Lunch in the Loop is about to get a bit more exciting as chef Charlie McKenna is opening Fatback Butcher, a sandwich shop/butcher shop combo at 176 West Wacker Drive next month, a partnership with the Fifty/50 Group. McKenna, who is best known for being a barbecue champion (in addition to his restaurants Lillie’s Q and Roux, his Lillie’s Q products are in 15,000 stores nationwide), is aiming to create the ideal stopping place for folks looking for a hearty lunch, a steak to take home for dinner, a great bottle of wine, and anything else you need for those during-or-after-work hunger pangs.

McKenna has had a sandwich concept in the back of his mind for a long time, but (like so many restaurant ideas) it really came forward during COVID isolation when he was living in Florida and constantly making sandwiches. “It’s a concept I’ve wanted to do for a while; I love sandwiches, they are my favorite things to make,” McKenna says. Fatback is inspired by the look and feel of a 1950s butcher shop, combined with the sort of market that McKenna wants to visit himself. “I love the sandwich shops where you walk through a bodega and the sandwiches are in the back, so I wanted to recreate that.”

The sandwiches will run the gamut of culinary styles, from a spicy Italian meatball sandwich with vodka sauce to a French dip. As many ingredients as possible will be made in-house, from roast beef to compound butters, and what isn’t will be sourced from the best small producers McKenna can find. The breads will come from places like West Town Bakery and Publican Quality Bread. “Breads make a sandwich; it’s key to the whole thing — if you have great ingredients and put it on bad bread, it falls flat,” he says. If you aren’t a carnivore, don’t worry — Fatback, despite the pig-inspired name, will also offer vegetarian sandwiches and composed salads.

The retail side of the business is as important to McKenna as the sandwiches. “It feels to me that we’ve lost a little of our concern about quality,” says McKenna. “The Dean & DeLucas of the world have closed. I want to create just a little bit of that in a small venue.” In addition to offering products from many of the small vendors supplying sandwich ingredients, Fatback will offer a curated selection of meat, a rotisserie chicken program, wine, and canned cocktails. The idea is that if you’re heading home from work, or you live in the area, you’ll be able to stop in and grab everything you need to make a great, easy dinner.

If you work in the Loop, Fatback will be offering catering, so keep an eye out for that when the shop opens in late February. At first, Fatback will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, with weekend hours still a bit up in the air — it depends on traffic. Great sandwiches don’t come cheap — expect a $12 to $18 price range — but McKenna insists that’s because he’s not compromising on quality. “We want to give value to the customers, but we also want to have great quality ingredients, and that comes with a price.”