TLDR: Affordable! Wide selection of cold cuts and old-fashioned meat-based delicacies. Propane…read moretanks to buy or exchange. Abattoir services available during deer season. Custom work available. Owned and operated by a local Mennonite family.
MENU: They have a well-stocked deli section with a wide range of cheeses and cold cuts, some of which are made in-house. They'll slice it for you to your specifications. They also offer fresh-never-frozen beef and pork in a wide range of cuts on certain days of the week; if memory serves, they do that on Monday through Wednesday - otherwise you can get frozen meat. Often, you'll find some cuts that are hard to come by: beef heart, tongue, pork bones for homemade stock (or to give your dogs), as well as pork cracklings, and more. Sometimes they have rabbit or quail. During the summer, especially, they make jerky, Slim Jim style beef sticks, and other snacks of that nature. Locals sometimes offer their home-grown produce or other products in the center section as well; it varies all the time, but you might find homemade jellies and jams, garden-grown tomatoes, and goodies like that. One of my local friends raises hogs and goats, and he has made deals with the shop owner on more than one occasion to butcher his animals, and make some specialty custom items, like goat sausage, using his own spice blend - I have no idea what it costs or what it takes to make that happen, but if you're in need of that sort of thing, they can probably do it.
FOOD QUALITY: Hit or miss, depending on what it is and what day of the week you're buying. Unsurprisingly, any unsold fresh meat from the beginning of the week gets frozen and put in the case. I used to shop here on a weekly basis and most of the time it was good, but occasionally something would turn out to have been frozen while on its last legs, and there was no way of knowing that until after it had been thawed out; in my case, I think it was a chuck roast or something.
MENU FAVORITES: Try the smoked porkchops! If you like steaks, they have dinosaur-sized ribeyes at twice the size and half the price of what you can get at a Hy-Vee or any other major grocery store.
MENU FAILS: The beef filet mignon they offer is actually the chain (an adjacent sub-loin filled with connective tissue) rather than the tenderloin itself. On one occasion I bought several smoked porkchops that had been vacuum packed, and they had already gone off when I opened the package.
FRONT OF HOUSE SERVICE: I find Mennonites to be a little standoffish overall, but the folks here are friendly enough. They tend to take their sweet time, so if there's a line, be prepared to wait a while. The sales floor is small, as well, so it can get crowded if the Dog & Gun is happening that weekend, or anything like that. They will try to flog off their old stock on you, and they will try to upsell you - egregiously, in my opinion; like if you ask for a pound of sliced salami, you might wind up with half a pound or more over that. One time I bought some braunschweiger and the old woman was actually training the younger women to do this: I asked for a pound and she grinned and said something like "OK, now watch this", cut half of a tube, put it on the scale, and said "that much?" I said: "No, a pound." She looked stunned and crestfallen, recut the piece, and it turned out to be exactly a pound. She knew what she was doing. I don't mind an ounce or two over, but don't try to skin me.
COMPETITION: For cold cuts, go to the Country View in Memphis. They have a wider selection, and its generally fresher, from what I can tell.
ATMOSPHERE: Humble and old-fashioned. It's like stepping back in time to the middle of the last century. They have a small collection of clippings from the funnies posted on the bulletin board that have been there for DECADES. "I can make food both ways: to make guests stay, or make guests leave." I wonder how that philosophy plans into their business...
