Stores & Markets in Granite City

Surprisingly, many online sources consider grocery stores one of the best places to meet people. Even more surprisingly, online sources also consider grocery stores one of the best places to exchange money for food. Today's Groupon will give you plenty of opportunities to be surprised: for $15, you’ll get $35 worth of groceries at Straub’s Fine Grocers. This deal is good at all four St. Louis–area locations: Webster Groves, Clayton, Central West End, and Town & Country. While there is an online store, this deal is valid for in-store purchases only.

The sausage recipe didn’t start with Helmut and Henry Wanninger, but they were the ones to bring it across the Atlantic in 1965. Sons of a sausage meister, Helmut and Henry left their home in Bavaria and set up shop in St. Louis, where they began spicing, grinding, and casing sausages to the delight of the city’s southern neighborhoods, home to many German immigrants. The popularity of their encased meats continues today, though cousins Bob and Gerhard are now the master meatsmiths. These Wanninger descendants prepare more than 30 different Bavarian-style sausages, including multiple types of bratwurst, specialty sausages such as bockwurst and smoked liverwurst, and Landjager beef sticks. These specialties grace venues all over St. Louis, from Grant’s Farm to Gus’ Pretzels to the Egypt-themed alternate reality that exists on the other side of the Arch.

Bob and Gerhard also apply their expertise to other styles of encased meats, such as andouille and chorizo, and they happily process deer for hunters. In addition to manning the meat counter, the duo stocks the shelves with German goods such as Lowensenf mustards and breads from local bakeries.

Most butcher shops cut your meat for you, but few give you the skills to cut it yourself. For the experts at John’s Butcher Shoppee, sharing their skills is just a part of serving their community, something they’ve been doing for more than 38 years. The expert butchers set up shop at local Cabela’s locations, where they lead sessions on how to process deer into steaks, sausages, and ground meat. Back at their two locations, customers load up on homemade sausage, tender pork chops, and exotic meats such as elk, bison, and ostrich. The owners of the family business are often behind the counter, and take the time to cut or karate-chop a steak or pork chop to a customer’s desired size for no extra charge. Regular customers also take note of the butcher’s weekly meat raffle, dubbed Meat-O, wherein one lucky customer wins $25 in free meat to be served or bathed in however they see fit.

At Max Muscle Sports Nutrition, rows of shelves and neatly stacked displays flaunt energy bars, diet and energy supplements, and massive jars of protein powder. The vast arsenal of dietary boosters work hand in hand with exercise routines, supplying the body with natural amino acids or tasty, protein-packed blends that help muscles grow strong and healthy enough to lead fulfilling lives full of flexing. Diet capsules help athletes slim down and prevent unnecessary weight gain, and a wide range of herbal and wellness supplements promotes healthy lifestyles by providing essential fatty acids, detoxifying bodies, and strengthening joints.

Connie's Green Grocery stocks its shelves with organic fruits and vegetables, flowering plants, and locally raised meats free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Apples, bananas, plums, kale, carrots, beets, and yams have all been reported to thrive here, as have bison burgers and pork chops with sensational stories to tell. One of the ways the shop distributes these wares is by sending parcels of healthy produce to the doorsteps of customers. Each box adds a welcome note of surprise and mystery to family dinners by unveiling an ever-changing array of greens, fruit, and veggies in different combinations every week. Specialty all-fruit or all-veggie packages are available for those who love one but not the other.

Already dedicated to the environment, Connie's Green Grocery plans to further its commitment with an upcoming aquaponic farm. This sustainable approach to food production, which allows for the cultivation of plant life alongside fish, uses less than 2% of the water a conventional farm would require.

What began as Yemina Mata's passion for healthier living through a natural-food- and supplement-based diet resulted in La Buena Salud, a grocery store stocking only natural and organic products. Opened in 1997 in the Soulard farmers' market, La Buena Salud today lures visitors to its current storefront—tucked away just off Washington Avenue—with an impressive array of locally grown meats, eggs, and produce, vitamins, and supplements. Yemina gregariously shares health food and natural-healing wisdom as patrons meander aisles of organic teas from Tulsi and Traditional Medicinals, specialty items, such as piloncillo cane sugar, and natural-health and diet books, all of which earned the store praise from Feast magazine and a polite thank-you note from Mother Nature.