Butcher Shop Near Me in Palmetto Bay: Babe's Meat and Counter

Babe's Meat & Counter is a mom-and-pop butcher and sandwich shop at 9216 SW 156th Street in Palmetto Bay, a few blocks west of South Dixie Highway in South Dade. It opens Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm. For a butcher shop near me search south of Kendall, it is the place where the bacon is cured in house, the pastrami is smoked out back, and the burger patty is ground from the same case you buy from.

The business began as Babe Froman Fine Sausages. In late spring 2013, Jason and Melanie Schoendorfer started bringing homemade bacon and sausage to the Pinecrest Gardens Farmers Market. Melanie grew up in Timmins, Ontario, and had worked as a cheesemonger and specialty buyer at Joanna's Marketplace; Jason's family had run a pet cemetery and crematorium until 2014. Neither trained formally as a butcher, which makes what followed more striking.

By early 2018, Miami New Times reported, the couple were turning out about 70 pounds of sausage and 45 pounds of bacon a week, and they opened the Palmetto Bay counter that year. The paper also called them the only place in Miami for Montreal smoked meat. In 2021 StarChefs named the pair its Miami Rising Stars Butcher, noting that pandemic meat shortages pushed many new customers to a small independent shop.

The burger made the shop famous. Babe's Burger is a Prime and wagyu blend with American cheese, sriracha mayo and house pickles on a potato bun, and it costs $13.49 on the shop's own online menu. It beat Jeepney Grill in Good Morning America's United States of Burgers segment in 2022, and fries are cooked in a beef tallow blend for $5.99. Add a croqueta for $1.99 while you wait.

The sandwiches show off the smoker. The Montreal Smoked Meat, a house-smoked Canadian-style pastrami on rye with a Reuben option, is $16.99. The Cuban, built with house-smoked ham and roast pork, is $15.99, and the Cheesesteak with Prime and wagyu steak, sherry-caramelized onions and provolone is $19.99. A pork bacon banh mi is $14.99, and Melanie's Canadian roots show up again in the poutine, with house beef gravy and cheddar curds for $9.99.

Lunch pays the rent, but the meat case is still the heart of the room. Meat is ground and prepared in house, and the shop sells its house-smoked and cured products and house-made sausages raw for home cooking, alongside well-marbled steaks. If you are grilling that weekend, buy a pack of sausages or a slab of the bacon on the way out and ask which steak the butcher would cook tonight.

Smoked wings use Bell & Evans chicken, a detail worth knowing if you care where your poultry comes from. The kitchen staff named in 2026 include chef Mike Leon, baker Katherine Alvarez and manager Eric Cordo, a sign of how far the operation has grown beyond two people at a market table. The menu posted on the shop's Square site was updated in October 2026, with new entries on the chicken sandwich and the Cuban.

Regulars who remember squeezing into a handful of tables will find a different shop. In March 2026 Hoodline reported that Babe's had taken the space next door, adding about 40 indoor seats and enlarging both the butcher counter and the sandwich kitchen. The Infatuation updated its review in May 2026 to say the shop doubled in size. The extra room makes a sit-down lunch practical instead of eating in the car.

Hoodline also wrote that Miami New Times has named Babe's the best burger in Miami, and lunch traffic followed. Uber Eats lists the shop among the ten most-ordered spots in Rockdale. To skip the line, order through the Square site for pickup; the store's delivery menu on Uber Eats costs more, with the same burger listed at $17.49 there, so pickup is the better deal.

Look for the logo before you look for the door: a crowned pig's head over a black plaque with the shop name in gold Western letters, a cleaver and the words Since 2018. The shop's T-shirts swap in a pink and teal Miami Vice version, with the pig in sunglasses under palm trees, and they make a better souvenir than most. Inside, merchandise shares the shelves with sauces, pickles and the cured meats.

Timing matters with a counter that closes at 5 pm. The kitchen's online ordering window on Uber Eats runs from 9:15 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Saturday and 10:15 am to 2:30 pm on Sunday, a good guide to when hot food is on. Sunday is the short day, so come before noon if you want the smoked meat sandwich and still have time to shop the case. Weekday mid-mornings, just after opening, are the calm window for a long conversation with the butcher.

The shop sits in a white stucco strip on SW 156th Street, in the Rockdale area of Palmetto Bay. Kimchi Mart, at 15355 South Dixie Highway, is a short walk north and a good stop for Korean pantry goods to pair with a steak dinner. Metrobus stops on SW 152nd Street, just west of US-1, are about a five-minute walk from the counter, so you can reach Babe's without a car.

If you want a second stop for dinner later, New York Roma Pizza is at 9050 SW 152nd Street, a few minutes away on foot. The farmers market where the story began is at Pinecrest Gardens, a short drive north up South Dixie Highway, which makes a Sunday loop easy: market in the morning, then lunch and a bag of bacon at Babe's before the 3 pm close.

Babe's Meat & Counter, 9216 SW 156th Street, Palmetto Bay, FL 33157. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, Sunday 10 am to 3 pm. Pickup orders through the shop's Square site; delivery through Uber Eats at higher prices. About 40 indoor seats since the 2026 expansion. Bring a cooler bag if you plan to buy raw sausages or steaks along with lunch.