Candy Meat Market Sold Meat-Shaped Candy In The Loop

By Amy Cavanaugh in Food on Mar 17, 2013 6:00PM

Bring this back! When Calumet 412 posted about the Candy Meat Market that once sold candies shaped like meats in the Loop, we got really excited. They found it via Modern Mechanix, a site that features "ads, articles and inventions of the last 100 years."

Here's the text from the 1929 ad:

One of the most unique candy stores in America is the "Candy Meat Market" which is run by Jim Crowe in the Loop, Chicago. Here Mr. Crowe is seen posing for a photo in the midst of his candy meats.

Everything in the store, except the actual fixtures, is made of candy. So well are all the meats imitated that the hams smell of that salty tang that is so familiar to all of us. The summer sausage looks like summer sausage, but it isn't—it's candy. Not only does all the candy represent some form of meat but it is made to please the palate. At first, Chicago people doubted the reality of these confections, but time and taste have taught them that this store sells "quality goods."

We tried to do a bit more digging to find out where this shop was and what years it was open, but our usual research tools failed us. But we did find that on Coney Island in the 1910s, there was a similar store, Heppe's Candy Meat Market, "which featured sweets in the shape of cuts of meat and cold cuts," so this was totally a thing.

Given Chicago's love of meat, someone should open one today! You could start by stocking the Mexican lollipops shaped like little chickens and marzipan sausages.