An Abridged History of Smokehaus Mail-Order

Northern Waters has been shipping since the beginning, when Eric was operating out of the Spirit Business Center in Superior, WI.

The University of Minnesota Duluth was our first mail order customer, and with the help of a shipping service located in the same business center, we shipped hundreds of boxes to the university’s alumni network around the country (and we still do—UMD remains one of our largest and most loyal customers. We love you forever!) and from there, mail orders snowballed, as recipients requested similar shipments for their loved ones.

“Vintage” mail order ephemera

What began as simple shipments of smoked fish, grew alongside our growing menu of smoked meats and sundries, and followed us along to our current location in Canal Park.

The next (huge) boost in our mail order sales arrived alongside the debut of our spot on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, which brought national (and international!) attention to our humble, still very sparsely-staffed, deli. Quickly, it seemed like everyone wanted a taste of NWS, and better yet, those who couldn’t make the trek to Duluth could have it shipped right to their front door. Our nationwide shipping, ever a mainstay of the business, grew such that sales during the month of December rivaled entire Summer tourist seasons! (Furthermore, re-runs of our Triple-D appearance often yield a boost in mail order sales of Salamini and Smoked Whitefish, to the point that we factor the re-airings into our production schedule.)

Mail Order Elves hard at work mid-pandemic

Andy (former M.O. director, current Wholesale Coordinator), Hannah (former M.O. elf, current Catering Director), and a bunch of boxes.

And since then, mail order has never really slowed down. Individual buyers and corporate customers both local and national have made our exquisite hausmade products a regular part of their personal shopping and gift-giving toolkit.

Meanwhile, our Mail Order department has been directed by a succession of talented teams and individuals, each using their particular skillsets and vision to grow, organize, re-organize, and reinvent the department into its current form; to lead and inspire the holiday “Mail Order Elves” to seasonal success packaging thousands of boxes over the course of a small handful of weeks; and to provide our customers with the best, most authentic service possible. It’s a tall order, and we’re grateful to those who have been a part of this journey, at every stage.

All the places we ship!

As a family-owned, locally oriented small business, we’ve done our best to remain humble, uphold our values and integrity, and continue to produce (and ship) renowned smoked fish and meats of the highest quality! Special thanks to Michael and Ollie, who are guiding Mail Order and Corporate Orders respectively during our deli’s big move into the basement of the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace. Next week we’ll be sharing final updates to our nationwide shipping and announcing an end-of-September Last Hurrah mail order sale (name tbd).

Michael (current M.O. director) vacuum packing a staggeringly small volume of smoked fish.

Reflection- A Year at NWS, Pandemic Edition

These days, it’s not uncommon for any of us to reflect on the past year and be wide-eyed and possibly fatigued at how much has changed in our worlds. The past year at Northern Waters certainly wasn’t anything we could have anticipated nor did we have a map to navigate what would come to be a new way of doing business for the foreseeable future. On March 11, we shut our doors to in-deli customers but remained open for pickup and delivery orders. “It was the slow season”, we said. “We’ll be okay”, we said. “We’ll make it work.” While our internal affirming statements came true, we really had no idea what was in store and the challenges we would collectively overcome. 

“The business coming in, it’s not going to last,” we said, as people stayed home and we watched our favorite eating establishments forced to close up. We were so wrong. Suddenly it was summer. And it lasted. And it lasted and it lasted some more. Our customers all showed up by supporting our business with local pickups for our smoked salmon or deliveries of sandwiches to new home offices and socially-distant cubicles.

Meanwhile up on the third floor, our usually-sleepy-in-spring mail order department started looking more like the holiday season. Boxes of smoked goodness lined our hallways waiting for the big brown truck to come. Was this December all over again? What is happening? 

We adapted by the second. We expanded our delivery zones. Our HR manager and owner would run deliveries. The culinary crew in the smokehuas proper would grab a delivery going to Gary or Deep Congdon. We juggled the phones and the online orders. The response from our customers was incredible.

The small eating area inside our deli transformed into a staging area for pickups and deliveries in March of 2020. Photo courtesy of Derek Montgomery Photography

We tried to plan for the time being only to discover we needed to tweak the plan. And then make a new plan. And then another. And maybe some more adjustments here… or there. And suddenly we are over a year into life in a pandemic world. And guess what? We are still adapting. It’s not a reflection of our inability to commit, rather, learning from all of our customers on the best way to deliver our products and quality service. The Smokehaus is a place of a constant effort to get it right. 

I write this post with much gratitude for all our customers who helped keep The Smokehaus open for business. I would be remiss if I also didn’t acknowledge the incredible group of people I get to work with everyday. They took on the challenges in such admirable, whatever-it-takes attitudes. It was remarkable.

There have been times over the last year where I would pause and wonder what the magic was that helped us come together to accomplish what we have this past year. A lifelong student of studying team and workplace cultures, it was fascinating. Some of my coworkers nerd out about music, some over fishing, some over food. I nerd out about what makes people come together to do remarkable things. We have great people with great character that work here. They are people committed to their craft and each other. But we have something a lot of places don't: Eric Goerdt.

Eric, our founder and owner, is responsible for this magic. He is the secret sauce. He brings a relentless level of energy and positivity to each department-- every. single.day. It is difficult for me to eloquently describe Eric's effect on this business and after trashing five paragraphs trying to describe this, I realized someone much more skilled with pen and paper has already done so. Steve Hoffman wrote a piece on The Smokehaus back in 2018 for The Growler. He says:

In Eric Goerdt’s vision, we live in a world where it is possible for a tiny deli counter, with next to no seating, in a mixed-use warehouse building in Duluth, to sell enough carefully made, world-class salumi, smoked fish, and cured meats each year to reliably employ 43 Minnesotans on an ongoing basis. All it takes is virtue.

