Greenpointers’ newest series, Greenpoint at Work, is taking a deeper look into the lives of people who work in the neighborhood.
Our inaugural interviewee is Sam Lopane, the Senior Manager in charge of Research and Development at Greenpoint’s beloved Acme Smoked Fish (30 Gem St.). Lopane spearheads innovation and new product development at Acme and is a self-proclaimed foodie and proud North Brooklyn resident.
Let’s learn a bit more about Lopane and his job at Acme…
Greenpointers: Hi Sam. Thanks for being our guinea pig. Let’s kick things off by talking about your job at Acme Smoked Fish. What do you do?
Sam Lopane: I’m the Senior Manager of Research and Development at Acme Smoked Fish! That’s a long title but it means I use my background in food science and culinary to create new, delicious products for Acme Smoked Fish – from launching new species of fish beyond our popular salmon, reimagining flavors of classic smoked fish, or using food science to keep traditions alive. Of course, I don’t do this alone — I work with a highly creative team of other food scientists who bring passion and expertise to Acme.
If you’re interested in something I’ve worked on, check out our Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna — bringing it to life was a long process of research and development — a true blend of art and science.
Sounds like an awesome job! How did you get this gig at Acme?
My wife and I were living in DC back in 2022, where I was working for a DTC meal company creating new meals, and we were looking to make a change. We found ourselves coming to Brooklyn for fun and really loving it. We had some friends in Greenpoint and Williamsburg who started trying to convince us to move here, and so I started looking for jobs — lo and behold Acme was hiring!
I had a great interview at Acme, then got a slice at Paulie Gee’s and walked around McCarren Park. After that, I knew that if they offered me the job, I’d have to take it after that. The rest is history.
What do you like most about your job?
One thing I like is that I get a nice mix of creativity, pragmatic problem solving, and collaboration. Part of my day is at my desk, using my technical skills and project managing; while another part of my day is often tasting things, creating new products in the lab, or occasionally pushing trolleys of smoked fish around and running a smoker. I’ve always been a food obsessed, hands-on kind of person, so that is really important to me.
The final piece of my day that I enjoy is interacting and collaborating with my coworkers. Acme is such a fascinating blend of people from all over, and the secret sauce is what happens when we collaborate together.
How do you think the neighborhood influences product innovation at Acme?
There is so much good food in Greenpoint, it can be overwhelming!
I like to define creativity as the act of synthesizing disparate elements to make something wholly new and different. We’re like birds, taking little pieces of things we find in the streets to build our nests. All of the delicious food we eat in Greenpoint definitely weaves its way into our new products. We truly have such a diverse palate to draw on, really an explosion of food cultures, and I think that being based in Greenpoint is one of Acme’s intangible competitive differences. If you look closely at our products you can definitely see the neighborhood influence!
What are locals’ most popular orders?
Every week, we have something called Gary’s special — a delectable Fish Friday exclusive item that almost always sells out. This tradition was started by Gary Brownstein, who used to run Fish Friday, and it’s now carried on by the R&D and Marketing team at Acme.
We can get a little wild here, and people are normally along for the ride — everything from Mango Salmon Poke (a fan favorite) to Pumpkin-Spiced salmon dip, to Tuna Tonnato-salad.
What are your favorite restaurants in Greenpoint?
For a nicer night out, I love Rule of Thirds. Gotta shout out the delicious wine bar Cecily, as well as my frequent watering hole with amazing food — Minnows!
For lunch, the Acme team frequents Acre and Taqueria Ramirez. Lastly, the closing of the Pencil Factory was a big blow for the Acme community — that was our happy hour spot. Rest in Peace.
What is the best thing about living and working in North Brooklyn?
Something I love about Greenpoint is that it’s this little pocket within the energy and noise of NYC that still feels like a small town. The neighborliness is so real, and I can’t walk anywhere with our dog without stopping to see people I know and catching up. I used to commute 45 minutes by car to work, and I can’t even begin to tell you what wonders a 12-minute walk to work through a park can do for your brain chemistry.
What do you do when you’re not at work?
Lopane: I write a food, science, and culture newsletter called No Manners. You can check it out at nomanners.substack.com.
Also, I play bass in a Brooklyn-based indie-twang band called Burley. We play a lot of shows around Brooklyn, and three-fifths of the band live in Greenpoint and Williamsburg!
Do you have a job you’re passionate about? Whatever it is, we want to hear about it! Email [email protected] to get in touch about possibly being featured for “Greenpoint at Work.”
Great article! Keep them coming.
This may be an interesting article about Sam himself — but to call it an example of “Greenpointer at work” is a joke. You don’t speak to management or office staff if you truly want to see and hear what the life of grunt workers is like, to feel and understand what they msut endure to put food on the tablel and pay their rising rents. There are many minimum wage, undocumented, or immigrant workers who work in Greenpoint and are being exploited and are afraid or unable to voce their complains. The growing class of privileged residents in Greenpoint enjoy the fruits of their labor but either ignore or do not realize the pain and injustice that is often involved. Speak to some REAL workers and do the REAL job of true journalism, which is to help make this city, this community and its workers a better place for all of us. Be a newspaper with reporters who dig deeper, investigare, and helps solve out problems, or at least help us better understad them.
Important reply. First let me say that I am not a fish person especially smoked fish but if you are Acme has been a gold mine for it for an untold number of yrs. for quality and price.
Nicely written but the poster brings up an important point, talk to the grunt workers too although with the war against them ie immigration they may be afraid to talk to you.