Over the front window of Gene’s Sausage Shop and Delicatessen is a painted cow. The vibe of this display statue does not make you conjure up a cowbell wearing dairy cow. Its unadorned, take it as you see it, look is strictly beefy. The store, an anchor in the neighborhood, is a family-run butcher shop — and more.

Before I moved nearby, I would visit the Lincoln Square neighborhood once a year. I’d park myself under a large tent, cum portable beer hall, during Octoberfest and watch the local seniors drag out their lederhosen and feathered hats and mingle with the white bred twenty-somethings that were always up for a good party.

Founders John and Gene (the Gene in Gene’s) Luszcz were Polish.  They started their butcher shop and deli in the 70’s in a more Polish neighborhood nearby.  They bought this larger space on Lincoln Avenue across from Timeless Toys and Stanley Brown Jewelers from Delicatessen Meyer in 2007. The area was, and still is, largely German.

Polish or German, it’s definitely Old World. Shopping at Gene’s is so un-Target, so un-superstore. I think I fell in love with the place the first time I walked under the cow.

As you enter, on your right is a small, colorful produce section. They don’t feature much of a variety, and the prices are high, but every mushroom and rutabaga looks like it was hand picked by the owner of the farm where it grew.

Just to the left of the sliding doors is the two-register checkout where two white-capped, freshly scrubbed clerks are freakishly efficient in getting customers through the commercial side of their visit. To the far left is a case of pastries suitable for a Viennese konditorei, a bodacious deli counter with great Luszcz family versions of Hunter’s Stew and potato pancakes, and an incredible meat selection that features over 40 varieties of sausages. Made on the premises, of course.

The red take-a-number dispenser is always surrounded. Sample trays of smoked meats alongside a dish of toothpicks helps keep the customers happily occupied until their number is called.

In the center aisle, they stack a wonderland of candies and packaged treats from favorite, high-end, European manufacturers. I’ve contemplated buying Gluckschwein (pig-shaped) marzipan and bottle-shaped foil wrapped chocolates filled with liqueur.

The second floor is a treasure house filled with imported wines and beers from smaller production houses as well as jars of specialty items like caraway seed sauerkraut and lingonberry preserves.

The other day, I came for lamb shoulder so I could make a stew. I had to laugh at the sign behind the glass case in the butcher shop. OUR BEEF WAS RAISED WITHOUT ANTIBIOTICS OR HORMONES.  Well isn’t this something? I thought. Even an Old World butcher shop has to re-invent itself for a 21^st century customer.

Before I left, I wandered around upstairs. There were so many things I had never seen before.

I like to shop at certain stores because I can easily find what I’m looking for.  Other stores are great because I can find things I couldn’t have imagined looking for.

Being able to buy a box of lucky pig shaped marzipan is no small thing.