Lou and Leslie Ekus outside their Holy Smokes deli in Turners Falls, where they sell smoked half chickens, chicken wings, and ribs. “A perfectly smoked chicken is one of the best things that you can have,’’ he says, though his top choice is beef ribs.
(Amy Mayer for The Boston Globe)
Food|Travel
They’re serious about their smoking habit
Couple tend to an ‘artisan charcuterie’
Lou and Leslie Ekus outside their Holy Smokes deli in Turners Falls, where they sell smoked half chickens, chicken wings, and ribs. “A perfectly smoked chicken is one of the best things that you can have,’’ he says, though his top choice is beef ribs.
(Amy Mayer for The Boston Globe)
MONTAGUE CENTER — Lou Ekus and his wife, Leslie, are doing their Wednesday night dance. He lifts a large metal tray over her shoulder. She pulls meats from the smoker. He ferries the ribs, half chickens, and wings into the walk-in cooler a few steps away in their yard. On one trip, he stops and sets a fragrant slab of ribs on a bright red cutting board on the stainless steel counter. As he cuts into the meat, Ekus explains how the red ring around the outer edge results from the way it is smoked; it does not come from insufficient cooking. He discusses a successfully smoked rib. To achieve that, the meat should not drop off the bone when you pick it up, but should easily peel away from the bone as you eat it.
This is the Ekuses’s mobile kitchen, where they do most of the cooking for their retail shop, Holy Smokes BBQ Delicatessen in Turners Falls, which bills itself as an “American style artisan charcuterie.’’ At the 10-seat deli, smoking is serious business. The site, in an old mill town, is in the historic Crocker Building. Ekus samples a rib from the smoker. He likes it, but it’s not his favorite. Neither is the chicken, though “a perfectly smoked chicken is one of the best things that you can have.’’ His top choice is beef ribs. “People go crazy,’’ he says.
Ekus is best known as a media trainer, a business he’s been in for 25 years, with clients such as Rachael Ray, Norman Van Aken, Mollie Katzen, and Emeril Lagasse. Media training is scheduled on the two days a week that the Ekuses are not prepping for or working in the deli.
Early on Thursday mornings, the Ekuses take smoked meats, cured bacon, gravlax, and a variety of side dishes to the deli, where they make sandwiches from smoked turkey, pulled pork, roast beef, and, sometimes, pastrami, or serve the meats on a bed of baby spinach. The spot is primarily a take-out. Butternut squash, baked beans, cornbread, cheese sauce for macaroni (you boil the pasta yourself) and cole slaw round out the menu.
The couple use only fresh meat from carefully selected purveyors, and do some of the butchering themselves. They burn red and white oak, apple, and occasionally hickory. “Oak is a wonderful wood that enhances the flavor but doesn’t cover it up,’’ Ekus says. Meats are seasoned with only salt, pepper, and garlic before going into the smoker.
The Ekuses are big fans of curing. They pride themselves on their bacon and gravlax and have started to ship it to customers. Curing offers latitude for them to experiment. Bacon flavors include five-spice and brown sugar-coriander, both available in pork or beef bacon. This fall, Holy Smokes joined the chocolate-and-bacon food trend, giving it a savory spin. The result is “mole bacon,’’ named for the popular Mexican sauce. “The chocolate really works,’’ Ekus says. “That’s going to be a keeper.’’
Another successful experiment is the cross-cultural “margarita gravlax,’’ which gives the traditional Nordic salmon dish some Latin flavor. Ekus augmented his recipe with tequila and lime before curing sushi-grade Norwegian salmon. “This is what we’re having fun with,’’ he says. They’re tinkering with recipes, combining flavors and, generally, playing with food. Their exacting standards sometimes translate to high prices. A 12-ounce bottle of barbecue sauce, made with Louisiana cane syrup, is $7. Beef ribs can be $18 a pound (the price fluctuates with the market).
Some customers are former diners at another restaurant the Ekuses had in Hatfield. Holy Smokes BBQ and Whole Hog House was destroyed in a fire in 2007. Other customers are passing through and wander in.
When they do, they find something unusual.
Holy Smokes BBQ Delicatessen, 52 Ave. A, Turners Falls, 413-863-5426, www.holysmokesbbq.com.
Amy Mayer can be reached at amyhmayer@gmail.com. 
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
