Place to buy good steak on Sunday?

I need to pick up an extra steak for tonight, and am wondering if there are any quality options in the city besides Whole Foods/F&O. Doesn't need to be prime dry aged or anything, just looking for something better than Jewel/Dominics and less $$$ than the gourmet markets. I usually go shop at the wholesale places in the West Loop, but to my knowledge they are all closed Sundays.

jean,

We love shopping at Pete's Fresh Market, on Cermak, one block west of Western Ave., for excellent produce and for some real bargains in the meat department. How can you go wrong with flank steak at $4.99 a pound? Excellent selection of skirt steak and other typical Mexican butcher shop offerings, as well as more typical individually packaged steaks (at much lower prices than you know who...) in the self serv area.

http://www.petesfresh.com/index.html

When I first learned the supermarket steaks weren't the best (yes, I didn't know that for many years, not being much of a beef eater), I started testing steaks at various places, both choice and prime.

One of the places I found that was very decent was Treasure Island. Their prime (at that time) was about $8 less a pound than Paulina market, but was pretty darn tasty. I think we tested a choice and a prime from there and we were lucky - the choice looked as good as the prime and was just as tasty.

Now, that was a few years ago and I haven't been back (I really don't eat much beef), but I would guess they would still be fine. They do have a butcher, too, but not sure if he's there on Sunday.

Costco on Clybourn Av. has USDA choice and lately USDA prime steaks.Another good option is any of the Cermack Produce stores around town. All of their beef is USDA Choice versus the USDA select grade (Blue Ribbon and Ranchers Reserve) at Jewell and Dominics.

I love, love, love El Mercado on Southport, right next to Tango Sur.

Basically, everything that's on Tango Sur's menu is available for sale at El Mercado over the counter at bargain basement prices. The meat counter in El Mercado is essentially Targo Sur's meat prep kitchen (the two are connected through a doorway in the back).

You can get fillet mignon and rib eye steaks of fantastic quality for $9.99 a pound. They've also got just about every cut of meat imaginable at or below that price point. The only extremely minor inconvenience is that it's sometimes a little hard to figure out what's what since the hand written board listing cuts of meat is in Spanish, with sparse translation. Lately the guy behind the counter speaks English, but every once in a while there's someone who doesn't. In the past, I've gotten around this problem with a form of charades wherein I'll say the name of a cut in Spanish, point the the approximate place on my body I assume it's from, and then wait for the butcher to agree or correct me by either pointing, showing me the actual cut, or a combination of the two. It's actually a lot of fun, and last time it happened everyone seemed to get quite a kick out of it, myself included.

My favorite thing there by far, though, is the sausage. $1.50 a pound for some of the best stuff around. I actually stopped by there yesterday around noon to pick some up and had to come back because the guy behind the counter hadn't made it yet. The sausage is just awesome. It's a beef/pork mix in all natural casing. Aside from just grilling them straight up, I also use them as a base in my tomato sauces to add extra flavor.

I don't think I've bought a steak anywhere else in the past 6 or 8 months since I started going here. I can't recommend it highly enough.

One thing to note, however, is it's cash only. Same as Tango Sur, if I remember correctly.


El Mercado
3767 N Southport Avenue
(between Grace St & Waveland Ave)
(773) 477-5020

Thanks for all the tips! Thanks to Ronnie, I did end end up going to Pete's on Cermak, which is not too far from us here in west Pilsen. I shop there occasionally anyway, but I had only dabbled in their steak selection. I have mostly seen thinner cuts available in the self-serve coolers, and had not noticed any ribeye, t-bone, strip and the like behind the counter before, but I was actually able to get a nice thick 1.5", 20 oz. or so ribeye cut for me by one of the butchers. It was on sale for only $5/lb, and although the grade wasn't specified (the tag just said "govt inspected", so I assume it was maybe a lower grade), it looked nice and had a decent amount of marbling, especially in the cap (the eye was a bit leaner), and very little gristle or sinew.

Treasure Island looks like they carry some nice meat, but from what I've seen they are more expensive than I am looking for (typically $15+ per pound for good cuts), although I think they are still a notch lower than the premium butchers and gourmet stores.

Cermak Produce is actually only about two blocks from my house, and I shop there frequently. I have bought many steaks there with hit or miss results. While the price is always right (typically $2.99/lb for choice ribeye), and they can be nicely marbled (or not), I have often seen their steaks thawing in the display coolers, which bugs me. It may be common practice and I just don't know, but I always try to source fresh never frozen product whenever possible. I have found some of their steaks to be less tender than I am accustomed to, and frequently full of gristle (something I have encountered at Peoria Packing as well). Also, their meats all seem to be pre-cut thinner than I was looking for given the other steak I was cooking (a previously purchased beautiful 1lb strip from Columbus Meats on Randolph).

I will definitely check out El Mercado in the future, they had not struck me as the type of place that would be open Sunday. If the meat is comparable to what they serve at Tango Sur, I would have no prob paying $10/lb retail at all. Thanks for the suggestion!