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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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. 

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. 

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.

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.