Worcester's Fairway Beef Closes Suddenly After 75 Years

WORCESTER, MA — The beloved, old-school butcher Fairway Beef in downtown Worcester abruptly closed its doors Saturday, with the owners telling employees the building had been sold, according to reports.

Fairway Beef was opened in the Canal District in 1946 by the Sigel family — who are still the owners today. The store sold all types of meat cuts, plus staples like bread, eggs and deli cheese.

"Fairway Meats is the last surviving shop of a once-thriving meat district, and we have an excellent meat selection," the store's website says.

Employees told Spectrum 1 News they only found out about the closure on Saturday morning, and were told the building had been sold. The market is located in the rapidly gentrifying Canal District just a few blocks from the new Polar Park.

Other nearby properties are being targeted for development. A collection of parcels along Green Street centered around the former Lucky Dog Music Hall will soon become a 318-unit apartment building. The 1950s-era Table Talk Pies factory nearby will also become apartments, although the piemaker is moving into a brand new building several blocks south.

As of Sunday morning, the Worcester County Register of Deeds had not recorded any recent transactions involving the Fairway Beef property, which is divided between 102 Temple St. and 44 Grafton St.

In February 2020, Fairway's owners, John Sigel, George Sigel, Jerome Sigel and Martin Sigel, transferred part of the property at 102 Temple St. into a new corporate entity called Jaffee Realty LLC. The manager of Jaffee Realty is John Sigel, according to Secretary of the Commonwealth records.

The last record for 44 Grafton St., which is the address for the land where the actual market building sits, is a five-year lease from 1971 between Fairway and a business called Bill's Lunch Inc. That property was also still owned by Jaffee Realty LLC as of this weekend, according to property records.