SON of Samuel and Anna (Heggestad) Barsness
HUSBAND of Florence Genevieve (Ness) Barsness
FATHER of James Albert and Donald Allan
The Greeley Tribune, December 17, 2003
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20071219/NEWS/687765808
Everyone has some favorite spots to eat during familiar road trips, and for Gordon Barsness, it was a smokehouse in Minnesota. So you can imagine how crushed he was when he pulled up one year, his mouth watering, and found that the place had burned down. He wandered around until he found the owner, and he asked him when he was going to reopen. The guy said he was getting too old, but perhaps he would like his recipes. Years later, Gordon's son, Jim, continues to run his father's dream, the House of Smoke in Fort Lupton, and they use the same recipes Gordon got years ago as a gift for being a loyal customer. The place serves sandwiches but is more known for shipping its unusual meats around the world. You'll find elk, buffalo and pheasant in deli form, and in the catalog, there's wild boar, ostrich, buffalo and dozens of smoked turkeys and hams. The '80s music you might hear when you walk in really doesn't fit the place. Maybe the Statler Brothers, something country and rustic would match the flavor of the building and the meats it smokes.
That last trip to Minnesota inspired the House of Smoke, as Gordon and Jim started the restaurant and wholesale meats business in 1973 after Gordon retired from operating a turkey farm at age 60. He was looking for something to do and loved smoking meats so much after he got those recipes, he cajoled James into starting the business. Since then, the place has added on five times and now stands at 15,000 square feet, more than three times the size it was when they started.
"We knew we didn't want to do the standard ham-and-bacon business," Jim said.
The unique meats mean the House of Smoke can compete with large grocery stores, Wal-Mart and other places that otherwise might have put it out of business long ago. Jim gets his meats from New Zealand, Australia, Alaska and Europe, among other places, and that's one reason why he's bemoaned the value of the dollar dropping. The place also is marketing wild game pet bones for the first time this year.
"I don't know anyone else who's doing that," Jim said.
Most of the House of Smoke's business comes from its wholesale meats and catalogs, but it does serve lunch, mostly to serve the shifts of the factories and plants in the city.
"Everyone who came into the store wanted a sample of the meat before they bought it," Jim said. "So we started the lunches to take care of that."
The business continues to expand and handles many of the meat product and jerky orders for Cabela's, and business may boom once it opens its planned 200,000-square-foot store in Denver this summer.
HUSBAND of Florence Genevieve (Ness) Barsness
FATHER of James Albert and Donald Allan
The Greeley Tribune, December 17, 2003
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20071219/NEWS/687765808
Everyone has some favorite spots to eat during familiar road trips, and for Gordon Barsness, it was a smokehouse in Minnesota. So you can imagine how crushed he was when he pulled up one year, his mouth watering, and found that the place had burned down. He wandered around until he found the owner, and he asked him when he was going to reopen. The guy said he was getting too old, but perhaps he would like his recipes. Years later, Gordon's son, Jim, continues to run his father's dream, the House of Smoke in Fort Lupton, and they use the same recipes Gordon got years ago as a gift for being a loyal customer. The place serves sandwiches but is more known for shipping its unusual meats around the world. You'll find elk, buffalo and pheasant in deli form, and in the catalog, there's wild boar, ostrich, buffalo and dozens of smoked turkeys and hams. The '80s music you might hear when you walk in really doesn't fit the place. Maybe the Statler Brothers, something country and rustic would match the flavor of the building and the meats it smokes.
That last trip to Minnesota inspired the House of Smoke, as Gordon and Jim started the restaurant and wholesale meats business in 1973 after Gordon retired from operating a turkey farm at age 60. He was looking for something to do and loved smoking meats so much after he got those recipes, he cajoled James into starting the business. Since then, the place has added on five times and now stands at 15,000 square feet, more than three times the size it was when they started.
"We knew we didn't want to do the standard ham-and-bacon business," Jim said.
The unique meats mean the House of Smoke can compete with large grocery stores, Wal-Mart and other places that otherwise might have put it out of business long ago. Jim gets his meats from New Zealand, Australia, Alaska and Europe, among other places, and that's one reason why he's bemoaned the value of the dollar dropping. The place also is marketing wild game pet bones for the first time this year.
"I don't know anyone else who's doing that," Jim said.
Most of the House of Smoke's business comes from its wholesale meats and catalogs, but it does serve lunch, mostly to serve the shifts of the factories and plants in the city.
"Everyone who came into the store wanted a sample of the meat before they bought it," Jim said. "So we started the lunches to take care of that."
The business continues to expand and handles many of the meat product and jerky orders for Cabela's, and business may boom once it opens its planned 200,000-square-foot store in Denver this summer.
