R.I.P. Russ Kendall

[Smithy]

For those of us familiar with the North Shore of Lake Superior, Russ Kendall's Smokehouse has been a favorite stopping- and buying-place. There's an article in today's Duluth News Tribune noting the passing of Russ Kendall last Saturday, at 85. Here's a link to the article, although I think the link will allow free access only for a week. According to the article, the store originally was built by Russ Kendall's father in the 1920's. It was a bar and dance hall, with a fish stand in front. The store we know was added in 1953.

I didn't know until I read the article that Russ was still working the store into his 80's. He couldn't drive by that time, but he lived close by and just walked to the business. That's the kind of old-country toughness you see up here. More power to him.

The family plans to continue smoking fish and running the store. If you want to see some shots from 2005, you can check out this post from my blog of the time. The place looked the same last month.

Rest in peace, Mr. Kendall. I hope the family keeps the place thriving for another generation.

[srhcb]

Time keeps marching onward, and we all have to get off the trail sooner or later.

I've been buying, eating, and recommending, Russ Kendall's smoked fish for over thirty years now .

I guess the best I can think of to my respects is to simply say:

Russ Kendall's makes the best smoked fish I've ever had!

[docsconz]

What kinds of fish did he smoke and how were they smoked?

[snowangel]

What a wonderful man, and wonderful place.

In recent years, the bar part of it seemed to be a parking lot for boxes and labels for orders, but the quality of the fish never suffered.

John, I'm not sure about the wood and technique, but you couldn't go wrong with the sugar-smoked salmon, smoked lake trout, smoked herring or smoked cisco's.

Anytime we hit Duluth or points north of there, we don't not stop at Smoky Kendall's for a hunk o' sugar smoked salmon and a few ciscos and herrings. We eat for weeks of that stuff, and it makes for a wonderful addition to a cisco.

There are many places to buy smoked fish on the North Shore, but none equate to Kendalls. This place is the real deal; no flash, no big billboards, just a rock solid product.

And, there's something about the atmosphere. There was, for some time, a sign in the window listing the hours "open at 9:00 am ish, closing 8:00 pm or so, depending on how many customers there are. I just wonder if the young lass with the flourescent dreadlocks who waited on us a couple of years ago was a granddaughter of Russ.

[snowangel]

On the way home from Blue Fin Bay after my women's weekend (think four college buddies, a ton of cooking and wine and hot tubbing outdoors on the North Shore), Susan and I made our annual pilgrimage to Russ Kendalls.

What a change! That bar area on the right of the smoked fish sales area is no longer more junk than you find at a flea market. It is spotless. I'm not sure what they did with the flea market crap, but the surfaces are spotless, the floor has been waxed and the place has been painted. Mind you, on one of the tables there were a ton of boxes -- ready for the Xmas mail-order season, but the place looks great.

Russ's grandson was manning the smoked meat counter and till, and looked like a natural in the place. Oh, and the sugar smoked salmon is still to die for.