After 12 years in business, Capital Q Smokehouse in Albany will close on Dec. 14. Owner Sean Custer tells me he has spent the last four years in a long-distance marriage to a woman who lives in Germany, and he is no longer willing for them to be apart for extended periods. The business and its building — at 329 Ontario St., in the former Meister’s Meat Market — have been for sale for three years, and Custer tells me a planned sale fell through at the last minute this spring, after he’d already had a moving sale sat his home.

He says:

"Aside from the fact that I don’t even have a comfy chair to sit in, I just do not want to be here anymore. My heart is elsewhere, and I did not get married to live on a separate continent from my wife. I have had a good run, but the time has come to move on with the next phase of my life. Of course I wish I had a purchaser to carry on the Capital Q legacy, but we only have so much time on this earth and I cannot wait any longer to go be where I need to be. I would like to thank all of my customers for their support these past 12 years. It has been my pleasure and a whole lot of fun."

Starting Tuesday, Capital Q will no longer serve lunch, opening at 4 p.m. daily. Its final dinner service will be Saturday, Dec. 14.

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As it has in the past, Capital Q is offering to smoke customers’ Thanksgiving turkeys. (It does not supply the birds.) The deadline for bird dropoff is Friday, Nov. 22, if frozen, Nov. 26 if thawed. Maximum weight is 16 pounds. The price is $50. Birds will be brined, rubbed, smoked and available for pickup, hot, at Capital Q at 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Catering orders will also be available for hot pickup at that time. Submit catering orders by Sunday, Nov. 24. Call 518-438-7675.

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