Ye Olde Butcher Shop sits in a Plano strip mall next to a church, and nothing about the storefront prepares you for what’s actually happening inside. The shop has been running since 1974, with the current owner taking over in the 1980s, part butcher counter, part game processor, part burger joint that regulars swear is doing the best burger in Collin County. Step through the door and you’re surrounded by red and white gingham tablecloths, antique butchery equipment, and mounted longhorn and buffalo heads watching over the dining room, the kind of unapologetic small-town Texas atmosphere that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the metro.
The burgers are the reason people actually drive here. The buffalo burger, sometimes listed as the All the Way Buffalo, is the shop’s specialty and the dish most people order first, ground fresh from the same counter that processes custom cuts and whole sides of beef for customers walking in the front door. It’s leaner and richer-tasting than a standard beef patty, and it’s built a reputation strong enough that longtime Collin County residents rank it above steakhouse burgers costing twice as much. A Butcher Burger shows up right alongside it as the other name-brand order on the menu.
Where the menu turns genuinely unusual is the rotating game specials, which shift through the week depending on what’s come through the shop’s own game processing operation. On Thursdays, the Hot Pig, a wild boar sandwich, has developed a cult following strong enough that regulars call it the best sandwich they’ve had anywhere. Fridays bring a completely different kind of special: a ribeye and fries plate, and a ribeye steak served directly on a burger bun for anyone who wants steakhouse quality without the steakhouse price.
Elk and venison burgers have both made regular appearances on the rotating specials board over the years as well, tied directly to whatever game the shop’s processing side has brought in that week, less a novelty menu built for social media and more a direct extension of the actual butcher business happening behind the counter. The shop is closed Mondays and Sundays, open Tuesday through Saturday.
For anyone who wants something more familiar, standard beef burgers remain on the menu daily alongside a turkey burger, and the shop’s own tongue-in-cheek humor shows up right on the board, which proudly states the restaurant is permanently sold out of veggie burgers. A vegan sign hangs on the wall for effect, mounted like a taxidermy piece among the actual animal mounts, a small joke that tells you everything about the restaurant’s sense of humor before you even order…