(OBA®) – Gulf Shores, AL – The first time Richard Brookman saw smoked salmon he was hardly impressed.

“One of the suppliers had smoked some salmon when we were picking up some fish one day but it was really, really, dark,” Brookman said. “Almost black looking, charred. I’d never had it before, he let us try it and it didn’t taste bad but … It was then I decided then I was definitely going to learn how to smoke salmon and do a better job than that.”

Now, smoked salmon is among the top sellers at Brookman’s Smokehouse in the Square shopping center on the east side of State Route 59 across from Rouses Market in Gulf Shores. Brookman’s other best seller is a “Big Daddy” pork chop, a perfectly smoked two-inch thick chop.

They also offer ribs, whole chickens, turkey breast, smoked sausage, a variety of fish depending on what’s available, yellowfin tuna and amberjack dips and a smoked pimento cheese dip. A fresh salad with smoked chicken, made to serve two to four or a larger one that feeds four to eight rounds out a menu that really doesn’t have sides and all orders are take-out. They even sell blocks of smoked cheese. Whole smoked pork butts are also available but orders are needed two days in advance and all orders can be placed on line through Brookman’s website.

“Usually almost always have salmon and that’s probably the best seller,” Brookman said. “The pork chops and salmon would probably right up at the top. We’re trying to be a little different and trying not to be just another barbecue place.”

There’s not an oven or fryer in the place.

“We use a smoker with real pecan wood,” Brookman said. “Everything is cooked on the smoker. It’s the only method of cooking that we have. We don’t even have an oven. You have to have a big exhaust system put in just to have an oven. Smoke the items on the smoker and bring ‘em in. A lot of stuff goes in the hot case, chicken beef, pork, ribs.”

Not everything goes in the hot case. The dips, salads and other meats are placed in the refrigerated case, Brookman said.

“We always cool down turkey breasts, let it cool and put it in the refrigerator,” he said. “People like to heat that up later and if I try to hold it hot it’s going to be pretty dry by the time somebody buys it. Same with the smoked pork loins. It’s a four-pound loin or a pork prime rib you could call it.”

Everything for sale at Brookman’s is made at Brookman’s including all the dips.

“I feel like if we’re going to be making it and selling it as your own you need to make everything,” Brookman said. “Don’t buy stuff already made and put it out there as your own. My name’s on there so I’m not going to use something that’s a little cheaper.”

At the time of his first smoked salmon experience, Brookman was selling fresh seafood out of a mobile unit in his home state of Tennessee.

“We were looking for something that we could do to build into like a family business,” Brookman said. “In East Tennessee, it was a really tough business. For one, getting the seafood there and keeping a fresh product is really tough especially in a trailer.”

Eventually he and wife, Amy, moved to Springhill, Tennessee, with a job transfer and he brought the trailer along as well.

“I didn’t know much about it at the time but I started learning,” Brookman said. “I was looking to add something besides fresh seafood because it was tough. I started smoking salmon from the trailer, set the smoker up and smoked salmon out there.”

Not too long after the move to Springhill Brookman moved his business to a brick-and-mortar location.

“It kind of built until we found a place where were going to use as a commissary more than anything and decided we’d change it up and use it for a storefront,” Brookman said. “We went even further and decided I would just smoke everything instead of trying to keep up with fresh seafood.”

With COVID, Amy started working at home and the Brookmans got to thinking about making a move.

“We thought we could probably live anywhere in the country now since you work from home,” Richard Brookman said. “You want to move to the beach? Let’s move to Gulf Shores and we packed it up and here we are.”

And they brought smoked salmon with them.