The Corned Beef Factory Makes Meat Mountains

• Mike Sula
• Reuben, The Corned Beef Factory

Used to be that if you wanted a full packer-cut brisket, complete with point and flat, for say corned beef, barbecue, or pot roast, you had to head down to Lake Street to Ex-Cel Corned Beef before 3 PM on weekdays. Ex-Cel was a holdover from the Fulton Market district’s fading blue-collar milieu, when it was a place people went to work rather than drop hundreds of dollars on dinner and drinks. It wasn’t in business to sell retail, but the friendly coverall-clad workers would indulge you, disappearing through the swinging doors and reemerging with a bloody vacuum-packed hunk of fatty beef.

• Chicago
• The Corned Beef Factory

The Corned Beef Factory, 1009 W. Lake, 312-666-2535