Welcome to our collection of recipes, lore, and favorite stories from all of us at the Smokehaus. We hope you find something interesting and useful to add to your food journey.
One of our simplest offerings is also our most impressive. The Northern Bagel is a showcase of our "traditional" smoked Atlantic salmon. Our Haus-made scallion cream cheese is the perfect counterpoint for the sweet and slightly salty salmon, and the toasted bagel is a perfect delivery device. Our second best seller after the untouchable Cajun Finn. This is possibly the best way to experience our smoked salmon.
Traditional smoked salmon from the deli.
Our Summer wine list is live! Enjoy these tasting notes, introductions, and pairing suggestions for each selection, as put together by our buyer and resident wine-nerd, Taylor Kline. And make sure you check out our Wine & Jazz night: Each Thursday from 4-8pm wine is 25% off by the bottle, with specials by the glass, and from 5:30-7:30pm, our haus jazz quartet the Hounds (or another select jazz group when the Hounds are busy) performs exquisite live jazz—the perfect pairing for any wine.
Les Bulles Nordiques. Mousse Sparkling Wine Co. Jordan, MN. 2023.
Grapes: Itasca
$15 btg /$46 btb
Tasting Notes: pear, gooseberry, honeydew melon, bread
Haus-pairings: salamini, Cold Turkey, Gorilla, Sitka Sushi
2023 Itasca Pét-Nat is a delicious dry wine with beautiful notes of peaches and pineapple, made from 100% Itasca grapes, hand-harvested and gently whole-cluster pressed. The wine was bottled right from the tank during the first fermentation in order to capture the fresh, fruity flavors from the fruit and the natural bubbles from the fermentation.
Josie Boyle is the winemaker/owner of Mousse Sparkling Wine Co based in Jordan, Minnesota. She is the first in Minnesota to make a pét-nat style wine, short for the French term, Pétillant-Naturel, where secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle creating CO₂ (the bubbles.)
Big Salt. Ovum Wines. Willamette Valley, Oregon. 2023.
Grapes: White blend- Riesling, Muscat, & Gewurztraminer.
$12 btg / $38 btb
Tasting Notes: honeysuckle, white flowers, kumquat, sea salt
Haus-pairings: Great Summer Caper w/ Lox, Bánh Faux Mì, Cedar’s Secret, Spring Roll
2023 Big Salt is dry, aromatic and zippy. Oceanic, citrusy mandarin and pineapple leap out of the glass. Fully native fermentation, no subtractions or additions, except for SO₂: All of this is done in neutral barrels of acacia and oak, as well as cement egg and Austrian cask.
Established in 2011 by Ksenija and John House, Ovum was founded in hopes of producing Oregonian white wines that are honest reflections of time and place. Their low intervention production method is a commitment to letting the vintage and vineyard shine, not the vintner.
Lieu Dit. Santa Ynez Valley, CA. 2022
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
$13 btg / $42 btb
Tasting Notes: lime zest, sage, minerals
Haus-pairings: Spring Roll, Big Dipper, Fuzzy Bunny, Italiensk
Founded by Eric Railsback and Justin Willett, Lieu Dit has rapidly risen to prominence in Santa Barbara County's vibrant low-intervention winemaking landscape. Their distinctive approach combines tank and neutral barrel fermentations. Their 2022 Sauv Blanc is sourced from the Happy Canyon Vineyard within the Santa Ynez Valley—their terroir boasts a rich diversity of soils, including sand, shale, gravel, clay, chert, and serpentine rocks.
Lieu Dit “Said Place” capitalizes on Santa Barbara County's micro-climates and marine-influenced soils, ideal for cultivating these grapes.
Adèle Blanc. Éric Texier. Rhône Valley, VDF. 2022.
Grapes: Clairette (90%) with a splash of Marsanne (10%).
$14 btg / $44 btb
Tasting Notes: green apple, white flowers, almonds
Haus-pairings: Slammin’ Gordon, NWS Salad, Cajun Finn, Clubhaus
An homage to the heroine of a French historical fantasy comic book, Adèle Blanc-Sec, this wine lives up to its namesake (the surname literally translating as White-Dry) and takes you on a whirlwind journey. This wine is fermented with native yeasts in a cement tank for 6-8 months.
Eric Texier made the unprecedented leap from nuclear engineer to winemaker in the early 1990s. In keeping with his rigorous academic background, he studied oenology in Bordeaux. While learning the ropes in the Mâcon at Verget by day, he burned the midnight oil reading handbooks and manuals from the 19th century to learn about long-lost styles and vinification techniques.
Mae Son “Vino Orange”. Matteo Furlani. Alto-Adige, Italy. 2022.
