JULY 23

FOOD
They're smokin'

By DOUG BLACKBURN Staff writer

Establishing his own business 50 years ago was a dream come true for Harry Brownstein. The founder of Acme Smoked Fish had come to New York from his native Russia in the early 1900s, determined to carve out a new life.

He found work in the smoked fish business as a "wagon jobber," a middle man who picked up fresh, hot fish from smokehouses and took them in his horse-drawn wagon to small groceries and delis throughout Brooklyn. After years of hard work delivering smoked fish, Brownstein had saved enough to go into business as a manufacturer.

Working with his son-in-law, Brownstein, who died in 1967, started Acme Smoked Fish in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, the section across the East River from Manhattan between Long Island City and Williamsburg.

A half century later, the business is thriving, enjoying almost 70 percent growth during the past decade. It is now one of the largest processors of smoked fish in the United States.

There are two primary reasons for Acme's recent prosperity, says David Caslow, vice president of operations at Acme and Brownstein's great-grandson (and a Union College graduate).

First, smoked fish is increasingly becoming a mainstream food. Long associated with Eastern European Jews and a handful of Nordic cultures, smoked fish today is commonly found at hotel buffets and numerous other venues.

Says Caslow, "It's now become a food for everybody and is no longer dependent on your ethnic heritage."

The other factor behind Acme's business growth in recent years is the decreased cost of raw materials, particularly salmon. Farm- raised salmon has made that fish much more affordable, and smoked salmon accounts for roughly two-thirds of Acme's total sales.

As a result, Acme Smoked Fish, a fourth-generation family-owned and operated business, is a company in transition. Its products -- including smoked brook trout fillets, basked salmon spread, cold smoked yellowfin tuna and Alaska black cod, all sold under the Blue Hill Bay line -- are now going to large supermarkets instead of specialty deli areas.

All of Acme's fish products are smoked at the plant in Brooklyn. Caslow stresses that this procedure is done using real smoke, with no liquid or nitrogen smoke added. A different process is used for each fish, which explains why Acme has a work force of almost 150 employees, including two Brownsteins and five Caslows.

Acme does not sell fresh fish and it is not a seafood distributor, Caslow adds. While its smoked fish are distributed nationwide, Acme is a manufacturing company, he says. It does not accept Internet direct-orders and Caslow doesn't anticipate that changing.

Acme's smoked fish is available directly to consumers at wholesale prices one day a week, however. Every Friday, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Acme opens its smokehouse outlet to the public.

Brownstein, the founder, was decidedly practical when he named his company. "He wanted to be the first smoked fish business in the phone book," Caslow explains. "His major competitor when he started the business began with the letter B. That was why my great- grandfather chose Acme for the name of his business."

Acme Smoked Fish and Blue Hill Bay Smoked Seafood products are available west of the Capital Region at most Wegman supermarkets and in numerous markets and delis in the metropolitan New York region. According to David Caslow, the company hopes to be in Price Chopper stores later this year. For information, visit online at http:// www.acmesmokedfish.com.