Originally published Saturday, November 15, 1997

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

One of the best things about Leschi is the wurst.

"We make about 15 or 16 kinds of our own sausage, fresh and smoked, every day, all year-round," bragged Steve Shulman, self-described chief cook and bottle-washer and sausage-maker extraordinaire at the Leschi Food Mart on the west shore of Lake Washington.

In his sawdust-on-the-floor end of this family-owned neighborhood business, Shulman is the hands-on boss, the big salami. "I started working here when I was about 11 and stayed till about 17 and then left. But I came back about 15 years ago and began learning the meat-cutting and sausage end of the business."

Leschi Food Mart was launched just after World War II by his great-aunt and uncle and their son. Steve's father, Leonard, also worked in the 8,000-square-foot business on Lakeside Avenue South and eventually bought the business in the 1970s. Father and son usually are on the job before the 9 a.m. opening every day, 365 days a year.

"We draw customers from the immediate area, Madison Park and Seward Park and Capitol Hill and Mercer Island," Steve said. "But for our sausage! For our sausage, people come or call from all over the city and Puget Sound."

"Except for the smoked sausages that require nitrites, all our other sausages, 11 or 12 kinds, have always been free of nitrites, even before that became fashionable. Some of our recipes go back 30 years or more, but I'm always looking, always asking people for recipes of other kinds they like."

Which is how Steve got into what the locals call his "Hotsies," or the so-called Extra-Hots. "And we also make a Mexican-style chorizo that's hotter than the Hotsies," Shulman explained. "We had one man stop in on a visit from Louisiana, and he sampled the Extra-Hots and he began sweating and he kept chewing and swallowing and he said it was all right.

"And then he tried one of the chorizo, and that zapped him. His nose and face turned bright red and he began sweating, but he tried not to show it was getting to him. He said it was fine sausage and left it at that!"

You don't have to go the fire-and-brimstone route at Shulman's meat counter. From the more than 3 tons (!) of sausage they sell every year, you can take the more conservative route and try the Medium Hots, or the cotto salami, or the knackwurst, or the bockwurst, or the Polish sausage, or the several kinds of Italian (regular, hot, sweet, with and without fennel), or the apple sauce breakfast sausage links or bulk.

Better you should like garlic, which finds its way into many of the sausages, but in no finer marriage of flavors than Shulman's lamb sausage with garlic. "No mint or rosemary or added pork . . . just lamb and garlic. I love it!" says the rather large sausage maker, who does his own taste-testing.

Steve learned meat-cutting and sausage-making from retired Food Mart butcher Carl Giles, who in turn learned it from another Carl before him. The Leschi store has always had a meat market and has only recently begun packaging some meats instead of custom-cutting and wrapping each meat purchase. And they also do quicky meals, such as kebabs, barbecued pork and burritos. "But we'll do special requests, such as big rib roasts or extra-thick cuts, any day of the week. You ask for it; you get it," Shulman said.

Leonard, Steve and one apprentice do the bulk of the standard meat cutting, but Steve does most of the sausage. "About five hours in any given day I'll be making sausage, but it's gotten to the point where it's not really work; it's sort of therapy, just standing there braiding sausages," he said.

All the link sausages, some of which also are available bulk style, are stuffed in natural casings, by hand. "And I have the tennis elbow to prove it!" Shulman said with a wince. "We use good cuts for grinding, such as pork shoulder. It's pretty lean, too. In fact, one local pizza maker tried some of the Italian and said it was too lean for making pizzas," he added.

No tour of the Leschi Food Mart sausage and meat counter would be complete without a stop at the industrial strength meat-smoking locker, a many-tiered reinforced steel shedlike structure stoked with quality alder sawdust. "This is where we smoke not only the sausage, but also the hams and bacon and turkey breast," Shulman said.

There are times of year, especially at winter holidays, when the smoker seems to go non-stop. And, if signs over the meat counter inside are to be believed, you can also special-order a whole smoked turkey or goose, as well as chickens. "We do a cold smoke, without salt or brine soaking, and then the meat is cooked afterwards. It takes 12 to 18 hours, but that leaves it juicier," he said.

Leschi Food Mart, at 130 Lakeside Ave. S., is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. Jon Hahn is a staff columnist who writes three times a week in the P-I.