The business is known for its handmade sausages, which come from five generations of recipes. Each sausage is made from beef, pork, or chicken, with everyday ingredients, and a premade blend of spices.

Brian Peterson, co-owner of the sausage shoppe, said they focus on using fresh and real ingredients — the kinds one finds at home — because what a sausage is made from is just as important as the recipe.

“Sausages are unique,” he said. “It’s like baking a cake — you have to add all the right ingredients at the right time.”

Sausages are made at Nowicki’s Alpena location on Mondays and Tuesdays. Before sausage making begins, Peterson compiles a list of the sausages that need to be made, prepares the spice blends, and sets the seasoning mix aside in ziplock bags.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson Andrew Hunter, an employee at Nowicki’s Sausage Shoppe, flips the cut sausages over a bar which will then be placed on the rack of sausages.

Nowicki’s sausage starts with fresh meat, which is fed through a grinder until the mixture resembles hamburger. The meat is then transferred to a mixer where spices are added, then followed by fresh ingredients such as onions, peppers or potatoes.

The mixture is then loaded into the stuffer, a machine that pushes the sausage into the casing, creating one long rope of sausage. The sausages are cut, and folded over a rod which is then secured to a rack.

Employees are able to produce around 120,000 pounds of sausage each year, Peterson said.

Nowicki’s has more than three dozen kinds of brats — from traditional German bratwurst to its best selling potato brats to more exotic flavors such as Hawaiian brats, which are made with cherries and pineapple.

Any new brat flavors are usually introduced by Peterson, who said he gets his inspiration from the things he eats. He said he will eat something and think that it would make a good sausage. He then tries to recreate the flavor the way it really tastes.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson A number of Nowicki’s sausages are displayed in a cooler earlier this month at the business’ Alpena location.

“The thing with our sausage is if you get a pizza brat, it tastes like a pizza,” he said. “Our brats taste like they say.”

Perterson said he purchased the business from his mom, Michelle Nowicki and stepdad, Phil Nowicki Jr., in 2018. He was working at an oilfield in West Virginia when his parents told him they planned to sell the business.

At that time, Peterson said he called Jeff Idalski of Rogers City, who has been his friend since the second grade.

“We had always joked about buying it one day, so I called Jeff up and was like, ‘Jeff, they are looking to sell, what do you say,’ and then he said, ‘let’s do it,'” Peterson said.

Peterson said his parents created a loyal following and that the business continues to draw people in from around northern Michigan. Peterson hopes to expand on that following by adding his own touch to the offerings sold in the store.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson Brian Peterson, co-owner of Nowicki’s Sausage Shoppe, unloads the mixer after the spices and other ingredients have been added earlier this month in Alpena.

Since purchasing the business, Peterson has added smoked chicken wings, ribs, and pickled bologna to the list of meats prepared in the shop.

Peterson, along with co-owner Idalski, has also opened new locations in Rogers City and Gaylord. The sausage shoppe has ties to Rogers City as it was founded there in 1917.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson Nowicki’s Sausage Shoppe is pictured earlier this month on 1224 N 2nd Avenue in Alpena.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson Samantha Stinson, an employee at Nowicki’s Sausage Shoppe, pushes a cut of pork through the grinder earlier this month at Nowicki’s Alpena location. This is one of the first steps in making sausage.