This gift changed everything. He began to experiment with pheasants or trout he caught, giving them out to friends and family who went wild for his signature recipes. Realizing he could turn this passion into a viable business, Scott designed and constructed along with his contractor buddies the home of Sugartown Smoked Specialties at 306-1Q Westtown Road, West Chester.
2012 marks the 20th anniversary that Sugartown Smoked Specialties has produced gourmet, smoked hot and cold fish, game, and fowl. Their collection of over 20 different foods offers everything from St. Louis style smoked pork ribs to a smoked salmon ravioli. In addition to wholesale and special orders, Sugartown can accommodate custom orders like its current partnership with local purveyors, Wild for Salmon.
The Hungarian Style Smoked Salmon is the first product Scott ever created and continues to be one of their bestselling dishes. Their North Atlantic Salmon is brined in a variety of seasonings for 48 hours, finished with a sweet paprika and smoked with a medley of hardwoods. Every Wednesday, customers flock to their stand at the Lancaster County Farmer’s Market for many products including a Hungarian Smoked Salmon Spread. On Tuesdays or “spread day,” Sugartown staff blend their salmon with cream cheese and blue cheese into an irresistible spread.
Scott’s favorite part of the business is creating new recipes: In the beginning it would take him five or six R & D sessions to perfect a recipe. Now he can create a new masterpiece in just two runs. On of his earlier creations, the moist and flaky Tasmanian Trout, won the best seafood/fish dish by the Gallo Family Gold Medal Awards in 2008. At the awards dinner in NYC, Sara Moulton told Scott his product was the best seafood dish she has ever had.
Sugartown Smoked Specialties goes beyond smoked salmon, scallops or trout: They offer a wide range of smoked foul including chicken breast, pheasant and quail as well as smoked pork. Their Natural Wood Smoked Boneless Duck Breast took home first runner-up in the Gallo Awards in 2007 and 2008.
The first stop for a fish at Sugartown is the prep room where John Koenig or Craig Thornton hand trim them to Scott’s strict standards. Next, the products brine for anywhere between one hour to 48 hours and are taken next door to the smoke room. Soaked wood chips are slid into the smoke generator in the smokehouse’s door, before it drops onto a hot plate. The smoke is forced into the smokehouse, where it flows vertically and is recirculated 17 times per minute. Their popular portobello mushrooms from Modern Mushrooms spend only three hours in the smokehouse while their Nova Smoked Salmon spends 14.
After their all-natural and preservative free foods have spent time in two of their walk-in fridges, the trays are wheeled into the packaging room to be vacuum-sealed. Lastly, the products go into the freezer until Jay Simpson, who handles financial, logistics and orders, decides where in the country their artisan goods will be shipped to.
Scott’s days in the back of house may be over, but nowadays you can find him managing sales, cooking up new recipes, making deliveries to local retailers or even treating his employees to their morning Wawa coffee. He has many exciting projects on the horizon including expanding current facilities, building a new smokehouse that will triple production, talks with major supermarket chains and planning events with local wineries and organizations.
Scott is incredibly proud of the quality of freshest ingredients available, strict quality control and meticulous attention that goes into each product. “If we even get to the point where we are cookie cutter and just producing volume without caring, we’re done,” said Scott. “I like to be able to go to bed knowing we made a great product.”
Sugartown Smoked Specialties can be ordered by calling 610-429-4080, faxing 610-429-1990 or online. Their products can also be found in all of the Kimberton Whole Foods (Kimberton, Downingtown, Douglasville and Ottsville), Hills Quality Seafood Markets (Exton, Kennett Square, Media and Newtown Square), Janssen’s Market in Greenville and at the Lancaster County Farmers Market in Wayne. Their delicious smoked foods will make a lasting impression on guests at your next dinner party, brunch, celebration or meal.
