A SMOKING SUCCESS NORTHERN WATERS SMOKEHAUS HAS GAINED WORLDWIDE FAME

BY JANA HOLLINGSWORTH PHOTOS BY STEVE KUCHERA

Asort of upsidedown salumi garden hangs in tidy rows in the basement fermentation room of Northern Waters Smokehaus, where the humidity and air movement helps the meat lose the right amount of moisture.

It’s owner Eric Goerdt’s favorite room.

Ask him how salumi is made, and he grows intense, morphing into mad scientist-speak about how good bacteria, lactic acid, mold and humidity work to create the perfect pepperoni. A purist, he drills down on the virtues of learning the foundation before experimenting — know your German weisswurst before you make a blueberry brat — and then delivering an authentic product.

“If it’s not a saucisson sec like you would get in France, we’re not going to sell it,” he said. alumi, a classification of cured meat, is a big part of today s business, but smoked fish is how it all started. The famed smokehouse, which regularly ships smoked fish and meat nationwide, celebrated years in September of “smoking something.”

An obsession with tasting every batch of smoked whitefish and hunk of pancetta that rolls out of the basement production kitchen is key to how a one-man smokehouse in 1998 has become the Northland’s most famous sandwich shop. A hankering for a Sitka Sushi in the summer means lining up with hordes of out-oftowners.

“It’s not just a sandwich to us,” Goerdt said. “We’ve had a thousand people say ‘this is the best sandwich I’ve ever had.’ It’s because we really give a s***.”

It also thrives because Goerdt believes in paying his -plus employees a liveable wage and offering them health insurance and paid sick time, said general manager and 18-year employee Mary Tennis. Goerdt was a vocal supporter of the City Council’s recently passed earned safe and sick time ordinance.

“Happy people make good food,” Goerdt said.

‘IT MUSHROOMED FROM THERE’

An Iowa native, Goerdt came to Duluth with his wife, ynn, in by way of itka, Alaska, where he smoked fish for fun. As a vessel inspector and pollution investigator for the U.S. Coast Guard in Duluth, he dreamed of owning his own business. He noticed the popular West Coast style of smoking — kippering — wasn’t done here. Goerdt opened a business incubator in Superior and began smoking salmon. The former Allouez Marine Supply, which sold supplies to ships, bought oerdt s fish to sell to lakers.

“(Goerdt) is a hard worker with a stellar product and he’s good to his employees,” said Jim Banks, who owned Allouez Marine. “That’s got to be a key in any successful business.”

The mail order component of the Smokehaus had its roots in that uperior incubator. is first order was pounds of salmon for all niversity of innesota Duluth foundation members because then-chancellor Kathryn A. Martin was a fan.

“I got a vacuum packer and sent it,” Goerdt said. “And it mushroomed from there.” ish is the most shipped product, and apan is the farthest place a product has been sent. (It wasn t fish.) In each of the last two years, orders have been sent to all states.

The ewitt- eit arketplace shop opened in . It started with smoked fish and gourmet cheese, and deli meats, sandwiches, salumi, pate, kimchi, sausages and a delivery service were added over time.

The very first sandwich — the orthern agel — remains on the giant wall menu, but it has been joined by others with quirky names, like the Silence of the Lambwich and the Hedonist. Employees conduct a regular “sandwich lab” where new ideas are pitched and tried. The Purple Range and the Pork Lion sprung from that process.

The spicy salmon-stuffed a un inn remains the o. sandwich by half.

“It’s like, a quarter of our sales. Just that sandwich,” Tennis said.

Appearing on the ood etwork show iners, rive-ins and ives both initially and in reruns introduced orthern e were uni uely poised to benefit because we mail ordered,” Goerdt said. ow, you can even order orthern aters through Goldbely, an online marketplace that ships regional and artisanal specialties, like lobster from Maine and bagels from ew ork. ales from August amounted to , . The business makes a profit nine months out of the year, which helps recover from the slow post-holiday winter season.

Waters to the world. Sales grew by more than half for several years following the first airing in .

In the early days, employees would call Goerdt if the shop sold worth of sandwiches.

Some people questioned whether Duluth could support a shop that sold gourmet cheese and fish, Tennis said.

Their customers return for real food, Tennis said, “and we’re smart enough to not sell them short.”

The line on a Thursday this fall wound outside the shop door: a typical lunchtime rush. A tourist snapped a photo of the wall menu.

Pat and Tara Loucks of West St. Paul were in the area touring colleges with their son, making their traditional stop at Northern Waters.

“If we’re up here for a weekend, we come here twice,” Tara Loucks said.

MAYBE MINNEAPOLIS?

This year, production and shipping will move out of DeWitt Seitz, which now operates on three different floors of the building. A bigger space will allow more catering and will mean doubling the amount of salumi made, with added varieties. A first catalog will be released, and a cookbook is in the o ng. ooking ahead, Goerdt would like to expand into Minneapolis.

“We have tons of customers there,” Goerdt said.

Another go at a restaurant isn’t likely. The Northern Waters Restaurant near UMD was a popular but short-lived venture, closing at the end of 2017. With a small kitchen, the restaurant wasn’t making money fast enough, and the Smokehaus continued to grow.

“I really needed to set the Smokehaus up for the next 20 years,” Goerdt said. “I didn’t want to screw that up for everybody.”

The Northern Waters team is big enough now that it’s not just smokers, sandwich makers and deli counter workers. The roster is filled out by people who do marketing, social media, mail order, graphic design, baking and writing, all in-house. Ned Netzel started in the prep kitchen and made sandwiches, and is now part of the marketing team.

“There are opportunities to work on all levels,” he said. “There are no real closed doors.”

Goerdt’s business model is one to emulate, said Duluthbased commercial fisherman ave Rogotzke, a longtime supplier of his Alaska-fished salmon to orthern Waters.

“I think everybody that works there does so because it’s a joy to work for him,” he said. ❖