Moody’s Chef Josh Smith to Open a New Waltham Market and Bakeshop

Photo by Chelsea Kyle for “Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions Set to Expand”

Now that chef Joshua Smith has moved New England Charcuterie to an expansive new processing plant, he can develop another new business at Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions. The butcher and restaurateur just signed a lease on a third Moody Street storefront, where he plans to open a retail shop focusing on smoked meats and baked goods.

The acclaimed Moody’s Deli housed Massachusetts’s first licensed meat-aging facility when Smith launched the business in 2013. That curing chamber continues to be used to for cheeses as well as dry-aged beef, but it is now also the headquarters of Luke Fetbroth’s growing bakery program.

“At one point, we were processing 60,000 pounds of meat a year out of there. We realized with a small space, you can do a lot,” Smith says.

Fetbroth, who has been with Moody’s since day one, has been developing his own breads, pastries, snacks, and more to sell at the deli and its sister wine bar, the Backroom. The additional storefront will help showcase his ever-changing repertoire.

The to-be-named storefront is two doors away from Moody’s Deli, in a former Haitian grocery store space. It will be the go-to spot to pick up a range of smoked meats—racks of ribs, wagyu beef brisket burnt ends, pulled pork, etc.—and sausages. The proteins will be produced at the New England Charcuterie plant, which Smith has nicknamed the Death Star.

The barbecue “sells OK at the deli, but people don’t go there thinking, ‘I’m going to get some ribs.’ If we refocus another space toward that, we can sell our smoked meat and sausages,” Smith says. “You’re going to feel an extension of Moody’s. You’re going to have the steel, the wood [decor], the meats, breads, all artisanal craftsmanship.”

To complement the style of meats, Fetbroth will continue to produce a range of options, with a little Southern influence as well. Expect things like apple streusel buttermilk biscuits, habanero cheddar biscuits, and heritage flint cornmeal and tasso ham cornbread, as well as classics like Bavarian-style pretzels, and sesame seed scali bread. There will also be sweets, like smoked maple cream and bacon doughnuts, and brown butter and smoked sea salt cookies.

“It’s a combination for both our passions, our Southern smoked meats and our baked goods,” Smith says. “I’m really proud to see [Fetbroth’s] passion being incubated right where my passion, our meat company, started. It’s really special to me to nurture these businesses.”

The landlord Smith rents Moody’s Deli and the Backroom from also owns the new storefront. Smith signed the lease last week, and renovations have already begun, he says. The smoked meat shop could open by November.

The New England Charcuterie founder has other aspirations in the restaurant world, too. Smith is keeping an eye on Moody Street real estate in hopes of opening an oyster bar, he says.

It goes without saying that the Moody’s Waltham empire has grown quickly. With more trained staff on board, Smith recently expanded the deli’s hours to be open from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sundays, too.

Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions, 468 Moody St., Waltham, 781-216-8732, moodyswaltham.com.