Country Store & Smokehouse Keeps Pleasing Customers: The Last Word

I live in the city and I'd like to think that I could find just about anything I want in one of our chain supermarkets. But recently, a viewer told me that if I want to visit a great store, I should come to a small town.

So I traveled to Hydetown, just north of Titusville, and stopped in at Hawk's Grocery and Smokehouse. It's a nice country store. Meat is the specialty. Smoked meats. Beef. Pork, Poultry. You name it. John Stewart worked here when he was 16 years old when it was called the Red and White store. He and his wife Sue now own it.

"It was always a dream,” says John. “I liked working here. It's a small community store and meat market. I just always liked it."

Three other owners operated the store since it first opened in 1948. The Stewarts still use recipes from each of those owners along with formulas they came up with themselves. Did you ever have ham loaf? It's made fresh here and is also sold in a lunch meat form. Meat. Meat. Meat. The Stewarts know meat and are here to help.

"If you don't know how to cook it, if we help you learn how to cook it, you come back and get it because it tastes good when you make it. So I think we do a lot of those things that you don't find in a regular grocery store,” says Sue.

It's not just meat that's smoked here. There's smoked cheese. Lots of it. About 25 kinds of cheese. But getting back to meat. John is taking pork belly out of the smoker. This pork belly will be sliced into delicious bacon. Want some beef jerky? This store makes it.

"We only make one flavor because if you do it right, that's all you need is one flavor,” says Sue. “And it's a big deal. We sell a lot of it."

The holiday season is approaching and the Stewarts are making another best seller. Sauerkraut. They sell thousands of pounds of sauerkraut.

"People come from Ohio. They'll come from Pittsburgh. They'll come from all over to get sauerkraut,” says Sue.

Mary Baldwin is a longtime customer from Hydetown. She thinks it’s great that food items offered at Hawk’s are available in her hometown.

"John and Sue, the current owners, are just wonderful people and we love their product,” she says.

Wait a minute! There's a for sale sign in front of the store! Oh no! The Stewarts are ready to retire. However, they promise to stay open until they sell the business.

"A little mom and pop store that's been here for 76 years now,” says John. “I'll never live to see it but I want to see it be 176 years."

The Stewarts are also making another promise to their customers. They promise to sell to a new owner that will keep all of the old traditions. That includes selling smoked turkey for Thanksgiving.