Shop $12 and up, snackriverfarms.com
Welcome to Esquire Endorsement. I searched hard. It has been thoroughly checked. These choices are the best way to spend your hard-earned money.
Since I moved to the big city, I’ve only had one real problem. There is no butcher shop in my neighborhood that would suit me. I have a fish market, a corner store, and a grocery store. But I am on the moderate side with butchers. There is nothing in my block. And while I’m not opposed to a 20-minute walk with a bag of steak, for the price I pay for any steak in 2023, I want a little more. So what did you do? I headed to Snake River Farms and bought the best steak of my life – online, and shipped to my door.
Meat ships fast
As an East Coast editor, I clearly You don’t have a car. All my groceries I have to buy in small quantities, and I have to be able to carry them by hand. The butcher shop model I grew up with—a Saturday trip to a country store to load the cooler with sausages and good cuts of beef—is not what I’m working with these days. If I’m going to the butcher, I walk 20 minutes with the steak or take the train to buy sausages. (I’ve got two different locations).
Snake River Farms takes on this recovery aspect entirely. I’m not kidding, it’s as easy and reliable as shopping on Amazon (or maybe better). Scroll for what you want, add it to your cart, and it will come via express shipping. When it arrives at your doorstep, it’s still frozen and nicely packed in ice. The logistics amaze me.
Shop $12 and up, snackriverfarms.com
The quality is incredible
Well, the most important part of this equation is quality. The meat that Snake River Farms sells is really good. Like, it’s in Michelin star restaurants for a reason.
The brand has an entire section on its site dedicated to talking about its herd, which is based on the genes of a Japanese Wagyu bull called Fukutsuru. (A prized bull has its own damn Wikipedia page.) Just as when racehorses are bred from serial winners, the same is done with cows. Snake River Farms brought Fukutsuru and a handful of other Japanese bulls to America and began one of the best Wagyu breeding programs in our country.
The result of this breeding is that every piece on the Snake River Farms website is technically a grade above USDA Prime—the highest grade in the American grading system. This means that the brand must classify itself, and it does so on a scale reminiscent of Japanese wagyu standards, which are the most stringent in the world.
Shop $12 and up, snackriverfarms.com
It’s a better way to buy beef
I don’t live anywhere near a working farm, that’s about as sure as I can be on my beef. Snake River Farms raises cows. They process beef. They ship it to my doorstep. It’s a throwback to the past, and the closest I can get to the way my parents were raised: raise an animal, send it to a butcher, and take it back for Christmas dinner.
The result is animal welfare and overall quality that every steak I get becomes the best steak I’ve ever had. And I’m just an amateur cook, barely even an amateur. Throw them in a cast iron or on top of some coals, and don’t be overly concerned with them. This American Wagyu will cover all your cooking imperfections. It’s so easy to buy, so easy to cook, and I know I’m supporting a great operation that cares about the livestock and the consumers. This probably won’t be my daily butcher, but for a few important dinners a year, I’ll turn to Snake River Farms forever. You should too.
Shop $12 and up, snackriverfarms.com
Photography by Joe Lingman. Prop design by Heather Green.
Associate Trade Editor
Luke Guillory is associate trade editor at Esquire.