A smoked fish factory has built a lasting legacy in Brooklyn.
Acme Smoked Fish, a premier smoked fish purveyor, has been a staple in the Greenpoint community for decades. In 1906, Harry Brownstein started in the fish smoking business as a wagon jobber, taking a horse-drawn wagon around Brooklyn and Queens, buying smoked fish and selling them.
“It was his dream to open his own smokehouse,” said Adam Caslow, Managing Partner & Owner of Acme Smoked Fish, and Brownstein’s great-grandson.
That dream eventually became a reality with the help of Brownstein’s family. In 1954, Brownstein and his sons started smoking their own fish, eventually opening a smokehouse in Greenpoint on Gem Street. The company cold-smokes and hot-smokes a variety of fish while also offering varieties of fish salad and herring.
The business has stayed in the family all these years, with Caslow and the other three owners, David Caslow, Emily Caslow and Heather Pavell, being the fourth generation to run the business. Adam Caslow told amNewYork that there is a little bit of luck as to why it has stayed in the family this long.
“We were very focused and consistent on what we did. As other companies shuttered, we were sort of the last man standing,” said Caslow. “Generation Four has been expanding and taking it from a regional New York City-based food business to a national and international-based seafood business.”
As a business, Acme focuses on creating high-quality smoked fish products, both for the everyday consumer and for restaurants and businesses. Everything is processed in-house with a focus on sustainability, making use of as much fish as possible.
The current owners of Acme Smoked Fish, L-R: Adam Caslow, Heather Pavell, Emily Caslow, and David Caslow.Photo courtesy of Acme Smoked Fish
Since the early days of smoking fish in Brooklyn, Acme has grown exponentially over the years. Their home base is still in Brooklyn, where they produce and package all of their cold-smoked fish products, but now Acme has a global footprint, with fish processing outposts throughout the United States in New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, and Massachusetts, and overseas in Chile and Denmark.
Even with the growth, Acme still calls itself home in Brooklyn, making itself a fixture in the Greenpoint community.
“We’ve been here for such a long time through lots of different neighborhood transitions, first from heavy manufacturing into more light manufacturing, crafting and artists. Greenpoint was one of the next places to have available space, so that brought on chocolate makers and places like Brooklyn Brewery,” said Caslow. “This area of North Brooklyn became a food hub and we were one of the founding members of that unofficial food hub.”
In building into the Brooklyn community, Acme has become a generational workplace for their employees as well.
“So many of our employees are local to this neighborhood. Greenpoint is a historically very Polish-dense neighborhood, and so a lot of people who emigrated from Poland were working at Acme and were able to buy a home, and now even some second-generation employees are working at Acme now,” said Caslow. “We’ve been this kind of mainstay of The American Dream for a lot of our employees who came over, you know, raised their families and created a better life for themselves, and the fact that we’ve continued to be here provides some neighborhood consistency.”
Giving back to Greenpoint and beyond
Because of the history that Acme Smoked Fish has built in Greenpoint, they feel it is incredibly important to give back how they can. They often participate in community events and school fundraisers, and they host an annual comedy event in their garage.
One of the biggest weekly events that Acme Smoked Fish hosts is their Fish Fridays, an idea spawned in the 90s when there was a surplus of fish that needed a place to go. They sell various cuts of fish that the community could take home for a lower price.
“It was a pretty sparsely populated destination [at the time], maybe a few dozen people would drop by. As a young boy, I remember selling whole headless herring to Polish ladies and we sold them for $1 a piece,” said Caslow.
As the neighborhood changed, the Fish Fridays grew. Nowadays, you can preorder your Fish Friday haul on the Acme Smoked Fish website, and it will be ready for pickup right at Acme Smoked Fish’s Gem Street warehouse.
An assortment of Acme Smoked Fish products.Photo courtesy of Acme Smoked Fish
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to hear from enthusiasts and people who are passionate about the products and our brand and tell us how the food has really played a part in their family celebrations throughout the years,” said Caslow.
Another way Acme gives back is through the Acme Smoked Fish Foundation and Eric Caslow Innovation Fund, which honors the work of former co-chair and third-generation owner Eric Caslow, who passed away in 2021, by donating to causes that improve the seafood industry’s blueprint. Acme Smoked Fish is also a member of 1% for the Planet, a global movement investing in climate initiatives.
“We’ve tried to find pathways to talk about our citizens and seafood sustainability program in a way that consumers can kind of understand and digest and recognize. And so 1% of the Planet is a part of that where they are bringing together companies who are allocating dollars to fight climate change for lots of different reasons,” said Caslow. “We looked at their mission and our mission and found that the values align very, very well with ours. Sustainability in seafood and in business practices is something that is really important to us.”
For the love of fish
When it comes down to it, Caslow told amNewYork that part of the reason why they have stayed such a fixture in the fish industry is that they love what they do.
“We want people to continue to eat clean, healthy proteins, and eating seafood is a great way to incorporate that. I think there’s a lot of seafood consumption in America that is still a little misunderstood or not fully understood and embraced,” said Caslow. “Some people find it gross, they don’t want their kitchen smelling like fish or don’t know how to cook it. What we’re trying to do is reduce that friction and reduce the barriers for consumers to eat more seafood.”
Acme also wants to help consumers see that there is more than just smoked salmon that you can enjoy while giving people the information they need to make informed decisions about what they eat.
Acme Smoked Fish is in it for the love of seafood.Photo courtesy of Acme Smoked Fish
“The seafood industry as a whole can get a bad rap, and I find that people are looking for information and guidance to make ethical choices, and we can help with that,” said Caslow.
The company also continues to implant itself into New York City’s vast food scene, from the lox for your bagel to the fish you either enjoy while out or eat at home, while using their experience to help guide future generations.
“I look around at the vibrancy of food culture and how much inspiration contemporary restaurateurs or food companies are emerging, I find they’re all drawing from the past and from the stalwarts who’ve kind of been here from the beginning, and I do consider Acme to be part of that group and like to be iconically associated with a New York food,” said Caslow. “A New York company is something that I’m no longer taking for granted, but take with a great deal of pride. We definitely want to share that with our community and let people look to us for inspiration and guidance and a tasty snack.”
Acme Smoked Fish is located at 30 Gem St., Brooklyn. For more information about Acme Smoked Fish, visit acmesmokedfish.com.