Although Ivy City Smoke House is itself a
young business, the people at the heart of the company have hundreds of years of combined experience in the seafood and food industries. Our buyers have been sourcing the finest seafood locally, nationally and internationally since 1984 and are local leaders in the movement toward sustainable fisheries. Since 1977 our executive team has worked in the food industry to develop fine-tuned operating principles that ensure asynchrony between buying, selling, record keeping, and production. Our food safety standards meet or exceed Federal and local government regulations. In fact, we volunteered to be certified as a Safe and Quality Food (SQF) facility through internationally accredited organizations involved in the new Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which is designed to provide the public with the highest level of confidence in a manufacturer’s capability to deliver safe food.
Our Smoke Masters, Chef Ron Goodman, and Jesus Bercian, have been curing and smoking the widest variety of seafood in the US smoked seafood industry since 1984. Although we rely on scientific methods for quality assurance through the use of in-house and independent laboratory testing, our smoke masters have trained all their senses to know when the raw material and the many steps involved in the curing and smoking process are just right. They were involved with the introduction of pastrami-style salmon to the market, were one of the first to smoke and sell fresh shellfish including scallops, shrimp and mussels, and of note were one of the earliest American smokers to dry cure and smoke responsibly raised Norwegian Salmon using traditional European methods.
Chef Ron Goodman, our Chief Development Officer, graduated from the Culinary Institute in 1972 and worked as a chef for local European restaurants and hotels until opening his own restaurant in 1977. He began smoking meats and a variety of seafood in his restaurant smoker. After garnering many accolades from both customers and local chefs, in 1984 he decided to go into the seafood smoking business and found a partner who owned a local seafood processing and distribution company. This first smoking business is where our two smoke masters began working together. Along with Chef Ron’s cooking and smoking experience, he went on to receive graduate degrees in biology with a focus on food science and became the 8th certified research chef in the country. Food has been a career-long passion for Chef Ron and the Ivy City team and we sincerely believe you will experience this dedication in every bite.