Dittmer’s Gourmet Meats and Wurst-Haus: Mountain View, CA

Dittmer’s is Mecca for sausage and smoked meat lovers. This one-of-a-kind butcher shop is unique for its selection of over 40 types of sausages from all over the world—all made on-site.

You’ll find links of poultry, pork, venison, lamb, blood, you name it. Some sausages are smoked, some double smoked, some fresh and some parboiled. They have everything from Bangers to Cajun sausages.

Honestly, it’s a little overwhelming deciding what to take home. Not knowing when I’d be in Mountain View again, I felt the pressure to choose wisely. The good news is that you can’t go wrong.

Dittmer’s sausages win numerous awards. So far, I’ve tried the Weisswurst, a delicately flavored, white, finely ground sausage that is parboiled. It was gorgeous. I have some Danish Medisterpoise (sometimes spelled medisterpolse) waiting in the freezer for another day.

Dittmer’s is one of the few remaining old-fashioned butcher shops from a time when being a butcher was a trade, not a job. They make and smoke everything right there in the store and quite obviously take pride in the quality of the product.

If sausage isn’t your thing, you’ll also find about a zillion types of bacon and cold cuts, fresh meats and fowl and hard to find items like pork jowl and housemade lard.

Even if meat’s not your thing, you’ll enjoy the old-fashioned vibe, no nonsense service and the wall of interesting grocery items like German mustards, pickles, chocolates and dried spätzle noodles.