For more than 70 years, 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 continue injecting brine into breasts without steady customers, so they opened Top Butcher Market across the street.
“It sort of evolved into a lunch/restaurant/catering, starting with one menu item a day, to now a full 20-course menu,” says Dave Berni, chef at Top Butcher Market.
Selling beef by the pound was a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want discounted USDA Prime steaks?
But it was the sandwich program that really took off. Let’s go back to the chest for a second. After it is salted, they carefully cover it in a dry rub and then place it in their rotary smoker for almost a day.
“It’s such a soft and juicy meat after it’s been smoked for 14 hours, you don’t want it cold and then shaved. We cut it by hand so that it almost crumbles and melts in your mouth when you eat it,” he said.
Piling it on grilled rye over some house-made pickles, then dressed with some Carolina barbecue sauce and a pile of sour, vinegary coleslaw, it’s a two-fisted affair.
“You can get anything shaved and sliced super thin wherever you go. We wanted to do something a little different,” says Berni.
That approach has served them well.
Massive sandwiches are the norm here. Some of the burgers may require you to loosen your jaw.
Easier tasks would be digging into the slow-smoked baby back ribs or even a turkey stick. But then again, their version features smoked pork belly, sliced thick, then crisped on the grill, before being combined with house-smoked turkey, lettuce and tomato, stacked between grilled sourdough.
“The Sinatra” is truly a unique creation, starting with their Italian Sausage.
“We roll it out thinly; we load it with our Italian beef, cheese, giardiniera and roll it up again, almost in a pinwheel style. One customer used to say it was like an Italian tour doll, he said.
Topped with house-made marinara and parmesan, served on a grilled French scallion, it’s a kind of Italian fantasy sandwich, and like everything else on the menu, a bargain compared to any other deli or meat market in town.
“We have no middleman. We are the meat company,” said Berni.