SON of Samuel and Anna (Heggestad) Barsness
HUSBAND of Florence Genevieve (Ness) Barsness
FATHER of James Albert and Donald Allan
The Greeley Tribune, December 17, 2003
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20071219/NEWS/687765808
Everyone has some favorite spots to eat during familiar road trips, and for Gordon Barsness, it was a smokehouse in Minnesota. So you can imagine how crushed he was when he pulled up one year, his mouth watering, and found that the place had burned down. He wandered around until he found the owner, and he asked him when he was going to reopen. The guy said he was getting too old, but perhaps he would like his recipes. Years later, Gordon's son, Jim, continues to run his father's dream, the House of Smoke in Fort Lupton, and they use the same recipes Gordon got years ago as a gift for being a loyal customer. The place serves sandwiches but is more known for shipping its unusual meats around the world. You'll find elk, buffalo and pheasant in deli form, and in the catalog, there's wild boar, ostrich, buffalo and dozens of smoked turkeys and hams. The '80s music you might hear when you walk in really doesn't fit the place. Maybe the Statler Brothers, something country and rustic would match the flavor of the building and the meats it smokes.
That last trip to Minnesota inspired the House of Smoke, as Gordon and Jim started the restaurant and wholesale meats business in 1973 after Gordon retired from operating a turkey farm at age 60. He was looking for something to do and loved smoking meats so much after he got those recipes, he cajoled James into starting the business. Since then, the place has added on five times and now stands at 15,000 square feet, more than three times the size it was when they started.
"We knew we didn't want to do the standard ham-and-bacon business," Jim said.
The unique meats mean the House of Smoke can compete with large grocery stores, Wal-Mart and other places that otherwise might have put it out of business long ago. Jim gets his meats from New Zealand, Australia, Alaska and Europe, among other places, and that's one reason why he's bemoaned the value of the dollar dropping. The place also is marketing wild game pet bones for the first time this year.
"I don't know anyone else who's doing that," Jim said.
Most of the House of Smoke's business comes from its wholesale meats and catalogs, but it does serve lunch, mostly to serve the shifts of the factories and plants in the city.
"Everyone who came into the store wanted a sample of the meat before they bought it," Jim said. "So we started the lunches to take care of that."
The business continues to expand and handles many of the meat product and jerky orders for Cabela's, and business may boom once it opens its planned 200,000-square-foot store in Denver this summer.
HUSBAND of Florence Genevieve (Ness) Barsness
FATHER of James Albert and Donald Allan
The Greeley Tribune, December 17, 2003
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20071219/NEWS/687765808
Everyone has some favorite spots to eat during familiar road trips, and for Gordon Barsness, it was a smokehouse in Minnesota. So you can imagine how crushed he was when he pulled up one year, his mouth watering, and found that the place had burned down. He wandered around until he found the owner, and he asked him when he was going to reopen. The guy said he was getting too old, but perhaps he would like his recipes. Years later, Gordon's son, Jim, continues to run his father's dream, the House of Smoke in Fort Lupton, and they use the same recipes Gordon got years ago as a gift for being a loyal customer. The place serves sandwiches but is more known for shipping its unusual meats around the world. You'll find elk, buffalo and pheasant in deli form, and in the catalog, there's wild boar, ostrich, buffalo and dozens of smoked turkeys and hams. The '80s music you might hear when you walk in really doesn't fit the place. Maybe the Statler Brothers, something country and rustic would match the flavor of the building and the meats it smokes.
That last trip to Minnesota inspired the House of Smoke, as Gordon and Jim started the restaurant and wholesale meats business in 1973 after Gordon retired from operating a turkey farm at age 60. He was looking for something to do and loved smoking meats so much after he got those recipes, he cajoled James into starting the business. Since then, the place has added on five times and now stands at 15,000 square feet, more than three times the size it was when they started.
"We knew we didn't want to do the standard ham-and-bacon business," Jim said.
The unique meats mean the House of Smoke can compete with large grocery stores, Wal-Mart and other places that otherwise might have put it out of business long ago. Jim gets his meats from New Zealand, Australia, Alaska and Europe, among other places, and that's one reason why he's bemoaned the value of the dollar dropping. The place also is marketing wild game pet bones for the first time this year.
"I don't know anyone else who's doing that," Jim said.
Most of the House of Smoke's business comes from its wholesale meats and catalogs, but it does serve lunch, mostly to serve the shifts of the factories and plants in the city.
"Everyone who came into the store wanted a sample of the meat before they bought it," Jim said. "So we started the lunches to take care of that."
The business continues to expand and handles many of the meat product and jerky orders for Cabela's, and business may boom once it opens its planned 200,000-square-foot store in Denver this summer.
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