American Eat Co., Tucson’s first food hall, will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. But long before it housed trendy eateries, the building was home to American Meat Co., a beloved butcher shop where chorizo sold out by the truckload and community ties were as important as the cuts of meat.

American Meat Co. closed the doors of its South Fourth Avenue meat market December 2015 after 62 years in business, leaving behind a legacy built on flavor and connection.

The meat market was the brainchild of two brothers: Alejandro “Alex” Islas Jr., a butcher, and Reuben Islas, a skilled meat cutter.

When Alex took the idea to his father, he agreed to loan him $5,000 to start the business — but only if his other brother, Joaquin Islas, was also involved.

“Reuben was kind of crazy,” Filiberto Islas, another brother involved in starting the company, told Tucson Spotlight with a laugh. “I guess my father didn’t trust him.”

Joaquin had recently been laid off from his job as a railroad machinist, and he picked up meat-cutting quickly. Filiberto Islas said Joaquin ran the store “top-notch.”

Despite its popularity and growth, the market was a family affair until the very end, with Filiberto Islas working there as a teenager.

“I had worked in a machine shop, and I hurt my eyes, and my brother Joaquin said, ‘You're killing yourself over there. Come work with us,’” Filiberto Islas said.

Many family members helped out at the business, including the brothers’ sons. While it was a family operation, Filiberto said there were minimal issues between them.

“We had differences of opinion sometimes, but there was nothing we couldn't settle,” he said. “We'd have meetings of the four brothers, and that was it. We'd settle everything.”

The Islas brothers’ nephew and longtime former journalist Michael Chihak started working in the market when he was 13, saying almost every child in the original family worked in the business at some point.

Some went on to spend their entire lives there, including the fifth brother, Oscar Islas.

“My brother, Oscar, started working there when he was still in high school, and it was the only job he ever had. He was there 45 years,” Filiberto Islas said. “He was the heart and soul of the store. There was nothing he didn't know about it.” 

The Islas family came from Nogales, growing up on a ranch before moving to Tucson when Filiberto Islas was 10.

“We moved out because we were starving in there,” Filiberto Islas said. “It was rough.”

He connected with the Mexican American community in nearby South Tucson by providing chorizo and menudo during the winter, and with the broader Tucson community by creating a staple where cultures came together.

“I mean, you know, being Mexican American, a lot of the meat cuts and a lot of the business was done for the Mexican American community, and everybody who worked there spoke Spanish,” Chihak said. “You could go in there and get your orders in English or Spanish.”

Chihak and Filiberto recalled the overwhelming demand for the market’s chorizo and menudo, packing the freezers with tens of thousands of pounds of meat and still selling out in weeks.

“We had 25,000 pounds of menudo. That's all the freezer would take,” Filiberto said. “Come Christmas week, we started pulliting it out from the freezer. By New Year's, it was all gone.”

Chihak said longtime Tucsonans still fondly remember the chorizo and recall visiting the market to find it.

“I have a brother-in-law who's 10 years younger than me. I told him that I worked (at American Meat Co.) when I was a teenager,” Chihak said. “He said, ‘Oh, I probably saw you in there, because I would go in there with my mom when I was a little kid to buy chorizo.’ That's how big it was for the community.”

Chihak said the original recipe came from a former coworker of Alex Islas, who later became a Pima County sheriff’s deputy.

“That guy was working on a chorizo recipe, and he shared it with my Nino, who then used it when he started the business,” Chihak said. “It was so good, it became extremely popular.”

When people ask him for the recipe, Chihak said they’re disappointed to learn the only version he has yields 300 pounds of meat.

But the store’s real legacy wasn’t just in what it sold — it was in what it meant to Tucson.

“It was a meeting place for Tucson. It was a good concern at that time,” Filiberto Islas said. “Boy, it was a gold mine.”

The market also served as a source of information for residents of Tucson and beyond.

“People came from out of town, and they'd get information, because (the Islas family) knew everybody in town — they knew the whole world,” said Elda Islas, Filiberto’s wife.

The shop also allowed the family to connect deeply with members of the community, including Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year, and his wife, Mona Grijalva.

“Raúl was a friend of mine for many, many years, and when he died, at his funeral, I went up to Mona, and she gave me a big hug, and I said, ‘I'll never forget how you and Raul took care of my Nino,’” Chihak said. “She said to me — because now Alex lives in my Nino's house, because he inherited it — ‘Well, now Alex is going to take care of me.’”

Chihak said that moment helped him realize the impact his family and the business have had on the Tucson community and the people it connected him with.

The family also fondly remembered how people used to come specifically to see Reuben. Filiberto described him as a salesman type — charismatic and a character everyone enjoyed getting to know.

Chihak recalled a time when a woman called to preorder a rib roast for an event, but Reuben told her it wasn't necessary and that she could pick it up the day of.

When she returned the following week, Reuben told her she needed to have ordered it in advance.

“She says, ‘I came in here last week and tried to order it, and you told me I could just come in and get it,’” Chihak said. “He just stood there and said, ‘Well, maybe I lied to you.’”

The woman stormed out and, to their knowledge, never returned.

Filiberto recalled Reuben’s heavy accent, even after the other brothers lost theirs by attending English-speaking high schools. He said that while Reuben was a bit of a character, customers loved him, and he was very good at what he did.

While the storefront may be gone, the legacy of American Meat Co. still resonates across Tucson.

Filiberto said Reuben’s son, Bobby Islas, and his girlfriend operate Islas Meat Market on Irvington Road. Bobby plans to retire soon, but another family member may take it over.

“It's a little tiny store, one counter, but he sells a lot of menudo, yeah, and a lot of chorizos,” Filiberto said. “He also stores it in September, and he sells it all for New Year's.”

Emma LaPointe is a journalism, political science and German Studies major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at emma.m.lapointe@gmail.com.

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