Sitting between nationally known Zingerman’s Delicatessen and regionally recognized eve the restaurant is the best fish and meat smokery you may have never noticed. 

The holidays have always meant brisk business for T.R. Durham, whose Durham’s Tracklements and Smokery mail order business operates nearly round-the-clock operation for three weeks. But the smokery has more recently expanded its retail presence at its compact Kerrytown storefront.

T.R. Durham, owner, Durham's Tracklements.

Janet Miller for AnnArbor.com

Durham’s Tracklements - selling hand-rubbed and house-smoked fish, seafood and meat - has attracted national attention since the New York Times started smothering it with praise in 1994, including best holiday mail order food for several years. The Washington Post, the L.A. Times, Business Week and others followed suit. 

But Durham went looking for ways to fill the other 49 weeks of the year, after the holiday rush. He found it when he moved his smokery from Amherst, Mass. to Ann Arbor in 1996, when his wife took a job at the University of Michigan. Durham has slowly built up the retail side, testing new products, such as pizza with smoked duck and a $5 bagel sandwich with smoked salmon and pea sprouts. 

What started in his backyard and basement as a hobby became a business in 1992. Durham’s brother sent him a home smoker and asked him to make smoked salmon because it wasn’t sold where he lived in Kansas City. Soon, Durham decided to try and sell his salmon commercially. A friend worked the sales side, knocking on the doors of New York City’s delicatessen titans, from Balducci’s to Dean and Deluca. “By the end of the day, the phone was ringing off the hook,” Durham said. 

His niche was his flavorings. While smoked salmon was easy to find in New York City, Durham had added flavorings: Thai spice, Mediterranean herb, Teriyaki and others.

 “It was a totally new take on smoked salmon for the food writers,” Durham said. “I broke out of the commodity mold of thinking about smoke salmon.”

But it was more than the flavors: It is hand-rubbed (not dipped in brine water like other smoked fish) and long-cured. Some curing can last 2 or 3 days. And it’s lightly smoked, allowing the flavor of the fish or meat to come through, Durham said.

“The smoking is an accompaniment rather than having the salmon as a vehicle for the smoking flavor.”

And it wasn’t sliced. Early on, Durham couldn’t afford a slicing machine. Instead, he sold his smoked salmon as unsliced, center cut pieces. But he soon discovered machine slicing damaged flavor. The salmon had to be frozen or near-frozen to slice on a machine.

“I made a virtue out of what everyone else thought was a short-coming,” Durham said.

Today, Durham’s still sells center cut pieces, but will custom slice by hand. The smokery started out as a seasonal business, but Durham soon saw he would have to be year-round.

He sold wholesale to stores such as Bread & Circus, which later became Whole Foods, but resisted going retail.

But with the move to Ann Arbor and Kerrytown, Durham tried retail with limited hours. Enter a single door that fronts off of Kingsley between Fourth and Fifth avenues and there’s the lingering smell of a campfire. The store is home to the entire operation - curing and smoking, mail order fulfillment and retail.

“I was not a willing retailer,” he said. “I did it begrudgingly.” 

He’s found other outlets: Durham’s provide Zingerman’s with a new custom cured smoked salmon each month, such as clover whiskey honey. Plum Market sells an exclusive line. Café Zola features Durham’s. There’s the catering end. And Durham published “The Smoked Seafood Cookbook” last year.

But the retail side is becoming an increasingly important part of Durham’s Tracklements, he said. He will expand his Wednesday, Friday and Saturday hours to include Sunday in January, and he’s adding new products such as smoked salmon jerky and more meats.

“As people discover the place, there’s opportunity to develop new products,” Durham said. “I get great feedback right away. I know within two weeks if I have a winner.”