'More room to do more' at Elburn meat market

Who gets excited when a butcher shop moves to a larger space?

Fans of the cranberry chicken "stix," apple-chive bratwurst and veal loaf lunchmeat produced by Ream's Meat Market.

The business moved out of its longtime home on North Main Street in Elburn this week to a new home that's triple the size.

"Your new place looks great," shopper Jeff Walsma of Geneva, a 20-year customer, told co-owner Janelle Ream Thursday, as he bought weisswurst.

The new location is in a former restaurant at 250 S. Main St.

The old space had been a butcher shop since 1904. Robert and Phyllis Ream bought the business in 1954. Son Randy returned full-time in 1980, persuading his father to expand the sausage-making aspect. Janelle is his wife.

The Reams had looked around for more space, even in St. Charles and Geneva, for years, Janelle said. They bought this site last summer. "We really felt like that would be the perfect location," she said, noting it's still in downtown Elburn, but with on-site parking that won't force customers to cross Route 47.

A 7,000-square-foot addition is where they have added a third smokehouse; a pickling injector for corned beef and hams; larger coolers and more space for meat cutting; and a larger commercial kitchen. There is more room to operate the bowl chopper, which can handle up to 100 pounds of sausage filling at a time. "We have more room to do more," Ream said.

They won't have to rent refrigerated trailers to store hams and turkeys for the months before Christmas and Easter. They plan to produce sandwiches and ready-to-heat entrees for a takeout case. They've added beer and wine. And customers won't be waiting cheek-by-jowl for service or to check out.

"This is a good place to come if you are not a good cook," Ream said, noting the sausages and the prepared meat selections, such as stuffed chicken breasts. They still do custom cuts. And now, a cook can reserve a spot to age a roast, for up to 30 days, in a new beef-aging cabinet.

But like her husband ­- the chief wurst-macher - she can't pick a favorite out of the more than 100 kinds of smoked meats and sausages. The cases regularly stock Creole chaurice, Boerewors, Lithuanian, chorizo, andouille, Italian, French Toulouse and more. There are buffalo hot dogs, Duroc bacon, turkey jerky dip.

"I don't think there's anything I haven't had," Walsma said.