Hi Friends!

I hope everyone’s Gregorian New Year is off to a great start! Just a quick note to let you know about a few new things at the Link…

* Right now we’re offering a new dish for us: an abalone and sea urchin (aka uni) combo. Obvs both of these are as precious as they are delicious so it’s a small dish, and the seafood is complemented by watercress, micro rocket, citrus and red pepper. It’s farmed abalone (i.e., not from the wild, endangered population) from “Friend of the Linkery” Benito Altamira & abulones.com in the Ensenada area. The uni, for which San Diego is renowned internationally, is harvested locally from the wild. It really tastes like the sea! Also, Here’s an article about the possibility of abalone farming to help save the local population: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1525/is_2_86/ai_71190277

* We’ve switched entirely to local salt from South Bay Salt Works, which has been operating on San Diego Bay for 130 years. We also smoked some of the salt on Santa Maria red oak, we may break that out from time to time.

* Starting Wednesday, we’ll have a local/artisan Lyonnaise (sort of) salad, with frisee from Connelly Gardens, house made lardons, and pastured egg from Wingshadows Hacienda.

* Right now, for pastured meat we have sopes of pastured lamb from Rinconada Dairy and a ham & cheese with house cured ham from pastured Hampshire pork from NZ Ranch in San Luis Obispo. Later in the week we’ll get local pastured goat and lamb from RC Livestock in Fallbrook and maybe even some goat from a new farm in East County.

* Last summer I visited what turned out to be one of my favorite farms I’ve ever seen, B & B Farms in Grinnell, Iowa. Next week we’ll start getting pastured 100% Berkshire pork from this farm, and we’re very grateful for that. This farm is a fully integrated, sustainable farm with many crops and many types of animals, and great people. Here’s the story and photos about my visit to B & B: http://thelinkery.com/blog/?p=539

* Beer: Hophead Red is on cask now, and Stone’s Arrogant Bastard is on cask next. Firestone Wlaker Pale Ale and Point Loma Porter (not my dad, but a beer from Coronado Brewing Company) are on draft, and Alesmith X and Green Flash Imperial IPA. Racer 5 IPA is in house, in 12 oz bottles.

* Wine: Beckmen’s Cuvee Le Bec is back by the glass. Paul Hobbs Natvio “El Felino” Malbec apparently recently got some good notices by the folks who write about such things. It’s definitely tasty, and we’ll have it by the glass for a bit longer. We got a really neat Oregon Pinot Noir I keep meaning to call attention to, it’s from Bergstrom (actually there’s an umlaut over the “o”, but there isn’t one on my keyboard) in Willamette Valley. All their grapes are grown biodynamically to maximize sustainability, harmony with the environment and the sense of terroir.

* The Ritual Tavern, one of our fave places to eat — and not just because it was started by friends of ours — was the subject of a nice write-up by Marcie Rothman at foodbuzzsd.com: http://www.foodbuzzsd.com/blog/2008/01/05/ritual-tavern-in-north-park/ . Also, as most craft beer lovers know, Liar’s Club Alpine is now open (I think the address is 2806 Alpine Blvd). We went out for their soft opening and had a great time, it’s a really well done space. The drive takes about 25 minutes from North Park.

To find about our happenings and menu changes more-or-less as soon as we do, tune your RSS or blog reader to our blog feed at http://thelinkery.com/blog/?feed=rss2, or just obsessively check our blog at http://thelinkery.com/blog. You can get text message updates to your phone by following us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/thelinkery .

We’re open every day from 5pm until at least 11pm. Thanks everyone for being part of the Linkery community!

Best,
Jay