Click here to subscribe today or Login.
DALLAS — Komensky’s Market will offer a new service in the Back Mountain.
In February or March, the locally owned market will offer a full-service meat department featuring fresh cuts of meats and deli items, owner Brenda Sepelyak said.
The new offerings were initially planned when Komensky’s Market opened a storefront off Main Road in Shavertown, next to Dymond’s Farm Market in 2009, she said.
“When we first opened in the Back Mountain, the goal was if the business was successful, then work towards opening a meat market,” Sepelyak said.
After eight successful years selling its signature smoked kielbasi, the business relocated to a larger venue in the Dallas Shopping Center in late August.
Komensky’s Market will hold a grand opening for the new location from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday and offer kielbasi tasting.
The market offers a variety of merchandise, including jars of pickles, beets and sauerkraut from Poland, Plumpy’s Pierogies, spices in bulk, a selection of Mrs. Miller’s Homemade Noodles, a variety of Chef Tim’s vinaigrettes and all-purpose seasoning, kielbasi, pork chops, fresh frozen hamburger patties and more.
“We will offer fresh hams for the holidays,” Sepelyak noted.
Janice Remtz from Beaumont came in with her family Friday to pick up a ring of kielbasi.
“Their kielbasi is my favorite,” Remtz said.
Komensky’s kielbasi has earned a lot of recognition and was even featured in an April 2012 segment of the Martha Stewart Show.
Sepelyak said business partner Robert Sepelyak, who owns and operates the original Duryea location, still hand-smokes kielbasi rings in a smokehouse.
“Robert’s father (also named Robert) hand-feeds the fire to smoke the kielbasi,” she explained.
The smoke house is a small cinder-block building where the family burns only cherry and apple wood to smoke the meats, according to Sepelyak.
“It takes four hours to smoke 500 to 600 rings (of kielbasi),” she said. “It is a very technical process.”
What also sets the kielbasi apart from the store brands is the fact the family uses fresh peeled garlic and not garlic powder, she said.
Small mom-and-pop butchers use to speckle the Wyoming Valley and Back Mountain regions, but larger grocery stores began offering the service and put many of the little shops out of business.
“There has been no meat markets in the Back Mountain since Darings Market,” Sepelyak said. “I have heard people are pretty excited. They are looking forward to fresh cut meats.”
