NEW YORK — Salmon from Norway, each weighing about 26 pounds, wait to be kippered at the Acme Smoked Fish Corporation in Brooklyn, which means they’ll be split open, deboned, sorted, salted, and smoked as the company has done for more than a century.

"There are two types of smoking,” says co-CEO Adam Caslow. “There's cold smoking and hot smoking. The only difference is the temperature. Smoking fish is an art form in the sense that you constantly have to adjust drying time and temperature in order to achieve a delicious tasting smoked fish."

Caslow is the fourth generation owner of the family business that his great-grandfather began back in 1906.

“My great-grandfather, Harry Brownstein, had a horse-drawn wagon. He would go buy smoked salmon fish throughout Brooklyn and Queens, selling it to appetizing shops and bagel stores throughout the city,” Caslow said. “We've been in Brooklyn our entire existence."


What You Need To Know

  • Acme Smoked Fish Corporation originated in Brooklyn in 1906

  • The family business is now in its fourth generation of ownership

  • The company has outgrown its Greenpoint facility, wants to build a new plant on the same block

  • The proposed plan, now undergoing the city’s public land-use review process, requires a rezoning

The operation has been on Gem Street since the 1950s, but Caslow says the company has outgrown its one-story, 60,000-square-foot plant. It's proposing to build a four-story facility on the same block that would be part of a larger mixed-use commercial development. The revenue generated from newly created office and retail space would help subsidize Acme's expansion.

"We're excited about it,” says Caslow. “Because it's a creative unique way that gives us an opportunity to stay here."

But the change requires the city to rezone the site to allow for a larger manufacturing plant. The application, which is being done with the real estate investment firm Rubenstein Partners, started to go through the public land-use review process Monday.

Acme and Rubenstein Partners say the project would allow the company to keep more than 150 jobs here, expand to add more, and create construction and retail positions. It will also allow Acme to continue to produce smoked fish sold throughout the city and country.

"This will go to our favorite bagel store, deli, appetizing shop,” says Caslow.

Caslow says he hopes to pass on the smoked fish business to another generation and to do that in Brooklyn.

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