What that virtue consists of, in Eric’s case, is a relentlessly cheerful insistence that employees be treated well, so that they are content in their jobs, so that, in turn, they stay around long enough to become knowledgeable, so that they will take informed and attentive care of their customers. As a result, those customers keep coming back, because they never get a single hint from the other side of the counter of rote, fast-food sullenness.

Eric Goerdt (right) and employee Steve Mann (left) decide on what orders they were going to be delivering Wednesday, March 18, 2020 in Duluth, Minn. as our regular dining area was converted to a space to organize delivery and carryout orders. The previous day, on orders from governor Tim Walz, all restaurants were ordered to cease dine-in services as part of efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Immediately, Northern Waters Smokehaus owner Eric Goerdt went to work on a new business model to reflect the new reality facing the business with the goal of continuing to employ every worker who would normally be working. Photo courtesy of Derek Montgomery Photography.

As we prepare for the busy summer season ahead, we know we are not past the challenges we've faced this past year. If we've learned anything, we know there will be more. But we know that we have a crew of people ready to find ways to make sure you can still experience The Smokehaus with the same enthusiasm and attention that you received when you used to be able to walk through our front doors and gaze into our deli cases full of products we are so proud of--- because behind all of us is a guy named Eric who humbly and enthusiastically gives us the best of himself everyday.

5 Things: Leap Day Eve 2020

Welcome back, friends and foes alike, to our weekly dish. Due to some time mismanagement, this week's 5 Things™ will be an exercise in speed-blogging, and is brought to you by fish oil capsules, two bags of this tea, and Patricia's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

You certainly have a busy Friday ahead of you, whether it's a day at work, a promise you've made, or just 100% doing you, so without further ado, here's the goods.

We're hiring again.

A few folks moved to Seattle, a handful of us have enjoyed vacations, and the weekends (plus select weekdays) have been busier than anticipated, and as such, we've come to find some spots that need filling in our fairly barebones operation.

If you're looking for part time deli or dishing work (12-20 hours to week, which will grow into more hours closer to Summer) at the coolest spot in Duluth, shoot Greg (our H.R. guy) a résumé at greg@nwsmokehaus.com or drop one off in the deli. We're especially looking for weekend availability at this time.

Benefits include competitive wages with annual raises, a free meal with every shift*, a sweet employee discount, cool coworkers, lots of snacks (y'know how I'm always talking about the fun new food I get to eat—this blog barely scratches the surface), and much more that doesn't fit into my speed-writing regimen.

*Easily one of the best parts of working for this company, as you may come to discover.

The All Things Traditional sale is coming to a close.

Tomorrow (2/29/20) is the final day of our 10% off mail order sale on any item featuring Traditional Smoked Atlantic Salmon.

The discount is applied to your pre-shipping cart, and is not tied to orders shipped during the sale dates. Plan ahead for your Trad-loving friend's birthday, or a holiday of your choice, and save money by placing your order before midnight on Saturday.

Cajun Finn shirts are going on sale!

For the entirety of March, our Cajun Finn t-shirts are $15! That's $5 off! Best purchased in multiples, so you and the squad can match, these shirts (and all of our merchandise) get you a lifetime 10%-off when you shop in our deli while wearing them.

You read that correctly—stroll into our deli carrying an NWS tote, wearing a hat or T-shirt, and get 10%-off at the register. Forever. Word of mouth advertising (and the odd television spot, and magazine feature) built our deli into what it is, so consider it a token of our gratitude for your marketing help.

A handful of designs that live right by my "desk"

New merchandise is in development.

This coming Monday, the marketing team and any staff who have ideas, are meeting to design and pitch the next wave of Smokehaus swag. From what I've heard, people have already put in a bunch of work on their designs and ideas, and within the next few months, we'll be seeing some awesome new merch in the deli. That's in addition to an awesome piece of Duluth Pack-made Smokehaus gear that we'll be introducing to the world right before Summer.

New and exciting ways to snatch that 10%-off discount are forthcoming.

What type of NWS apparel have you always wanted? Let us know in the comments.

New meat snacks are also forthcoming!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sampling a tester batch of Maple Bacon Jerky and Hot Dogs (I don't know how we're branding them yet, so I just capitalized the first letters).

For now, I will just say that both of those meat snacks were already quite tasty—even in these early stages—so I can't wait for the rest of you carnivores to try them.

Keep your eyes on our social media platforms and we'll let you know the day they appear in the deli.

Speaking of the deli, I'm just about due for an opening shift there. Enjoy the photos that Zac adds to this blog, and have a pleasant rest of your day.

We love you forever.

5 Things: All Things Traditional

All of February, we're running a 10%-off mail order sale on all Smoked Traditional Atlantic Salmon products, including A Hygge Box.

Instead of regaling the release of four new sandwiches, and the return of two sandwiches, or blathering about the ongoing emptying of our office, we'll let this week be a self-guided tour. Follow the links to explore the world of Smoked Traditional Atlantic Salmon—an item that consistently hangs at the top of our bestsellers list.

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In other news: Yesterday, your friendly neighborhood blogger had his first bite of The Pack Lunch—the premier sandwich of our upcoming collaborative relationship with our own friendly neighbors at Duluth Pack—and it is really good! Haus rye, with horseradish mayo, a quarter-pound of Corned Bison, cornichon pickles, red onion, maple syrup, and lettuce comprise this perfect trailside sandwich, which will be launched alongside an awesome new Duluth Pack-designed Smokehaus tote bag. Expect a launch date sometime shortly after the ides of March.

In similar fashion, an as-of-yet unnamed smoked fish sandwich will be arriving around the same time. A lovely supporter of the Boundary Waters won the naming rights in the Friends of the Boundary Waters auction last year. We can't wait to see what sort of name they come up with!