Best In-Restaurant MarketsLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm

One pandemic silver lining: Restaurants started selling high-quality ingredients — meats, pastas, tinned seafood — directly to customers to juice revenue and appeal to home gourmets. Two of the best have become permanent fixtures. The retail display at El Che looks like one of those cases in an old-timey diner that sold Chiclets and cigarettes. Except here it’s John Manion’s world of Argentine steak cookery. Look! Here are bone-cut short ribs and footlong tomahawk chops. Here is Manion’s “beef whip” (a.k.a. seasoned tallow) to slather on the meat as it grills, and chimichurri to dollop on after it hits your plate. Why stop there? Upgrade your game with a Town Cutler cleaver. Buy the guide Manion wrote with local writer Maggie Hennessy on how to pit-cook beef at home. Pick up some wine, and you’ll feel like a backyard gaucho in no time. If your tastes run more to flora, then check out Daisies Market. Frillman Farms produce is the star, but don’t overlook the fresh pastas this restaurant is known for and a nicely curated selection of dry goods. El Che, 845 W. Washington Blvd., West Loop; Daisies, 2523 N. Milwaukee Ave., Logan Square

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