People Stop At This Connecticut Country Spot For A Sandwich And Leave With Smoked Meats, Bacon And Cheese
Lunch is supposed to be a fairly straightforward transaction. Order a sandwich, eat it and continue with your day.
Nobody said anything about needing extra room in the car afterward.
That is where this country stop causes trouble.
The sandwich may get you through the door, but smoked specialties waiting nearby have a persuasive way of changing the plan. Soon, lunch has turned into provisions for several future meals.
One Connecticut country shop can send you home with far more than the sandwich that originally brought you inside.
The danger is looking around while you wait. Bacon suddenly seems necessary, cheese begins making a strong case for itself and something smoky is practically volunteering for dinner.
At least none of it feels like an irresponsible purchase. It is food, after all.
Still, you have to wonder: how does a simple sandwich stop end with enough goodies to reorganize the refrigerator?
1. Old-Fashioned Smoking Defines This Country Stop
Smoke does the heavy lifting here. Real hardwood smoke.
Nodine’s has spent decades refining a process that gives its meats plenty of character without letting the smoky flavor take over completely.
The Connecticut business dates back to 1969, when it began as a small custom smokehouse. Today, products are handcrafted in small batches at Nodine’s production facility in Torrington, while the original Goshen farm remains home to the retail store.
Much of the flavor starts with the fuel. Hickory, maple, and apple pomace are slowly burned, allowing natural smoke to move through the smokehouse.
Whole spices add another layer, while the company says its products contain no MSG.
That careful process extends across an impressive selection. Bacon may grab plenty of attention, but shoppers can also browse smoked hams, sausages, poultry, beef products, and other specialties.
Seeing them together makes it easy to appreciate how many different foods can take on their own character from the same basic smoking tradition.
Some fully cooked smoked products can also handle limited time without refrigeration, which can be useful during a longer drive, although storage directions on individual packages should always come first.
Once you understand how much patience goes into each batch, browsing the case feels different. These are not simply meats with smoke flavor added.
Time, hardwood, and carefully controlled smoking are part of every bite.
2. Goshen Farmland Surrounds The Little Gourmet Store
Farms still define this corner of Litchfield County, and the shop sits in the middle of that landscape rather than on the edge of it. Rolling pasture, stone walls, hayfields, and barns fill the drive in from almost any direction.
The town rests in the foothills of the New England Berkshires, which gives the area its gentle climbs and long views. Hills roll rather than tower, so the countryside feels open and easy on the eyes in every season.
The retail store stands on what was once the original Goshen farm where the business got its start. That detail is easy to miss, but it explains the layout: a house, a yard, a working property, and a shop that grew out of it.
Goshen itself is known regionally for its fairgrounds and agricultural events, and the town keeps a genuine rural rhythm the rest of the year. Tractors share the road with weekend drivers.
Plan for the scenery as part of the trip. The roads leading in are the kind people drive slowly on purpose, especially in autumn when the maples turn and the fields go gold.
A visit works well paired with a longer loop through the hills, with the smokehouse as the reward at the middle or the end.
3. A Quiet Country Road Leads Straight To The Shop
The turn is easy to miss. That is half the fun.
Reaching Nodine’s feels less like pulling into a typical store and more like discovering a country stop hiding behind an ordinary driveway.
North Street, which is also Route 63, leads directly through Goshen. The road is generally quiet, although traffic can pick up around major local events.
As the smokehouse gets closer, slowing down helps because the storefront does not announce itself with enormous roadside signs.
The shop sits toward the back of the property, behind a house, so first-time visitors may briefly wonder if they have taken the wrong turn. Keep going.
Once inside the property, parking is available close to the entrance and the walk to the store is short.
Picnic tables outside make the setting even more inviting. Pick up a sandwich and lunch can become a relaxed break surrounded by the rural scenery, especially when the weather is pleasant.
It is worth checking your route before heading into the surrounding hills, where cell reception can occasionally become unreliable.
Nodine’s Smokehouse Gourmet Store is at 39 North Street in Goshen.
Watch for the modest signage as you approach and do not be surprised when the entrance feels surprisingly residential.
That slightly hidden setting makes finally reaching the smokehouse feel like discovering a local secret rather than completing another shopping errand.
4. Sandwiches Make An Easy First Taste
Lunch is the friendliest way in. The gourmet store runs a full-service deli where sandwiches are built to order, and that counter is the reason plenty of first-timers show up at all.
The menu leans classic with a smokehouse twist. A BLT made with house-smoked bacon is a longtime favorite, and the Turkey and Ham Club, Nodine’s Italian Combo, Black Pepper Pastrami Reuben, and barbecue beef sandwich all have their loyal followings.
Smoked chicken salad turns up often in conversations about what to order.
You are not stuck with the printed list either. Custom sandwiches are welcome, which means you can pair a smoked meat you just discovered with a smoked cheese from the same case.
