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On Monday, Lincoln Square's once-great Delicatessen Meyer closed its doors, and I was tempted to declare it a sad day for sausage. The truth is Meyer had been in a downward spiral for months, something I'd failed to notice until I visited recently after a long absence. What was once a bustling, old-world-style German deli, shelves and cases packed with specialty meats, dark breads, European butter, German spirits and wines, and imported chocolates and candies, staffed by a disciplined platoon of starchly efficient, white-clad Eastern European ladies, looked like it had been looted by starving cossacks. I'd been in a few times since 2004 after new owner Hans Liebl took over from the Koetke family, who'd run it it since 1956 (according to the Sun-Times). What the hell happened? No more pretzelwurst, no more kaiserfleisch, no more holiday marzipan.
Meyer's closing reflects the fading imprint of the neighborhood's once strong German-American population, which supported at least four really good delis and butcher shops until fairly recently. Now there's only one. The selection at Lincoln Quality Meat Market isn't nearly as extensive as that at the old Meyer's, though it seems to have improved quite a bit recently with fresh free-range chickens, prime beef cut to order, all sorts of smoked and fresh pork, imported Italian prosciutto, a small but interesting selection of packaged goods, and three varieties of dry cured Hungarian sausage--not to mention more than dozen other different European varieties. I bought a package of Romanian cevapcici yesterday to console myself. The butcher was good enough to advise me he'd just ground it that morning, and to put it in the freezer if I wasn't going to use it right away. No need for that.
For the last year the Brats as well as a lot of other products sold at Deli Meyer were coming from the Paulina Market.
Liebel's last venture before buying Deli Meyer was with Applegate Farms out on west Irving pk. His motorcycle riding likeness still graces the packages of Hans all natural sausages.
http://www.hansallnatural.com/
Seriously, I loved that place. I loved hearing all the little old ladies talk German, and loved the thrill of every now and then trying a little German myself. I loved the mysterious meats that I was never brave enough to buy.
Mostly, I will remember it for two things: last year my dad died, and for four years or so before, I would often stop in there with our young son to buy "German balogna" for "Opah": it was the next best thing to the balogna my dad used to get from Avril's Deli, from his home town of Cincinnati. It was a lovely way for me to connect with my dad. He loved Meyer also.
I also LOVED to buy butter there. Our son came to call Meyer "the butter store". The LOL's (hey, it still means Little Old Lady to me!) would hack it with a cleaver right out of a dog gone wooden barrel!, kept cold behind a wooden door refridgerator! That was the best tasting butter anywhere (European style butter, I have since discovered).
And on Christmas, for me there was no better place to experience the type of "old world" Christmas shopping experience than Meyer. The door chime, the ticket machine that I would lift our son up to crank, the endless waits while seemingly every customer ahead of us, often accompanied by friends and relatives from out of town, had come to buy dozens of kinds of meats and cheeses and all sorts of delacacies. It was the worst place to be if you were in a hurry, the BEST place to be if you wanted to meet others and hear their stories, and soak in an authentic and unique vestige of Chicago German culture.
As with close friends who have died, I feel angry that this place has been taken away from me. But I know that I really feel very sad at all that it represents to me, and am so grateful that Meyer was there for so many years for me and everyone in our family, and gave us so many rich experiences.
Does this Meyer's Deli have anything to do with the Andrew F Meyer's family deli's? (Such as Kuhn's Deli's/Restaurants that are still around.)
https://www.kuhns-deli.com/content/view/6/33/