Nobody local calls it by the full name. You’ll hear people say “the smokehouse on M Street” or just “10th and M” — and if you grew up in Anchorage, there’s a decent chance your parents mailed a box of smoked salmon from here every Christmas. The place has been operating since 1975, and it shows, in the best possible way.
You find it on the corner of 10th Avenue and M Street, in a neighborhood that’s residential enough to feel unhurried. The building is modest, not much to look at from the outside — a small retail front attached to what is clearly a working facility, not a tourist showcase. Walk in and you’re hit immediately with that particular smell: alder smoke and salt, the deep, fatty richness of wild sockeye. It’s not unpleasant. It’s the opposite of unpleasant.
The case near the register holds the main event. King salmon — the fatty, marbled kind, the kind you’d pay serious money for at a restaurant — comes smoked to different finishes. The traditional dry-smoked strips are firm and deeply flavored, the kind you can eat like jerky or flake onto crackers. The “moist” style is softer, more delicate, and that’s what you want if you’re eating it straight. Both are priced by weight, and yes, wild Alaska King salmon at a retail smokehouse is going to cost you: expect $30–$50 per pound depending on cut and season, which tracks with what it actually is.
What makes 10th & M worth going out of your way for isn’t just the product — it’s the specificity. These aren’t vague “Alaskan seafood” packages. Staff can tell you what run the fish came from, how it was processed, and which product ships best versus which is better fresh. That’s a different experience from buying vacuum-sealed salmon at the airport gift shop, and the quality difference is legible the moment you taste it.
Beyond smoked salmon, the shop carries halibut, black cod (sablefish, if you’re being precise), and various pickled and canned options that travel well. The smoked black cod is underrated — rich and buttery in a way that almost reads as decadent, and it holds up better in transit than people expect.
If you’re visiting Alaska and want to bring something home that isn’t a refrigerator magnet, this is the answer. They ship, they’ve shipped for decades, and they know how to pack fish for a cross-country flight. Custom gift boxes are available, and the staff can walk you through options without making it feel like a sales pitch.
Summer is the best time to go — the runs are fresh, inventory is deep, and the retail hours are most reliable. Off-season, call ahead. This is a working operation on a fishing-industry schedule, not a year-round gift boutique.
You won’t linger here the way you might at a restaurant or a market. The visit is short, purposeful, and very satisfying. You walk in knowing roughly what you want, they help you narrow it down, and you leave with something in a paper-wrapped package that you’ll think about weeks after you’re home. That’s the whole transaction. In Anchorage, that’s enough.
