5 Things: November 15th, 2019

Mail Order season is suddenly upon us. The third-floor DeWitt-Seitz office is already primed for near-optimal success is preparing hundreds of skillfully packed boxes. You know what? This is my first Thing™ this week. Let's play it again.

Mail Order season is suddenly upon us.

The third-floor DeWitt-Seitz office is already primed for near-optimal success is preparing hundreds of skillfully packed boxes. Any surface that could possibly be repurposed as a work surface is or soon will be.

Storage space is at an all-time premium—we've even rented spaces in Proctor, MN and Superior, WI to keep from overburdening our DeWitt-Seitz location.

We've brought in seasonal reinforcements, who will be training in on Sunday the 17th, and making our Mail Order Director, Andy's life way less stressful. It's a whole thing.

We've updated our shipping policies and providers so that we'll hopefully be turning a profit (albeit small) on each package shipped, rather than losing a little bit of money on each. For our small, family-owned, community-oriented business, this is great news.

We met with our publisher.

On Tuesday, a cohort of those of us involved in producing the first Northern Waters Smokehaus cookbook took a field trip to the University of Minnesota Press's office in Minneapolis. We're honored and excited to be working with the press, and the feeling seems to be mutual. Icing on the cake: the building in which they're located has very comfortable conference room chairs.

In the wake of that meeting, we've developed a plan to methodically comb through the rest of the recipe testing, while polishing the text into something worthy of telling the story of NWS, DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace, and our beloved City and Lake.

While the cookbook itself won't be hitting shelves any time soon, it's been 20+ years coming at this point, and it will be a great accomplishment to kick off the next two decades of NWS.

Rush Creek Reserve has returned.

For the uninitiated: RCR is Uplands Cheese Company's (Dodgeville, WI) Autumn-exclusive, washed rind, raw cow's milk cheese made with the rich and silky milk that emerges when the cows' diets shift from Summer pastures to Fall and Winter hay.

The extremely seasonal, small batch cheese is sold in 12oz wheels ($35/wheel) that are intended to be served at room temperature in a single serving. (No worries if you and yours can't manage that: Just re-package it in its breathable wrap and tuck it in the coldest part of the fridge.)

Maker Andy Hatch has described the cheese as a "savory custard, [which] exudes a very soft, delicate texture with a savory, rich finish likened to cured meat."

Each wheel of the cheese is hand-wrapped with spruce bark, then aged 60 days before it is shipped off to distributors. For more information on serving—beyond the obvious: serve it on a fine cracker alongside a sparkling or dry white wine—chat with our deli staff.

You don't want to miss out on this exceptional cheese, and the rest of the delicious offerings—including my personal favorite, the Shepherd's Way Sogn Tomme—in our grab'n'go case, this holiday season.

The 127th Annual Sandwich Lab is this Sunday night!

On Sunday night at 7 p.m., the best of the best will be assembling to brush up our sandwich-making skills, pitch new sandwich ideas, and just generally have a good time.

Unlike our most recent Sunday night meeting, we'll be open full business hours (all the way to 6pm) on Sunday. I didn't realize that there had been so many until we received this official notice from our HR director, Greg:

We've smoked a few batches of North Road salmon.

The global salmon market is currently in flux—with causes and effects that extend outside of the purview of this particular blog post—and as a substantial importer of salmon, we strive to continue to bring you responsibly and sustainably sourced Atlantic salmon.

North Road provides huge (we're talking five-pound filets!) , beautifully marbled salmon sourced from sustainable farms off the coasts of Norway and Scotland, and within the Faroe Islands. The smoked product is melt-in-your-mouth tender and has taken especially well to our brown sugar & salt cure, resulting in some of the best smoked salmon I've had the pleasure of eating, even by our stringent standards—especially with dill seasoning.

Currently, we're only smoking it in small batches and selling it in our deli, alongside our other smoked salmon options. Next time you stop in the deli, ask for a sample and see for yourself, or just buy a big ol' slab and show all your friends and family.

