A butcher shop is coming to Madison Street.
Its owner, Michael Foreman, hopes to open The Meat Counter: Butcher & Fine Foods by October, and certainly by the end of the year.
After working in kitchens and butcher shops over the last six years, Foreman decided to launch his own store to provide locally sourced meat to the area.
“There’s just an abundance of good agriculture in this area,” Foreman said. “I love the beer and brats and honest-to-God, great agriculture of the whole region.”
The high-end butcher shop will source cuts of beef, pork and chicken from farmers in Illinois and Wisconsin. During regular business hours, Foreman plans to sell burgers and brats with fries or potato chips. He will also offer dry goods and is applying for a liquor license to sell packaged wine and beer.
Following The Meat Counter’s opening, Foreman plans to host monthly after-hour dinners, where he will cook his butcher shop offerings for guests.
“I want to use them as a way to show off things you wouldn’t normally get in restaurants,” Foreman said, like large Fiorentina steaks, smashed beef shanks over cheesy spaetzle, and lo mein made with local beef that’s dry-aged in-house. These dinners will also be BYOB, he said.
In addition to offering locally sourced, specialty items like dry-aged beef at the butcher counter, Foreman will buy other ingredients grown in the area to add in more worldly flavors to his meat dishes.
“The Meat Counter is a bit of a love letter to the Midwest with some global flair,” Foreman said.
Foreman was born in Michigan and has lived in Oak Park for nearly a decade but is relocating to Forest Park to be closer to The Meat Counter. Growing up, he moved around Singapore, Hong Kong, Texas and North Carolina.
Foreman said he plans to add in flavors from his travels to his offerings. For example, he’s buying lemongrass from two Illinois farmers to make sausage inspired by his time in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Meat Counter’s property is currently undergoing construction. Much of the interior will be redone, transforming the previous Bertuca Salon into a butcher counter and preparation area, plus a full kitchen to prepare for dinners down the road. There will also be a few stools in the front for seating.
“I’m looking to be more of a retail shop than a place where people are going to come in and sit down in big groups and eat,” Foreman said.
His goal, he said, is to provide locals with good service from a knowledgeable and respectful staff.
“I want to give people another option or an idea that this sort of thing is possible in their community,” Foreman said. “When they want something good, they know where to come, and it’ll be cut by people who know what they’re doing, too.”