The best Irish food shops in Chicago

You might at first take this Jefferson Park spot to be merely one more of the many shops around town peddling Irish gifts like Belleek china and Aran knits. But something more is happening here: Back beyond a small but densely stocked grocery section offering imported staples like baking supplies, sauces and potato chips (er, "crisps") is an open kitchen where shop staff whip up a range of traditional Irish comfort foods. Try the sausage rolls, super flaky, rich puff pastry shells wrapped around a filling of herby ground pork. It's a simple combination that's a little salty, a little fatty and extremely satisfying.

Opened in 1967 as a place for stockyard workers to get the foods they enjoyed back home, Winston’s Sausages offers a robust selection of Irish meats. Made from recipes that have been refined over the decades, the housemade sausages, puddings, Irish-style bacon and more are the best you’ll find in Chicagoland. So the next time you’re in the mood for some corned beef, skip the grocery store and head to this shop in Clearing instead.

Of course Mrs. Murphy and Sons is stocked with all of the essentials that anyone could hope to find at an Irish grocer, including Irish butter and imported tea, but this North Center spot isn’t just an Irish goods store. As its name suggests, Mrs. Murphy and her family have been whipping up pub staples for hungry diners for more than 15 years, specializing in main courses like beef and Guinness stew, bangers and mash and bread pudding that would make any native of the Emerald Isle feel at home. Diners can also pick up some of Mrs. Murphy and Sons imported Irish cheese or Cadbury candy bars to serve as an after-dinner treat.

Despite the name, this Lincoln Square shop sells more than just trinkets. You can get a taste of the Emerald Isle by picking up some Tayto crisps, Club Orange soda, Jacob’s Club Milk biscuits and much more. There are even perishables, such as soda bread and black and white pudding, if you’re trying to whip up a traditional Irish feast at home.

For more than 40 years, Jack & Pat's has serviced the Southwest Side's sizable Irish expat community from its marvelously kitschy Chicago Ridge location. Like Gaelic Imports, Jack & Pat's maintains a section of Irish grocery staples. It's first and foremost a butcher shop, though, and it's a good bet for Irish breakfast sausage, which, unlike its American counterpart, is subtly seasoned and so finely ground it's almost creamy. USDA regulations make importing Irish meats tough, so Jack & Pat's carries Winston’s, a locally-made brand. Winston’s offerings include bangers and rashers, as well as black and white pudding (to be clear, that’s not a combination of vanilla and chocolate puddings, but instead a sausage typically made with pig’s blood).

Along with supplying Irish meats to shops like Jack & Pat's, Winston's also operates two retail stores, the original near Midway (4701 W 63rd St) and the other, much newer and larger, in the southwestern suburb of Tinley Park. A visit to the Tinley location is well worth the trip; not only does it stock the meats prepared at the Midway location—boiling bacon, corned beef, sausages and so on—but thanks to its vast range of imported snacks, teas and soft drinks, and even frozen goods like fish sticks, it may also be the closest thing to a real Irish grocery store this side of the Atlantic. At the end of the day, though, Winston's is really about meat, so pick up a pack of the house-cured, thick-cut back bacon, known in Ireland as rashers.

Out in Long Grove, this Irish imports store boasts an impressive collection of snacks and groceries. Expect everything from soda bread and ginger preserve to Yorkshire pudding and strawberry trifle kits. The Irish Boutique also carries heartier items like savory pies and Winston’s rashers.