Thanks for tuning in!

NEXT WEEK ON 5 THINGS™: More about mail order season, a follow-up on Sandwich Lab, an in-depth look at our new enormous standing mixer (described to me as "something out of War of the Worlds"), and more!

5 Things: November 1st, 2019

Diet season is over. Between the leftover Halloween candy all but the most popular houses are holding onto, and the numerous impending holiday feasts you'll attend, there's going to be a lot to eat about these next few months. If you live in the cold North like we do, you can choose to view it as a matter of pragmatism: adding an extra layer of insulation to survive the harsh Winter.

Clearly food is on my mind, so it is convenient that I write for a deli's blog. Today, I'll tell you about some new food (and beverage) items at the Smokehaus, and if I run out of new foods to talk about, I'll just wing it the rest of the way.

One more reminder, before we get into the juicy selection of Things™ that await: We're in the midst of our MN Early Bird mail order sale:

Order now for the holidays and enjoy 15% off any order heading to Minnesota! Smoked turkey, ham, porketta, salmon, and more.

Enter code earlybird19 at checkout and specify when you would like your order to arrive in the order notes. You can use this code on as many individual transactions as you see fit.

This offer is effective through November 14th, 2019. Some boring restrictions may apply.

A new beer joins the roster.

Since we began carrying beer, wine, cider, and hard seltzer earlier this year, Fulton's Lonely Blonde has been a customer favorite. But seasons change, and beer menus do too, so once we run out o our stock of Lonely Blonde*, we'll begin serving Fulton's Standard Lager, a very sessionable all-malt lager that clocks in at a respectable 4.5% abv and is a perfect fit for the colder part of the year.

Smoked Molasses Cookies.

The newest addition to our lineup of baked goods is a hot topic in this increasingly colder season. Patricia has been talking about smoked molasses cookies since she started working at our deli, and the dream has finally come true. Made with a 50/50 blend of haus-smoked and unsmoked butter, and the perfect amount of haus-smoked molasses, these cookies are a great follow-up to any of our sandwiches, but to me they sound (err...taste?) like a great follow-up to a straightforward sandwich, like the Cold Turkey or Gorilla. They will be regularly available for $2 in the deli, on their own or in a Box Lunch.

Thanksgiving Dinner Pasties.

On Wednesday, I caught Patricia in the middle of baking off a huge tray of bread cubes. When I asked why prep had her making croutons, she gave me the best news I'd received all week, which you can likely guess from the preceding emboldened text: these bread cubes will become stuffing. That stuffing will be combined with Smoked Turkey Breast, gravy, craisins, and root vegetables to form ~*THANKSGIVING DINNER PASTIES*~

Be the first* to know when they're available. Keep your eyes on our social media pages.

Grab Thanksgiving Dinner by the crust and enjoy!

*After Patricia, whomever is working with Patricia, and whomever is available to post the news to our social media feed.

Our All-Staff Meeting is this Sunday at 6pm, and Sandwich Lab is just around the corner.

This seems like it should be two Things™, but it's happening as one. On Sunday, November 3rd, we'll be closing our doors at 5 p.m.—just a little bit earlier than usual—for an All-Staff Meeting. Please forgive us in advance if you were planning on stopping into our deli between 5 and 6 p.m. on your way out of town. (Perhaps you could just skip town an hour earlier to beat our closing time. It's cold and snowing here now—there's nothing for you anymore.)

And just a few short weeks after, many of us Smokehausers will meet for our annual Sandwich Lab.

Sandwich Lab is an event that emerged a few years back to calibrate our evolving/rotating cast of sandwich makers, to ensure that we're making sandwiches consistently, and of the utmost quality. The Summer rush is not the ideal scenario in which to learn the subtle art of NWS sandwich-making, and yet that is when so many among us must cut their teeth.

