place with what they serve. Buy one cowboy cut prime bone in rib-​eye steak, cook it the way you like with just salt and pepper. It will make you a believer.

BLOT: It’s great meat!
Little background: I grew up in a smallish town in the heart of the midwest. I never wanted for good meat or vegetables. Great local products. We also have lived in Europe for 7 years and exposed to some of the best products and went to very nice restaurants. I’m a true experienced foodie now.
Al’s is a wonderful old fashioned experience… reminds me of the small town I come from. It also reminds me of many of the European experiences we had going into local food markets. The quality of the meat is great. So far I have bought ribeyes, oxtail for soup, ground chicken, ground pork, ground beef and looking forward to trying more.
The meat is pricey, but no more pricey than that of Europe. It is not ‘typical’ meat. You get what you pay for. It’s worth it!
p. s. Also the other products look great but I have not tried them yet.

I had the same experience as Molly when I walked in. I was looked at, as if I should not have been in there. This was not my first time getting a Prime Rib roast from a butcher. He prewrapped it, and assured me it was what I had ordered but I should have requested to look at the meat before I purchased it. When I got it home not only was it very small for the amount of money I paid but it was starting to turn and it was cut crooked, so that it did not stand properly in the roasting pan. Don;t worry Al, you don’t have to worry about my business. There are other butchers in your area.

Al and I are in a fight.
I really do try my best to support local small businesses, but Al’s definitely lost a customer today.
I ordered a boneless lamb loin to be picked up today. When I walked in, the guy looked at me like I had no business in there. When I told him I was there to pick up my order, he looked kind of confused and shuffled some papers around. He finally found my order slip and sort of looked at it, looked up at me, looked at the order again. And then he pissed me off.
He told me that the lamb loin was in the freezer. I asked him why it was in the freezer. He gave me some weird combination of excuses that didn’t make any sense… something about there being a lamb shortage and people needing to buy lamb chops. So at first I thought he was telling me he had sold my lamb to someone else. But no, he said, he had it. It was just in the freezer. Why would you do that, I wanted to know. He had no real answer.
I told him that if I wanted frozen meat I would have gone to the grocery store. When I special order fresh meat from a butcher, I expect, you know, fresh meat. He argued that it WAS fresh. Excuse me, my friend, but if it’s frozen, it’s not fresh. That’s kind of how it works. He said, «It was fresh when we boned it out yesterday, dear.» Okay, so why did you freeze it?
(A side note to salespeople: Don’t ever call me dear, sweety, or honey, especially when you’re already being rude or condescending. That does not fly with me. I’ve worked a lot of retail, so when I’m a customer I’m very careful to be kind to business owners and store employees, because I know how difficult it can be sometimes. But you know what, I expect the same courtesy I’ve always extended to my own customers.)
Why would you ruin a beautiful piece of meat by putting it in the freezer?! When someone has ordered it fresh?! I told him I didn’t think I wanted it. Then I started to feel bad because he had taken the time to bone it out, so I said, well, how much is it? $ 38.85. HAHAHAHAHA ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You want me to pay $ 40 for like one pound of meat THAT YOU’VE RUINED?! You can keep that shit. Good luck selling it to someone else. I’m just glad I didn’t need it for a dinner party or something, because I would have been forced to take it.
It was pretty clear that he had sized me up as some dumbass kid (I’m 26 and look young/​sound young on the phone) and he thought he could put one over on me. He probably cut up the loin I had ordered and sold it to someone as chops, and then was going to try to give me a frozen one he had laying around. OR, he ordered the loin too early and thought it was going to go bad if he didn’t freeze it. Either way, I’m not having it.

Today I did not pay as much attention to whether or not the steak I was buying was local, grass fed and humanely raised, tho normally I care dearly about these issues, because I found myself in front of the coolest old school (not ersatz but truly old) butcher counter. They had a beautifully aged beef rib rack sitting in the case and I knew I had to get some ribeyes. In spite of lisa’s protestations, I went ahead and ordered 3 rib steaks, each of which weighed in at about 1.6 lbs. Dinner was going to be awesome.
And it was. When in Chicagoland and looking for really great beef and pork from guys who know, definitely go to Al’s.

Here we go – the real deal. Al’s is an old-​fashioned butcher shop like (I hope) everyone used to have in their hometown. Cases of MEAT, a freezer with some more MEAT, and some spices, sauces, pastas, and other miscellaneous items in case you aren’t satisfied eating just MEAT.
None of the chops or steaks are pre-​cut. I ordered two pork chops and two ribeyes, and the guy took the big slabs out of the cooler, put one on the machine (pork chops) and busted out the long knife (ribeyes). He even asked me what thickness and gave a recommendation on the chops when I was indecisive.
The steaks I ate fresh and were very, very good – among the best steaks that I have ever cooked at home. The pork chops I froze and may have suffered, because they did not seem to have any pizzazz when I cooked them about four weeks later. I got bratwursts and Italian sausage too. The brats had a nice, traditional flavor; the Italians were kind of bland – good meat, but needed more seasoning.
I wanted chicken thighs but they had only legs, wings, and breasts at the time. The guy told me that if you call ahead with a couple days’ notice, the owner will make sure to have whatever you need on hand.
The only drawback is that they do not take credit cards. That is not quaint, people. That is annoying. When you’re racking up (har har) a $ 40−50+ meat purchase, you need to be able to pay with plastic.

Best steaks money can buy and true old school service.

There is no other place to buy meat. My boyfriend is a chef so he is super picky and the way he feels about Al’s is the way most people feel about religion.
The owners/​workers are so friendly and helpful and the meat is unbelievable. They have everything imaginable and will get you anything you need. A few weeks ago we called to see if they had veal, and not only did they have it, they stayed open until we got there even though they were closing! Once there we weren’t rushed at all, in fact, the guy talked to us for awhile.
Everyone we recommend Al’s to ends up swearing by the place, just like us.

I love this place. So freaking old school. Joe presides over the butcher block and meat lockers with a blood-​stained apron and leather suspenders. It’s all about the meat here. Tell ‘em how much you have to spend and he’ll hook you up with the best cuts and hand trim it in front of you. No credit cards. For that matter no cash registers, either. He hand writes a ticket, you hand over the cash and he hands you a choice piece of flesh wrapped in butcher paper. Full disclosure: I’m part-​owner of the wine shop across the street and I think Al’s is one of East Wilmette’s hidden treasures.