In Which Maggie Goes To The Meat Market

I went to Fairway Beef on Grafton Street yesterday. I just had to check out the little red-and-white striped building that I keep passing by on the bus. It looks a little dodgy from the outside, with hand-written (scrawled?) poster boards advertising the specials stapled to the exterior. But was undeterred, in fact, I was encouraged by the sign for chicken leg quarters at 69 cents a pound. (I am a big fan of dark meat chicken.)

Inside, I found out why Fairway Beef has been around for 65 years. First off, the meat is beautiful. It is visibly fresher than what I usually find in regular grocery stores. Secondly, the prices are great, regular prices are like supermarkets' sale prices. Third, they carry meats that aren't often found in regular grocery stores, like rabbit and tripe, so they can cater to diverse tastes. (Though they don't sell camel meat. Don't laugh. There are at least two Halal butchers in Worcester who do.)
They also carry vegetables, fruit, milk, and some some frozen foods, as well as a full-service deli.

The most unusual aspect of the store is that it is a refrigerator. The whole store. You are shopping in a meat cooler. They are not kidding when they say to bring a jacket, though I was fine with a sweatshirt.
The center of the store is an island where they have the deli, and on the other side, do the custom orders of meat. It's very old school. Most of the meats, you have to go up to the counter and order. My chicken leg quarters, however, were already packaged in a plastic bag to be selected from a case. The chicken was very fresh, looked and smelled nice, but the bag had a leak in it, just my luck. Fortunately, they have produce bags to double-bag with, and with the plastic bag from checkout, it was well-secured. However, I really regretted not having any hand sanitizer with me to deal with the juices I got on my hands, so I'll have to remember to bring some next time just in case.

I am looking forward to going back there again, and I think I'll order a meat package to get the most for my money. (I finally have a large enough freezer to hold 2o pounds of meat. Yay.)