Grapes: Muller Thurgau
$13 btg / $42 btb
Tasting Notes: fresh apples, mountain flowers, dried apricot
Haus-pairings: Slammin’ Gordon, Squealy Dan, Club Mariner, Bánh Faux Mì
Furlani Mae Son Orange is a natural wine made from Muller Thurgau. The grapes are hand-harvested at the start of September, then de-stemmed by hand. They undergo a long period of skin contact for 20-25 days, after which they are left to spontaneously ferment in open-top steel vats.
Matteo Furlani, a fourth-generation winemaker, is the dedicated custodian of his family's vineyards above the alpine city of Trento in the Dolomites at over 700 meters. His approach to winemaking, honed not through formal study, but through the knowledge passed down from his father and grandfather, emphasizes a deep connection to the land and a commitment to natural methods.
Una Lou. Scribe Winery. Sonoma, CA. 2022.
Grapes: Rosé of Pinot Noir
$13 btg / $42 btb
Tasting Notes: watermelon, white peach, passion fruit
Haus-pairings: Cold Turkey, Sitka Sushi, Pork Loin D-Luxx
Una Lou is a rosé composed from family owned and sustainably farmed Pinot Noir in Sonoma, California. Husband & wife, Andrew Mariani and Lia Ives, of Scribe Winery have dedicated Una Lou to their daughter.
The winery–founded in 2007 on a property that pioneered pre-prohibition Sonoma Valley winemaking–is managed by fourth-generation California farmers and brothers, Andrew and Adam Mariani. Andrew and Adam believe that the best wines are a result of a healthy relationship between human and nature, and that a vineyard managed in harmony with the greater ecosystem results in more site-specific wines that represent a sense of time and place.
Gaspard. Loire Valley, FR. 2022.
Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir
$12 btg / $38 btb
Tasting Notes: fresh dark berries, savory herbs, pepper
Haus-pairings : Hedonist, Silence of the Lambwich, Cold Turkey, Hardhat
“Gaspard,” a traditional French boy’s name that means “bringer of treasure,” is a private wine label made for NY natural wine importer, Jenny & Francois.
Pinot Noir grapes are sourced from growers who work sustainably or organically (no herbicide) across different vineyards in the Loire Valley, are fermented with native yeast, spend a couple of months on their fine lees and then undergo only light filtration and fining. Carefree and fruity! Gaspard is a compelling light red with delicate tannins and plenty of dark fruit flavors that’s perfect with a charcuterie plate, pâté, or lighter red meat dishes.
Vino da Sete. Tenuta iL Nespolo. Piedmont, IT. 2022.
Grapes: Red Blend- Barbera, Freisa, Sangiovese.
$12 / $48- 1L bottle
Tasting Notes: currant, ripe strawberries, fresh leather
Haus-parings: Squealy Dan w/ salami, Italiensk, Hardhat, Gorilla
“Vino da Sete,” translating to “wine of thirst,” this vibrant red wine exhibits a medium-ruby hue and offers a lively palate. A red blend comprising Barbera, Freisa, and Sangiovese, this wine embodies a harmonious blend, showcasing the unique terroir and winemaking techniques employed in its creation.
Luca Amerio is a youthful man whose quiet demeanor belies his inventive winemaking style. His family’s ancestral lands are situated in Moasca, a tiny village resting on the southern flank of the province of Asti, the heart of Piedmont.
Wiley Wines. Mendocino, CA. 2022.
Grapes: 100% Carignan.
$13 btg / $42 btb
Tasting Notes: dried cranberry, licorice, baking spices
Haus-pairings: Silence of the Lambwich, ‘06, Big Dipper, Clubhaus
100% Carignan organically farmed in Mendocino, CA. Planted in the 1940's in deep white sandy clay and loam, these dry farmed bush vines are self rooted. The grapes are farmed by the Graziano’s, once the oldest grape growing families in Mendocino. The grapes were fermented whole cluster in an open top fermenter then barrel aged in neutral French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Since 2019, Minnesota-man and Wiley’s founder/winemaker, Phineas Fittipaldi, has worked to marry ancient tradition and modern technology. Guided by their love of wine, nature and California surf culture, they use techniques from the earliest days of winemaking, fused with a 21st century approach, to create wines that are bright and fun to drink while maintaining depth of flavor, texture, and minerality. All of their wines are single vineyard, single varietal, and made with minimal intervention.
Get to know the folks who contributed to the production of our first-ever cookbook, “Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook” — All current or alumnus Smokehausers!
Mary K. Tennis
Mary K. Tennis is a Duluth writer, food lover, and Smokehaus expert and alumnus. She got her start in at least two of these categories in 2001, when she wandered into the deli and got a part-time job. During her time as general manager of Northern Waters Smokehaus, she greenlit the process of writing a definitive Smokehaus cookbook, and in addition to contributions throughout the body of the text and extensive recipe testing, she also crafted the beautiful introductions at the beginning of each chapter. Mary now (as of publication) serves as Director of the St. Louis County Depot & Extension Services.