Sandwich Lab also offers us an opportunity to share our favorite personal sandwiches, to have them graded and analyzed (and ideally enjoyed). Last year's Sandwich Lab featured so many good candidates that we released them as monthly specials, beginning with the Breakfast Club, and ending with the G.O.A.T., which saw its last official day on the menu yesterday.

Who knows what will happen this year(?), but however it goes, it always ends up being fun.

ACTUAL SANDWICH LAB FOOTAGE

ALL-DAY SLIDERS!

In conjunction with our new-and-improved Happy Hour, we've added Smokehaus Sliders to the menu. Monday through Friday 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., 16oz cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hamm's are $2, and all other craft brews are $1-off.

The sliders feature half-portions of your favorite NWS meats, and butter, on a cute little slider bun, and are available for $3 (or two for $5). HOWEVER, if you can't make it in between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., you can still get sliders all day at the low, low cost of $3 for one/$6 for two.

They're the perfect size for kids of all ages, and those who want to try a variety of our products without breaking belt loops or billfolds.

Thanks for stopping by 5 Things™. We at the Smokehaus hope you have a good rest of your day and stay hydrated. We love you forever.

5 Things: October 25th, 2019

October has, thus far, been a whirlwind of activity in Duluth and the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace. The first three weeks of the month held several conventions and conferences—including the Catalyst Content Festival and Duluth's first-ever cosplay/comic-convention, DuluCon—which brought new and enthusiastic crowds of out-of-towners to our deli each week.

This week we got our reprieve. The lunch rushes were slower, and there was an abundance of time to deep clean the deli.

A cookbook photo shoot.

Smoked fish was on the menu at this shoot, which included smoked salmon and whitefish, green curry lake trout, lake trout chowder, king salmon candy confit, several smoked fish spreads, and more, beautifully plated on colorful kids plates.

You may already be familiar with our photographic style through our various social media platforms, our blog, and our catalog, but we still have a few tricks up our sleeves, and we're excited for you to see them.

Who'd have guessed(?)—inclement weather.

Goodbye, Lakewalk

It's roughly that time of year, when Canal Park, and furthermore the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace, locks horns once again with the Big Lake. Canal Park all but closed down, any attempts to repair the destroyed Lakewalk were undone, and a handful of our staff, alongside the ever hardworking Oneida crew, fought the ceaseless tide in our basement with brooms and squeegies.

After last year's flooding, we took a long, hard look at our drainage systems, and last year's long, hard look paid off, as the drains in our kitchen put in work as well. One day, Nature will reclaim it all, but until then, we're grateful for the folks in the trenches.

The Early Bird Sale began on our website.

October 24th through November 14th, you'll receive 15% off every cart before shipping costs are applied. Yes, that is 15% off of virtually everything we sell online, all for the low, low cost of typing earlybird19into the coupon code box. The offer cannot be combined with other coupons, but the code is reusable for the duration of the sale.

Patricia made smoked molasses cookies!

Since she began working with us, Patricia has been talking about making smoked molasses cookies, and it has finally come to fruition. After one very controversialbatch, which some deemed delicious, and others far too smoky—it broke your blogger's heart to criticize Patricia's work for the first time—she has locked in that perfect balance of rich sweetness and smokiness in her latest batch. They're available in our deli for $2 per cookie, and are an option for your box lunches.

When she's not hard at work supplying all of our cookies—chocolate chip, ginger, coconut macaroons, carrot cake & cream cheese sandwiches, and now smoked molasses—Patricia still knocks out just shy of a dozen pasties each week, toasty cheddar crackers, and the occasional experiment. What a gem!

We held it down at Duluth Pack's Ladies Night.

Flo prepared a grip of All-Season fillet platters for the 6th Annual Ladies Night event, and Jacob covered the event, which featured Wild State Cider, a raffle, and plenty of interaction with locals who had somehow never known our deli was right next door. All-in-all, Jacob deemed it one heck of a party and a success for our business.

