AROUND CHICAGO

Family Owned USDA Inspected

AROUND CHICAGO With Valerie Miller CHOP SHOP

Housed in a 100-year old former auto body shop, the Chop Shop is Chicago’s only sustainable butcher, deli, restaurant and bar with a 6,000-square-foot event space and concert venue.

During this pandemic Chop House pivoted its operation to service the community and keep its doors open. In addition to ramping up its in-house retail butcher shop and deli departments, Chop House also expanded its offerings to include sta ple grocery items and were even doing deliveries out to the suburbs!

Nick Moretti, the owner of Chop Shop, jumped in and did some of the deliveries him self. Chop Shop has been very fortunate to maintain its inventory and supply chains because it works with small local farms like Slagel Farm to make products.

Nick has been working on various configurations of the Chop Shop’s event space where they could potentially host events like neighborhood markets and fairs while still practicing social distancing. One idea was to have the fair, plant sales, market, etc., where customers would schedule appointments to come in and browse the vendor selection. They could view the available merchandise virtually before they come in and just arrange their visit to be a “pick-up” of their selected purchases.

“I think we can all agree the re-opening will be gradual and the public will be wear to make plans to stop out into public space for some time,” said Moretti. “My hope is that when it’s safe to open to low capacity scenarios like having 50 people in the venue (that holds 600) we can serve as a community platform to provide a safe and comfortable environ ment to those markets, fans, etc., that all Chicagoans love to visit and support.”

The Deli Market features house-roasted meats, fresh cheeses, sandwiches, panini and grab-and-go items. The Butcher Shop offers cuts of meats from local farms. The Restau rant and Bar’s seasonally rotating menu sources local farms and its very own butcher. The Concert Venue features an amaz ing stage with state-ofthe-art sound, light and production staff.

Chop Shop is at 2033 W. North Ave. in Chicago. For more info visit chopshopchi.com