Net Netzel
Ned Netzel writes for the blog and social media platforms of the Northern Waters Smokehaus. He creates experimental music under the moniker seym0ur glass. Ned began the cookbook writing process by digging through the Northern Waters Smokehaus and Northern Waters Restaurant kitchen binders, computer hard drives, email exchanges, and the mind of Eric Goerdt to compile, edit, and reduce recipes to home-chef volumes. Beyond his written contributions throughout the book, Ned poured his efforts into keeping the writing team on-task during occasionally long and delirious writing/testing sessions, and ensuring the clarity and accuracy of the text.
Nic Peloquin
Nic Peloquin has been cooking professionally since age fifteen for a range of food businesses, from fast to fine. He has cultivated a passion for preparing locally foraged, hunted, and fished ingredients with a scientific eye. He left food service for a brief career in stand-up comedy and quickly returned to the kitchen. Nic’s expertise in the kitchen and rigorous knowledge of the scientific underpinnings of food preparation were invaluable to the production of the cookbook, and his quips, impressions, and tangents kept the writing team in good spirits.
Eric Goerdt is the owner and founder of Northern Waters Smokehaus. Without Eric’s unique vision and excellence as both artisan and business owner, this cookbook would not exist. Eric wrote a ‘Welcome’ to the book, provided his wisdom and guidance throughout the process, and is responsible for the majority of the recipes found within.
Eric Goerdt
Greg Conley
Greg Conley is the human resources coordinator at Northern Waters Smokehaus. Before his time at NWS, he served as general manager of Northern Waters Restaurant. Greg’s voice is found throughout the book in a handful of in-depth essays on topics ranging from sourdough bread to barbecue smoking. During sessions when he was neither at band practice, nor actively writing or testing recipes (such as kippering Atlantic salmon on a modified Weber grill in the middle of a blizzard, just to prove it can be done), he nourished the rest of the writing team with exquisite meals.
Jacob Swanson is a visual artist, musician, and sandwich enthusiast from northern Wisconsin. He spent a handful of years on the Smokehaus’s deli front lines, and behind the scenes contributing to social media and marketing before continuing on to other adventures. Jacob’s eye for detail and composition is evident in his role behind the camera for many of the food shots found throughout the book.
Jacob Swanson
Flo
Flo is a Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist in Portland, Oregon, now tackling the wild, hilarious world of Montessori early education. Their artistic fingerprint is found throughout Northern Waters Smokehaus in the shape of hand-drawn fonts, illustrations, stickers, murals, menus, and more. You’ll find Flo’s illustrations on the end sheets of the book (those things that affix the covers of the book to the rest of the pages), and their eye for food design is present in many of the photographs found throughout.
Stephen Pestalozzi
Stephen Pestalozzi is a Minnesota artist who uses landscape as a primary source of inspiration to explore the intricacies of the modern world. Stephen’s photographic work from his tenure at the Smokehaus is present throughout in the book, as well as number of environmental and landscape shots of Duluth and Northern Minnesota from his independent work as a visual artist.
Zac Bentz
Zac Bentz is a graphic designer, auditory atmospherist, and dog-friend who has lived in and around Duluth his entire life. Zac designed and created the initial cookbook pitch chapter presented to the publisher, worked closely with the press’s design team to bring our vision to life, served as democratically elected project manager, and filled in photographic blanks on the back end of the project.
Order your copy of “Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook” through our online store!
If you’ve visited our new location on the lower level of the Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace, you may have noticed a big change to our business: We’ve separated our deli counter from our sandwich-making operation! This is, ultimately, a good change, but it does merit some explanation.
Wherever on the Smokehaus regular-to-future first-time customer spectrum you land, we hope this helps guide you through your next Northern Waters Smokehaus experience. Topics covered will include Entering the Space, our new Divided Service model, How to Order and more!
Plenty of indoor browsing and dining space. More seating than ever!
Now that we are located in the basement of DeWitt-Seitz, there are three different ways you can enter Northern Waters: the Front Door, the Central Stairs from the main floor of DeWitt-Seitz, and the Elevator.
The Front Door (see above) is accessible through our patio space at the corner of Buchanan Street and South Lake Avenue and down a short flight of stairs. It opens directly into the sandwich line, which can be circumnavigated to head to the deli counter.
The Central Stairs are located near the center of the building on the first floor. The hallways of all the public doors of the building converge at this staircase, which you’ll head down to enter our space. The door at the bottom of the stairs will be propped open during business hours, and customers accessing our store via the elevator will also enter through this threshold.
The Elevator opens up to an unmistakable sign, and an arrow-marked hallway that leads you past multiple NWS service doors. Since this hallway doubles as a service lane for our staff, it’s sort of like a Smokehaus safari: You may see our staff pushing carts loaded with bins of smoked fish or prepared sandwich meats down the hallway as you pass, in order the access to our production facility, the staff access to our deli counter, the prep room, and the staff access to our kitchen before entering at the same door as the Central Stairs.
