“We believe that food is delightful. We believe that food is powerful. Food connects community. Food engages visitors. Food comforts the uneasy. Food facilitates celebration. Food provides a trade. Food showcases skill. Food highlights tradition. Food provides room for endless innovation and creativity. We serve high-quality, creative food, focusing on fish and pork. We work with several local fishermen to source our Lake Superior lake trout, herring, and whitefish. We buy all of our pork from local producers. We have been purchasing happy pigs, bison, beef, and poultry from Midwestern producers since we started in 1998. Some of our hero suppliers include Steve Dahl, our herring fisherman, and Dave Rogotzke, our salmon fisherman.”

Sitka sushi sandwich: supple house-smoked sustainably-raised Atlantic gravlax with pickled ginger, shredded cabbage, cucumber, cilantro, wasabi mayo, and sriracha; Banh Faux Mi: house-smoked Minnesota Berkshire ham with country-style liver pâté, pickled vegetables, cilantro, hoisin, sriracha, and butter.

Wood-smoked freshwater fish was once a staple on Lake Superior, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. The tradition is little carried on today, except at Northern Waters Smokehaus, where owners Eric and Lynn Goerdt, having met and married in Sitka, Alaska, founded their new fish and pork smoking operation, in 1998. Their little sandwich shop all but single-handedly carries these northern freshwater traditions forward, and is a regional treasure.

“You gotta go to Northern Waters. You just gotta.”

–Mecca Bos, City Pages