Photo courtesy of Corey Johnson Russell residents Kay and Corey Johnson spent this summer renovating the former Russell Mini Mart into C&K Smoke House, a new custom meat processing business.

RUSSELL — This summer, a Russell couple have been working to put some new life in a formerly empty business in their community. It’s definitely caught people’s attention, Corey Johnson said.

“Quite a few people are aware of it. The word is out,” Johnson said.

Corey and his wife Kay Johnson plan to open C&K Smoke House, a custom meat processing business, in the former Russell Mini Mart on Old Highway 23. Corey Johnson plans to open the business on Tuesday.

Johnson said the idea to start a meat processing business grew from his own experiences processing game.

“I had been doing wild game myself, out of my house, for 13 years,” he said.

Then, the vacant Mini Mart property in Russell provided an opportunity to start a business. The name “C&K Smoke House” uses his and Kay’s initials.

The Mini Mart had been empty since about 2019, Johnson said.

Corey worked on getting C&K Smoke House started while still working his full-time job as a diesel mechanic. The Smoke House will be a part-time business for him, he said.

C&K Smoke House will be a custom meat processing business, which means they will process meat for customers, but won’t have meat products for sale, Johnson said.

“My main line (of processing) will be wild game,” he said.

However, in addition to processing deer and other game, C&K Smoke House is licensed to process pork and beef, he said. Johnson said C&K can smoke pork butts, chicken and turkey, and they can also make summer sausage, jerky and snack sticks.

Turning the Mini Mart into a smokehouse was a task that took all summer for the Johnsons.

“We renovated the inside of the building,” installing food-grade equipment, Corey said. “We did all the work ourselves. We started on this back in May.”

Johnson said the Smoke House passed its final inspection on Friday, and he planned to open next week.

“I’m excited about it,” he said.

Johnson said it was also good to be able to start a new business in Russell.

“People are stopping in, and they think it’s pretty cool what I’m doing,” he said.

Once C&K Smoke House is officially up and running, he won’t have to wait long for customers.

“I’ve got people that want me to do stuff already,” he said.