For the majority of our deli’s 25 years of service, one of the most common customer frustrations has been the following: Why, if they’re just trying to order a chunk of Traditional Smoked Atlantic Salmon, must they wait behind a line of people ordering sandwiches?
For the longest time, it was simply the best we could manage, given our set up. During the pandemic, when we closed our doors to the public, advanced pickup orders mitigated the issue somewhat, but in-person orders at “the window” faced the same problems as before, with the added hang-up of our “grocery” service suffering. Let’s face it, part of the fun of going to a deli is pointing out your ideal chunk of fish, or having a real conversation about the meats you want sliced, and with what cheese, etc. you should pair them.
Furthermore, we have an extensive menu of sandwiches, salads, and an equally diverse selection of drinks hard and soft. Navigating that menu deserves its own dedicated experience and staff to assist you. For reasons, we’ll cover in this section, we have largely eliminated advanced ordering at our deli counter, so the downtime while you wait for your sandwich order is a great time to check out our deli counter.
Introducing: the Sandwich Counter and the Deli Counter.
The Sandwich Counter line forms just inside from our Buchanan St entrance, and weaves through a guided path past our sandwich and beverage menus. Once you arrive at the register, you’ll be able to order sandwiches, salads, sides, and beverages for here or to go. Notably, transactions at our Sandwich Counter will not include grocery orders. You’ll order smoked fish, salumi, sliced meats, and grab-and-go items at the Deli Counter. Online orders for Sandwich Counter items can still be made through our website. For now, we are not accepting orders over the phone. Customers with mobility issues will be given priority at our Sandwich Counter, as the line is narrow and wind-y — please work with our staff if you need accommodations.
One other point of interest is how you receive your order. To-go and pickup orders are bagged and available for pickup at a small counter labeled ‘Pickup,’ while for-here orders will be given a number, which we’ll use to run food directly to your table.
The Deli Counter is now a classic deli counter. Here, you’ll get face-to-face interaction with our staff, and expert advice as you order smoked fish and meats, salumi, cheese, and more. You’ll recognize it by the white subway tile backsplash, the iconic neon sign, and (of course) the row of charcuterie-stuffed deli cases. The flow of things is a little bit looser over on this side (for now! In busier times, we may incorporate a bit more structure to the process) and we have shopping baskets on hand for you to use while perusing our grab-and-go case, cheese case, merchandise area (where you’ll find clothing, posters, our cookbook, and more), and various meat and fish cases. Once you’ve gathered your various sundries, you’ll head to the register for checkout. Notably unavailable at this counter would be a.) items ordered at the Sandwich Counter, and b.) advanced online orders.
Our purpose in separating these core elements of our business basically boils down to: More streamlined service improves customer experience, and decreases wait times. A sandwich order needn’t wait for its deli counter items to go out, and vice-versa. While the kitchen prepares your food, you’re free to check out our deli counter or lounge in our seating space
One more note on this subject: A bit of advice. If you’d like to optimize your use of time when ordering from both sides of the business, generally, you’ll want to begin by ordering prepared items from the kitchen. The deli counter is, with certain exceptions, typically quicker moving.
How to Order
In this section we’ll briefly cover again the available items, and how you can place orders, at each counter.
Sandwich Counter
Sandwiches, salads, sides, beverages
Advanced order online, or wait in line to place an order in-person
No phone orders at this time. Please help us keep our phone lines open for order adjustments, corrections, and questions.
Deli Counter
Smoked fish and meats, salumi, cheese, grab-and-go items, merchandise (including clothing, posters, and our cookbook)
Order in-person from the product experts staffing our deli counter; larger and more-involved advanced orders can be arranged via email ( sales@nwsmokehaus.com )
No phone orders at this time. Exceptions, such as seasonal pre-order specials, will be noted on our website and in our newsletter.
By separating our Deli Counter from our Sandwich Counter, by limiting what types of orders we accept, and by allowing customers spending their time and money in our new space more streamlined options for payment, we hope to improve your overall experience in our new location. We’re writing this guide during the (relatively) slow season for our deli, where workflow and ticket time issues may be less apparent, but once those Summer sandwich lines start kicking in, we hope our division and refocusing of service ensures the shortest possible wait times, maximum good times, and excellent customer service.
Try as we may, it is nigh impossible to create a concise, yet comprehensive, guide for our customer experience that covers all possible questions; and as we grow into our new space, potentially adding new services, extending hours, and more, things are bound to change. For inquiries related to topics not covered in this guide, ask our friendly and knowledgeable staff, or shoot us an email or direct message on the social media accounts. We do our best to respond during the M-F work week.