On a small, quite corner in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, surrounded by Federal-style row-houses, and elite million dollar homes, lies a unpretentious deli providing aged steaks, homemade sausages, prosciutto, and pate, quality offal meats, and more. This mecca of meat, a pantheon of prosciutto, a sultan house of sausages is the brainchild of Joseph Stachowski aptly named, Stachowski Market. Establishing his roots in DC in 1984, Chef Stachowski has provided the area with handcrafted meats made with passion and tradition. This is your grandfathers meat market where butcher’s wear ties, and painstaking care is taken to provide insanely fresh product and mouthwatering varieties of all things meat.
At the corner of P & 28th Streets NW, the Stachowski family dishes out such sausages as; a English style banger (Pork with toasted oats and bay leaf. Normandy inspired.), fresh duck sausage (Port and juniper spiced, all duck, breast and leg.), spiced lamb merguez (Lamb, cilantro, green onions, and North African spices), fresh Polish kielbasa (Pork, marjoram, garlic and black pepper. Classic Polish recipe.), house-made venison prosciutto, quail pate, varied blood sausages, as well as steaks, ground meats, kebabs, cheeses, and more.
In addition to being a legit butcher shop, they offer a deli menu that changes regularly. Sandwich and cooked sausage options are listen on a pig-shaped chalk board and all require two hands and a hefty appetite. Options change but often include a Four Meat Grinder (salami, coppa, mortadella and sopressata), measuring over a foot and costing $11.99, several house made sausages topped with sauerkraut and mustard, or peppers and onions for $5.99, and a turkey club with three slices of bread topped with bacon, avacado, sprouts and mayo for $10.99.
Expect to wait about ten minutes for a sandwich, and this is not a bad thing. They often have sausage samples on the counter, which you can peer over and watch the meat peep show as your sandwich is being prepared. Don’t drool on the floor as you watch your bread being hand-sliced, the meat being hand sliced, the garnishes being prepared, by hand of course, for each and every sandwich and sausage is being made-to-order. You won’t find pre-sliced meat or garnishes waiting in a tub, a-la Subway-style, at this butcher shop. Delicate care and perfection go into making each sandwich by hand for every guest.
The small space provides one round table for patrons who wish to eat-in, two refrigerators providing cold drinks, cheeses, and other produce, and recently, a farmers market table in the middle offering local corn, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, breads, and whatever else is in season.
Don’t have time to wait? Need a quick meal as you hurry home and then are out the door again? Stachowski has you covered there too. Sign up for their email list and every day around lunchtime, you’ll be notified via email what the carry-out dinners are for that night. Call in your order starting at 5:30pm, or swing by for the first-come-first-serve pick of one of two cooked dinner options. Some options from this week that had my GMail salivating were: braised beef short ribs with ratatouille ($13.95), sous-vide quail, wrapped with bacon and stuffed with pheasant pate; served atop a mixed green salad ($14.95), Asian pork over rice ($12.95), and my personal favorite house smoked turkey mac n’ cheese ($13.95).
Street parking is available where you can find it (good luck, and make sure to tuck your side mirrors in), you can easily walk from Dupont circle or hop on the P Street bus. I’m glad there’s less than 200 feet between my front door and Stachowski’s – I just hope they don’t issue a restraining order.
Where: Stachowski Market, 1425 28th Street NW, DC. Website.
