In Store

When you’re working to put food on the table, the old-world flavor of Fischer Meats translates just fine

The old wooden sign with its stylish vintage lettering has probably been affixed to the store for decades: “Fischer Choice Meats Entrance.”

Photos by Kyle Johnson

Located in Issaquah’s historic Front Street district now, the family-owned meat store has existed since 1910. Owner Chris Chiechi hired no designer or strategist to project an old-time flavor. Fischer Meats’ ambience emanates directly from the past, which is clear from its zigzag floor plan, its cheery, less-than-slick fixtures and refrigerator cases and the slow, friendly rapport of the staff and customers.

The store smells slightly spicy, redolent of big suppers to be cooked and savored. The temperature is a bit chilly because of the coolers, and this cool air is part of the savory scent. Behind the meat counter is a big, open room where workers cut and dress meat and hose bloody water into a drain in the floor.

Chiechi purchased the store in 1981. A lean, contained and take-charge man, he knows customers as if they were next-door neighbors. Well known in the community and active in the Issaquah Business Association, Chiechi and much of his family have spent their lives in the meat business. “The amazing taste is all about the suppliers we use — they’re small, and of very high quality,” he says. “It’s the way the animals are fed and raised. It’s just better.”

Moments later, his eyes seem to gather tears at the corners as he talks about his five grandchildren. “My wife and I are so lucky that we are included as a part of their lives. They all live nearby, so whenever I get the chance for any time off or for a vacation, I only spend it with them.”

In this year’s recession, Fischer Meats has seen no dip in business, Chiechi says. In fact, it’s as busy as ever, and customers clearly gush over the meat, traveling considerable distances to find the store. “The place has some of the best bacon you will ever taste,” announces a review posted online.

On a recent Friday, patrons entered the store in waves; countermen, including Chiechi, filled the orders quickly, but with friendly chit-chat. Two little girls lolled on the floor near the store windows, waiting for their father, who was busily ordering thirty-six slices of bacon, ten thick pork chops, prime rib and premade bacon burgers (prepared by mixing bacon and spices throughout the meat).

The girls played cautiously with a large stuffed teddy bear, a kid-pleaser that has been sitting in the front window of Fischer Meats for at least a decade. They wandered beneath stacks of condiments such as Fischer’s house-brand salsas, salad dressings and “hot asparagus bullets” in a jar.

A Budweiser delivery man entered, wearing an immaculate striped shirt with the word “Bud” at the back of the collar. Chiechi greeted him: “How’re you doing?”

“Living the dream,” the Bud man replied, and then he described his previous day at the horse races. “If you bet two bucks a race, it’s fine, and you can amuse yourself all day.” The Bud man ordered a sack of beef jerky in addition to a single T-bone steak.

“Today I’ve been working, I gotta eat when I get home,” he remarked to Chiechi.

“Don’t explain yourself.”

John, the second counterman, rosy-faced with gray Nero-style bangs and gold necklaces, laughed as he listened to this exchange. He stretched a hand into the meat case to straighten up the stock: house-made sausages, stuffed flank steak with bread dressing, apple-almond-stuffed pork chops.

Soon, Chiechi returned to his glass-walled office overlooking the meat workroom, returning calls and finessing his meat orders for the next week, as he has done for twenty-eight years.

Fischer Meats

85 Front Street N., Issaquah, 425.392.3131
Mon. – Sat., 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., fischermeatsnw.com