THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602010162
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
BETWEEN THE MEGA malls of Hampton Roads and trendy boutiques of the Outer Banks, country stores bead the rural highways and byways of northeastern North Carolina.
None, you can bet, is quite like The Olde Country Smokehouse off U.S. 17 just north of Elizabeth City.
The shop, a two-car garage in its former life, looks newer than many country stores, tiny bungalows with faded signs on rusted hinges. But many of The Olde Country Smokehouse's decorative items probably predate the older structures.
And its humble cuisine draws customers from as far away as Florida and California.
Just ask store owner ``Trader John'' Kitchen, whose affable personality and affinity for nostalgia embody the spirit of the Albemarle area.
``We try to be unusual, serve some good product. People come and get it if it's good enough,'' Kitchen, 62, says in a drawl that's as thick and sweet as the black molasses that sells so well here.
The country store is chock full of crates and cartons and display cases and racks with handwritten signs attached to them. The scent of smoked hams is enough to send meat lovers into hog heaven.
There's Dan Doodle sausage, salt pork, smoked sausage, fresh link sausage, country sliced ham and smoked hog jowls. Hoop cheese from Wisconsin can be had for almost pennies a slice.
Fully cooked hog chitterlings, the intestines of the pig, are a real big seller.
``It's an old country item, but people still eat a lot of them,'' Kitchen says in his commanding, benevolent voice that seems to go up a scale at the end of each sentence.
Bins hold a dozen kinds of dried beans, and baskets boast sweet potatoes selling for a real decent price. When in season, this is the place for apples, peaches and pumpkins.
One metal display rack holds rat and mice poison on one shelf and lard tubs on another. Overhead are decorative tobacco, fodder, cotton, soybean, peanuts, milo and corns - all labeled for newcomers to Southern culture.
Americana artifacts - old-fashioned soda shop clocks and service station thermometers among them - occupy wall space with farm implements in hot demand.
Shelves in another part of the store hold ancient boxes of soap flakes, like Rinso, and aspirin tins. These, like some other displays, are for show, not sale.
Antique appliances are attractive. The stoves, washers and cast-iron pans don't seem to stay around long.
Not every item on the store floor is as old as the hills here.
They do sell Nabs, cigarettes and Coca-Cola by the six-pack - Classic Coke, of course.
Even if you weren't raised on chitterlings or hog jowls, you can't help but feel at home at The Olde Country Smokehouse.
``My public life was a life of a union man. And when I got my time in and could retire, this is what I decided to do. I came back to my roots,'' Trader John says as he sits a spell by the huge potbelly stove that provides plenty of warmth in the winter.
``I don't think you need to live in the past. But I don't think you should forget it,'' he says.
Kitchen's own past began in Southampton County, Va., in the little town of Ivor. His daddy ran a country store in the 1940s and '50s before he died in 1957.
One of seven children, Kitchen went into the Air Force after high school and returned home the same year his father died.
Also that year he met his future wife, Jo Anne, who hailed from Wakefield. The couple married in 1959 and went on to have three sons - Woody, Buddy and Eddy - and eight grandchildren, ``keeping the Kitchen name alive.''
Around 1961, Kitchen went to work full-time for the steelworkers union and moved frequently among West Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Richmond and Raleigh.
When Kitchen turned 53, he decided he'd had enough of the nomadic life and entered early retirement in 1987.
The family settled in Elizabeth City. ``Her people's from here,'' he said of Jo Anne's kin.
Kitchen built a round-roofed, wooden country store on U.S. 17 across from a car dealership and opened it Oct. 2, 1987. He sold it three years later, and it now is occupied by Egad's, a screenprinting shop.
The day after the sale, Kitchen purchased his current home on West Main Street Extended, about a half-mile down from the Zoom-In convenience store off southbound U.S. 17.
He converted an unfinished garage into The Olde Country Smokehouse and brought in a 1941 smokehouse to cure his meat.
Selling such cholesterol-laden products as unprocessed cheese and hog meats would appear to buck current consumers' low-fat buying preferences.
Not so, says Trader John. Business is so good that he decided to start a mail-order business and ship his country salt-cured smoked hams, jellies, jams, preservatives, relishes, dried fruits and candies all over the country.
Florida is especially popular. ``Lots of people have kinfolk in Florida.''
Locals eat up the hoop cheese like crazy, along with Dan Doodle, hog stomach stuffed with sausage and smoked.
``People like to remember what they eat, and still have it occasionally,'' Kitchen says of his products' popularity, which draws regular customers from all over, including those in the health care community.
``But they eat it in moderation,'' he emphasizes.
While the meats and cheese may not be for the weak-hearted, Kitchen does sell some health-conscious items.
After learning that Pasquotank County alone had 1,100 diabetics, Trader John began selling sugarless fruit spreads. ``And it's been a big seller for us.''
When he and Jo Anne go off for the day, Foye ``Mac'' McLemore fills in. Wayne Weeks is Kitchen's ``sales sidekick,'' often accompanying him on weekend trips to buy or trade items.
You might think the old gas tanks, gas pumps, chopping blocks and farm bells he picks up would sit outside the store for awhile. Think again.
``I can't get enough of them,'' Kitchen says of the old wood blocks. Of old timey safes, he adds, ``Sell every one we can get our hands on.''
A wood cook stove in a corner is being reserved for a 90-year-old woman who's never used anything else in her life.
``I got a two-horse wagon I could sell - if I could just find one,'' Kitchen said.
Oddball items are one reason people flock to the store with the huge stoplight out front. Service is another.
Everyone, from the Kitchens and Mac to official store greeter Candy the cocker spaniel, make you feel like part of the family.
``It don't hurt to be nice to people,'' Kitchen says. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
Jo Anne and Trader John Kitchen's products are in such demand that
they have started a mail-order business.
``We try to be unusual, serve some good product. People come and get
it if it's good enough,'' Kitchen, 62, says.
Americana artifacts occupy wall space in the unfinished garage that
has been converted into The Olde Country Smokehouse.
ABOUT THE STORE
What: The Olde Country Smokehouse
Where: Main Street Extended, off U.S. 17 north of Elizabeth City.
Just look for the big traffic light that signals you've arrived.
Store hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Phone: 338-8174.
Mail orders: 1-800-566-HAMS(4267)
Hot sellers: Jams, jellies, sausages, cured hams, hog jowls and
chitterlings, hoop cheese, and apples and pumpkins when in season.
Other items: Farm implements, antique appliances, Americana
signs, just about anything you could imagine.
by CNB