In business since 1990/1991, Mike’s Star Market in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, offers beef, lean pork sausage and brats, as well as handmade condiments and custom spice mixes. All their beef is hormone free, and they also offer some grass-fed beef. They have hormone-free chicken and local lamb too. The “Mike” in Mike’s Star Market is Mike Maier.
“I actually got into the meat business because I needed a job in the late fall of 1987. My grandfather was working for a guy that was looking for help with venison processing, cutting, and wrapping. I gave it a try. My grandmother first taught me how to wrap steak and ground venison. Then after a bit, my grandfather taught me how to cut. Being a farm kid, I already knew a little about it, just not how to do cuts. I for some reason picked it up quickly. Then after that first season I was kept on part-time to cut and learn how to make some sausage items. I came back in the fall to take over my grandfather’s spot as he moved to Arizona. I cut and learned more cutting and then sausage making from Jan, who owned the shop.”
Of the various meat markets in the area, Maier feels his stands out, primarily due to the great employees. He notes, “It is not just a Mike thing, it takes others to help.” Another thing that makes the market stand out is a desire to always learn more and to strive to make already good products better. Maier notes that their products undergo only minimal processing. He adds, “We also, like other small businesses, care about our customers. Being in business this long, many customers can be called friends.”
Mike’s Star Market provides meat to some local businesses, and they also have a retail counter and freezers. Maier says, “You can stop in and buy what you like or order in large amounts. Not much we can’t do or offer. If we can’t do it, we know other meat shops in the area that can, and we will point you in that direction.”
What is important to Maier and his staff is to provide good meat to customers. “I want you to be satisfied with first quality and flavor,” he says. “Because we make sausage here, we can control the quality. We try to hold ourselves to a higher standard and offer a good price for what the consumer buys or wants—which is always changing.”
Mike’s Star Market also offers venison processing, from cutting the whole deer to making a very wide variety of sausage items. They offer custom smoking of most anything, excluding fish. They can do custom cut animals for farmers who bring them in or have them butchered on the farm or another facility. As Mike says, “Not much we can’t or won’t do, meat related.”