State Meats

State Meats is a butcher shop and smokehouse, not a sit-down restaurant; but it’s a godsend for sausage fans who are hungry passing through Parma. Located in a shipshape neighborhood known as Ukrainian Village (and not far from swoonful pastries at a bakery called Perla Homemade Delights), this family-run enterprise has a broad repertoire of kishka, rice rings, kielbasa burgers, Slovenian sausage, pork chops and cottage hams that are smoked out back; and the porky, beefy, smoky aroma in here is a powerful appetite inducer for all of the carnivorous persuasion.

We were lured inside by a sign in the window that advertised “Now Serving — Kielbasa & Kraut on a Bun — Carryout.” There are no tables inside, and the spicy, house-made kraut makes it a fairly messy sandwich; but you heard no complaints from us as we devoured this thing off the car dashboard. The hot kielbasa is big and bursting with juice, its stay in the smokehouse providing a sweet halo for meat and spice.