Some deli items and sandwiches are made only at the Goshen store, so a few flavors exist nowhere else. Sides and house-baked goods round things out, and the oversized chocolate chip cookies have a following of their own.
One piece of timing advice: the sandwich counter can wind down a little before closing, so midday is the safest window. Visitors frequently mention how patient and helpful the people behind the counter are with questions, so let the staff point you toward the sandwich they build most often.
5. Smoked Meats Fill The Cases
The display cases are where a quick errand turns into a long browse. Hams alone cover a lot of ground: Berkshire, spiral-cut, boneless, apple smoked, New England Woodland, Country Cured, Tasso, and Party Ham.
Sausage takes up its own stretch of the counter. Andouille, bratwurst, chorizo, Italian, English-style and Irish bangers, venison summer sausage, and several kielbasa options, including pork, chicken, and fresh links, are part of the regular lineup.
Poultry fans have plenty to consider. Boneless turkey breast, rolled smoked chicken breast, duck breast, Cornish game hens, whole turkeys, ducks, geese, and pheasants share space with smoked chicken wings in plain, sweet, and hot styles.
Smoked salmon, bluefish, and trout cover the seafood side.
Game meats give the shop an old-world streak, with buffalo burgers, stew meat, and steaks alongside venison medallions, burgers, and stew meat. Beef jerky sold by the pound, all-beef hot dogs without nitrates, summer sausage, and sweet cured beef fill in the rest.
Homemade soups, stuffed breads, barbecue and game sauces, and fresh-baked items sit nearby. There is also a custom smoking program, so you can bring your own fresh meat in to be cured and smoked, and pick up casings for homemade sausage while you are there.
6. Bacon Is One Of The Signature Staples
If one product built the reputation, it is the bacon. All-natural, USDA-certified pork bellies are cured and aged before they meet a blend of hardwoods that can include hickory, juniper, and apple.
Apple Smoked Bacon is the top seller, sweet and lightly smoked thanks to slow-burned dried apple pomace paired with hickory. Double Smoked Bacon goes the other direction, running through the process twice for a deeper, more insistent smoke.
Juniper smoked bacon lands somewhere unusual, with a bright, resinous aroma you notice before the first bite.
The list keeps going: maple, Canadian, uncured natural, non-nitrite, peppered, garlic, and Bayou bacon seasoned with Cajun spices. Choosing just one is hard, which is why many shoppers leave with two or three packages.
Here is the practical part. Many of the bacons are precooked, which cuts shrinkage in the pan and gives you more actual bacon per slice than you might expect.
That also makes them convenient for camping, picnics, or a quick breakfast on a busy morning.
The bacon reaches other markets too, but people still drive out to Goshen for it, often because the retail case offers cuts and styles that are harder to find elsewhere.
7. Cheeses Add More To Take Home
Meat may draw the crowd, but the cheese case quietly wins people over. Smoking cheese is a finicky job, since too much heat softens it and too much smoke buries the flavor.
The balance of wood blend, temperature, and time here has been adjusted over many years.
The regular selection covers cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, Gruyere, Swiss, pepper jack, and American. All of the smoked cheeses are made without nitrites, which fits the shop’s broader approach.
Smoked mozzarella has an especially devoted following, often paired with pastrami on a sandwich. Smoked cheddar is the easy crowd-pleaser, good on a burger, melted into potatoes, or sliced onto crackers with nothing else needed.
Samples are often set out, so you can taste before you commit. That small courtesy makes a difference when you are deciding between a mellow Swiss and something with more bite.
Ask which cheese has been smoked most recently, since the selection can shift a little through the year.
For a simple home spread, pick two cheeses, one smoked meat, and a loaf of bread. It is an easy dinner that tastes like effort.
Wrapped well and kept cold, the cheeses travel comfortably and make a natural gift.
8. One Quick Stop Can Fill A Cooler
One sandwich can quickly become a shopping trip. The cases make resisting difficult.
Bacon, sausages, hams, cheese, and other smoked specialties can turn an innocent lunch stop into a serious freezer restock.
Starting with food from the counter is not a bad strategy. Grab a sandwich, settle at one of the outdoor picnic tables, and decide what deserves space in the cooler afterward.
It gives you time to browse without rushing and makes the visit feel more like a country outing than an ordinary grocery run.
An insulated bag or cooler is useful if the drive home will take a while, particularly during warmer weather. Refrigerated and frozen products are available, while many smoked specialties are fully cooked and packaged with travel in mind.
Storage instructions on individual products should still guide how everything is handled once purchased.
Regular customers often use the visit as an opportunity to stock up rather than buying only one item. Larger hams and other popular products may also be worth arranging ahead of busy holidays.
Even four-legged family members can benefit from the trip, since beef bones for dogs are among the items sold.
The store currently opens Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bring enough cooler space. The harder part may be leaving any of it empty.
