Jaworski’s Meats has been making sausage since 1935, when the family opened its first market in Slavic Village. Mark Jaworski grew up in the family business and eventually took it over from his father.
About 21 years ago, Jaworski moved the shop from Slavic Village to Middleburg Heights. But the family recipes came with him — including a fresh Polish kielbasa that’s still the shop’s biggest seller.
How did your family get into the meat business?
Jaworski’s Meats started in 1935 near Broadway and Canton avenues and remained in that part of Cleveland for decades.
Mark Jaworski grew up working at the shop.
“I had no choice,” he said.
But when it came time to take over from his father, Jaworski wanted the job.
“I loved doing the work, which is fun,” he said. “The people are great. I loved the people.”
Around two decades ago, the butcher shop moved to its current location in Middleburg Heights. Slavic Village was changing, and a cheese shop in a small plaza on Pearl Road was closing.
Jaworski visited the shop to check out some of the equipment it was selling.
“And one thing led to another,” he said. His business moved in and has been there since.
What’s your earliest sausage memory?
It’s hard to forget sausage raining from the ceiling.
Jaworski remembers his mother making sausage at the family’s old store in Slavic Village using an air-powered stuffer. One day, the top blew off.
“There was sausage all over the ceiling, and it was just raining, raining sausage,” he remembered, cracking up at the memory.
Customers could see into the work area. Jaworski remembers watching his mother duck as sausage came down around her.
What are you known for? What’s your favorite sausage to make?
For Jaworski, it’s the shop’s fresh Polish kielbasa, which he says is its No. 1 sausage.
“It’s nice and garlicky. It’s got a great flavor,” he said.
He recommends it with sauerkraut, straight off the grill or topped however you like.
Around Christmas and Easter, Jaworski said, the shop can sell about 8,000 pounds in a week.
“We’re working around the clock, cranking it out.”
What’s in the family recipe?
Jaworski isn’t saying.
The fresh Polish kielbasa is made from a secret family recipe. But he will share one rule he learned from his father: “My dad always said, ‘You got enough garlic in it, add some more.’”
Who shops at Jaworski’s Meats today?
Some customers have been coming long enough that Jaworski has watched them grow up.
In August, that relationship produced a first for the nearly century-old meat market: a wedding in the shop. Employees set up an arch of white lace at the front of store and served drinks from behind the meat counter.
The groom had been a Jaworski Meats customer since he was a kid. When he and his bride needed someone to marry them, Jaworski said could do that, too. He had previously become ordained to officiate the wedding of an employee.
“She just bugged me and bugged me and bugged me,” he said of the first bride. “Finally, I said yes, but I kinda said a few F-bombs during the service. I told her it might happen.”
