Even before walking into Bunzel’s Old-Fashioned Meat Market, you know you’re onto a winner—literally, as large signs on the side of the building proclaim prestigious “Best-of” achievements. Inside, certificates, ribbons, plaques and other honors decorate the walls. There’s even a row of trophies crammed above a refrigerated case filled with packages of summer sausages, snack sticks, bacon and hams. The effect is, strangely enough, not boastfulness but humility. Every recognition matters to the Bunzel’s team; every honor is accepted with gratitude and displayed with pride, whether it comes from a small local organization or a national magazine like FOOD & WINE, which named Bunzel’s one of the nation’s top butcher shops. Bunzel’s is perennial winner in the annual Shepherd Express Best of Milwaukee contest.
Talking with owner Chip Bunzel, it’s clear that the local recognition probably matters even more.
This year, Bunzel’s celebrates its 50th anniversary, a half-century during which the market has become a vital part of the Milwaukee landscape. While they support the community throughout the year, it’s the day-to-day traffic that makes clear how much the store means to city residents. Customers are greeted by name; conversations about meals and family and weekend plans abound. Bunzel says, “It’s a ‘Cheers’ kind of atmosphere here—people know you. I tell my employees, pat yourselves on the back, because these people love coming in here.”
Five Generations
The family’s meat-market history extends even longer than 50 years. “It goes back five generations, to my great-grandpa, Stanley Bunzel,” Bunzel says. His grandfather had a store on the South Side, but died of a heart attack when his father, Larry, was just 16. After working at various groceries, Larry opened his own store at 59th and Appleton in 1976.
Meatpacking was one of the largest industries in Milwaukee through much of the 19th and 20th centuries, a result of high demand for meat among northern European immigrants, the proximity of surrounding farms, and access to market via rail and canals from the Menomonee River Valley. Major houses, with names like Layton, Plankinton, Peck and Cudahy, dwindled after World War II, but competition was still fierce among neighborhood butcher shops. That’s the world Chip Bunzel grew up in, as he and his sisters were dismissed early from school to help in the shop and make deliveries. “It was rough when we first started. There were a lot of little stores—one on every corner, just about. I remember [my parents] arguing at the dinner table about which bill we should pay next.”…