The award-winning craft Kielbasa maker will be in the mall until Easter…
There are two places you expect to find great kielbasa.
One is a roadside smokehouse, somewhere out past the last stoplight, where the air smells like wood smoke and pork fat and the guy behind the counter probably made what you’re about to eat himself.
The other is not the Wyoming Valley Mall.
And yet, just in time for Easter, that’s exactly where Joe’s Smokehouse has landed.
The Shickshinny-based operation, known locally for its handmade kielbasa, smoked meats, and cheeses, is now open inside the mall, set up across from Victoria’s Secret. It’s a temporary, weekend-only run through the holiday, but the timing couldn’t be more deliberate. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, Easter isn’t just another meal. It’s built around kielbasa.
Joe’s Smokehouse also set up shop in the mall for the Christmas holiday. The setup is straightforward: refrigerated cases filled with vacuum-sealed links, smoked sausages coiled thick and red, beef sticks lined up in rows. There are snack sticks in flavors that range from sweet BBQ to something called “Death Wish,” and blocks of smoked cheese, horseradish, ghost pepper, bacon cheddar, that carry the same slow, deliberate imprint of smoke.
This is the kind of kielbasa that shows up on Easter tables across the region, next to hard-boiled eggs, alongside sharp horseradish, sliced thick and eaten without ceremony. It doesn’t need dressing up. It doesn’t need explanation.
Joe’s has already earned its place in that tradition. The operation took home “Best Smoked Kielbasa” at the Plymouth Alive Kielbasa Festival, a distinction that actually means something in a region where people know the difference.
Because not all kielbasa is equal. A lot of what’s out there in supermarkets is mass-produced imitation, engineered to taste like smoke without ever really seeing it. What Joe’s is doing is the real deal. You can smell it before you see it, that low, steady scent of real smoke that lingers.
Bringing that into a mall setting might feel unexpected, but it works, especially now.
The Wyoming Valley Mall, like many malls, has been evolving. And struggling. In addition to the struggle that many mall operators are going through with empty storefronts and dwindling shopper traffic, the Wyoming Valley Mall has also recently dealt with multiple closures due to power issues. Having a place like Joe’s Smokehouse open a part-time shop won’t solve any of those issues, but it certainly helps.
With Easter approaching, people are already thinking about what’s going on the table.
So they stop.
They take a look. They recognize something they grew up with.
And they leave with three pounds of kielbasa for $20, because that’s how these things go.
Joe’s won’t be there forever. The pop-up is slated to run weekends through Easter, then it’s gone.
But for now, it’s a rare thing: a piece of real, regional food culture dropped into the middle of a place that usually trades in something else entirely.
And if you’re paying attention, it’s worth grabbing while it lasts.