In conclusion if you have been holding out on a trip to NWS because of the long lines and chaos, there's no time like the present to stop in. Things should be calm until mid-November, when the holiday fun starts. This is also the last weekend to try the G.O.A.T., our first smoked andouille sandwich, and final 2019 Sandwich Lab special, which leaves our menu November 1st.

5 Ways NWS Can Help You Win the Holidays

First of all, welcome back to 5 Things™, returning on an atypical day after an atypical absence. We're right on the cusp of my favorite holiday, Halloween, so I'm feeling festive. This week's edition is a special one, focused on our upcoming holiday mail order season, and the many ways in which Northern Waters Smokehaus can help you "win" the holidays.

It's an audacious claim to make, but I'm somewhat certain that by the end of this article, you'll have a clear advantage over your holiday competition. No longer will your guests be "saving room" for more exciting meals to come, leaving you with an abundance of leftovers to deal with in the following weeks, and if they do, hey, you've got Smokehaus leftovers.

Here we go, in no particular order:

1. Roast a whole hunk of meat:

We've got options: our smoked Berkshire ham, smoke-roasted porketta, maple-sage smoked Ferndale Market turkey breast, and smoked pastrami are all guaranteed to launch your guests' taste buds right into the stratosphere, and preparation is simple enough: braise alongside some choice seasonal vegetables, allow to cool, carve to perfection, profit.

Here's a handful of ideas to get the brain moving:

2. Catch "The Worm" with our Early Bird sale:

Oof. That's a gross one, but, low-hanging fruit that it was, I had to go for it. Would it have been better if I'd said, "The Proverbial Worm?" Perhaps.

More about our actual Early Bird sale follows:

October 24th through November 14th, you can take 15% off your cart when ordering online, by entering the coupon code earlybird19 before checkout.

15% off everything is nothing at which to shake a stick, unless you're shaking that stick with joy. Here are the sales's details:

• You can use the code on as many transactions as you like, within the timeframe of the sale.

• The 15% discount applies on everything except items already affected by another sale, and is applied before shipping costs.

• The discount cannot be combined with other coupons.

• As long as you finalize the transaction within the sale's timeframe, you can have your items shipped whenever you like. Perfect for planning your holidays ahead of schedule.

3. Read some of our previous blog posts about NWS and the holidays:

While I've got some great ideas for improving the proverbial wheel, now isn't the time to re-invent it.

Here's a handful of links to previous years' writings about NWS Mail Order and the holiday season.

4. Memorize these cutoff dates:

For those who prefer to wait until the last minute, whether it's waiting for that holiday bonus to clear, or simply living on the edge, these are the hard-and-fast cutoff dates you ought to remember:

Tuesday, November 19th – Last day to order to receive before Thanksgiving. Wednesday, November 20th for Minnesota

residential shipping addresses.

Tuesday, December 17th – Last day to order to receive before Christmas. Wednesday, December 18th for Minnesota

residential shipping addresses.

Wednesday, December 18th – Last Day of Shipping before Christmas AND New Year's Eve

Tuesday, December 24th through Sunday, January 5th 2020 – NO SHIPPING! Mail Order Office closed for the holidays.

Monday, January 6th 2020 – Normal shipping schedule resumes.

Keep these dates in mind and you'll have your favorite NWS goodies on hand, on time

5. Don't forget about these upcoming holiday deals:

Pigs in Space is our special Cyber Monday deal. From 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. (00:00:01 - 23:59:59) on Monday, December 2nd, Minnesota and Midwest orders will have free shipping, and continental shipping will be half-price.

Holiday Gift Card Frenzy is the working title I'm giving to our annual gift card sale. For every $100 of gift cards purchased—whether $10x10, $20x5, $50x2, $100x1, or some combination of the like—you'll receive a bonus $20 gift card, and there's no known limit on how many bonus gift cards you can accumulate. 20% back for yourself, or to spread the gifting a little further, is pretty great. Offer available in-store only (whether you wait in line, or order in-advance for pickup), online gift cards do not apply.

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