“You’re a pretty little girl, aren’t you? I kind of hate to get rid of you, but we need the money.”

This from Elizabeth Ponce de Leon, to a Hereford cow on its way to auction.

Love hurts.

We last visited Ramona’s Fountain of Youth farm two years ago, in quest of pastured eggs to replenish our ever-dwindling supply. (NB–if you’ve got a connect, please let us know!) The same problem brought us back two weeks ago, except that “back” is a relative word. Since our last visit, the Fountain of Youth has…been diverted? Anyway, it’s in a new location. No 100-year-old barn on the new property, alas, but character is not wanting.

We found it astonishing to note that those animals who were not born on the farm were brought there as rescues, many dropped off without notice. Elizabeth and Marisa have returned home from an absence to find their enclosure host to one llama more than the number they left.

You vegetarians who espouse your herbivorous diet in boycott of modern farming’s Orwellian plight? Go get you some steak and eggs. No hint of the factory farm here, folks. Wouldn’t you rejoice to eat meat from a goat that started the day with a big smooch? One can only imagine the health benefits.

Every animal at the Fountain of Youth has a name and is called by it. Here’s a census sample:

This is Precious. … Meaning, that’s her name.

Big Nose Kate, president of the local Rancid fan club

A brave invitation to a 1200 lb. animal: “Come here, Doc! Show me some lovin’.”

On the left Mr. Elf Ears, who is half-breed La Mancha and thus has half-size ears; La Manchas are entirely earless. On the right, Coco, who they tell us loves coffee.

”
Grizzly Bear, accommodating in the extreme

The ladies Ponce de Leon are vintage farming stock. Elizabeth, who hails from Cherokee, Dutch and English descent, grew up farming here in California. She moved to Texas for a brief time, “but I’m a California girl,” she owns with a smirk. Marisa’s father, Vicente, who died ten years ago, came from Guadalajara to the US when he was 21, and worked on a farm in Otay until he took up managing the restaurant La Casa Blanca.

The farm hosts about fifty animals at one time; in addition to our models, there also are nine horses (Missouri Foxtrotters, Warmbloods, and an East Nevada mustang named Shiloh), cats that seem to multiply out of thin air, and of course the chickens–mostly Buff Orpingtons and Rhode Island Reds. The eggs come in a spectrum of shades, from sandy brown to pale green.

The farm’s holdings are made known by word of mouth–people looking for livestock tend to just show up for business. On some occasions, animal buyers have slaughtered and roasted animals in the front yard, which should give you an idea of the owners’ hospitable attitude. The move to this new property set back their operations somewhat, but eventually they hope to provide us, and you, with meat that has been grass-fed and loved up.

As of yore, Elizabeth and Marisa welcome visits–if you want to pay a call, ask us at the Link and we’ll point you in their direction.

Every now and then, if you’re lucky, a dining excursion turns into one of those clean, well-lighted moments. It’s like when the light falls on you through a stained-glass window—rare, and a little bit transformative.

Last Friday, I got to watch a couple of guests have that experience. It’s hard to dissect, as an observer, when the transformative part kicked in—did it happen as soon as she sat down? When her friend arrived? When the semolina bread sent up steam from the table?

Anyway, when I saw her pull out a Polaroid camera with the size and gravitas of a Luger pistol, I figured something special was happening. So I asked her if she’d send us the pictures she took. And she did. Have a look. (And not just at ours, but at her whole site. It’s lovely.)

Here’s a secret: servers always hope for those moments, too.

Greetings everyone,

The Linkery’s charity for the month of August will be: Senior Community Centers

Senior Community Centers has been “providing quality and compassionate services for the survival, health, and independence of seniors living in poverty” since 1970. This San Diego-based organization provides homeless and near-homeless seniors with a network of comprehensive, integrated programs and services. Through their Nutrition and Health Preservation Services, they provide over 1,600 nutritious meals every day in addition to dietary education and health monitoring.  They also provide affordable, supportive housing with an onsite nurse, social workers, and mental health professionals to address each senior’s individual needs. The organization strives to foster a sense of community among these seniors, easing the isolation in which they live and promoting positive life choices that afford them the dignity and independence they deserve.

The Senior Community Centers are a very well-run organization that is dedicated to supporting and improving the lives of an often forgetten part of our community.  We all grow old eventually, so it is a blessing to know that there are such caring people maintaining the health, dignity, and quality of life that our seniors deserve.
For more information, please visit www.servingseniors.org.

Thanks for your time.

Greetings everyone,

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kevin Ho, most of the Linkery family calls me K-Ho, I’m one of the O.G. Linkery folks, and I also manage our Charity of the Month program. I don’t know why we never thought of this before, but I’m excited to start sharing with you about the great people and organizations that we support in our community.

As most of you already know, we apply an 18% service charge to all of our bills, and any additional money left over is donated to the Charity of the Month. For the most part, we strive to support organizations that provide a diversity of services within our local community and especially those in which our patrons are involved our support themselves.

For the month of April, we are proud to be supporting the Big Sister League of San Diego, which is a private, non-profit organization serving women and girls of San Diego, California since 1942. They support two separate programs: the Big and Little Sister Mentor Program and a Housing Program. Through their Big and Little Sister Mentor Program, adult women provide friendship and guidance to help young at-risk girls recognize their talents and use them to reach their full potential. The Housing Program, with two locations near downtown San Diego, provides transitional housing for mentally ill, homeless and/or abused women. Additionally, they are not associated with Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County, and they receive NO funding from them to support their services.

To learn more, please visit www.bigsisterleague.org.

If you have any questions or would like to nominate an organization for the Charity of the Month program, please contact me at kevinho21@gmail.com. Thank you and take care.

The fascinating presentation and discussion by John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods) and Michael Pollan (writer of The Omnivore’s Dilemma) from a couple weeks back is now available on webcast at webcast.berkeley.edu.

If you’re at all interested in where your food comes from and the quality and history of what you eat — this is an amazing presentation and discussion.  The presentation part is by John Mackey, laying out his vision of the state of food as a complement to the vision Pollan laid out in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  It’s followed by a discussion between the two of them.

The event was held on campus at Cal, and sold out faster than a Phish reunion concert at halftime of Big Game.  It’s a really compelling and invigorating exchange of ideas and addresses a lot of what we’re attempting to accomplish here.

UPDATE: You can read the story here for the next few days.  (Thanks to Ken B. for sending me the link.)

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal has an article on real ale which is a great read. And I don’t just say that ’cause they mention the Linkery as a place to get cask beer. Though we dig that, too.

It’s a special Wednesday today, and we are OPEN for dinner tonite! From 5pm to 11pm. (We will be closed Thanksgiving, though). We know a lot of folks have out-of-town guests or are planning to get together with friends tonite, and we thought some of you might like to have dinner with us. And we figure no one wants to cook, ’cause that’s for tomorrow.

We are 100% turkeyless at the Linkery this week, you’ll be tired of that soon anyway. Here’s what we do have:

* We made our own bacon from pasture-raised Ossabaw-breed pork from Cane Creek Farms in Mebane, NC. The Ossabaw breed is a very rare breed which is a direct, purebred descendant of the Iberico pigs brought from Spain in the 1500s. It’s a way to taste what pork tasted like 500 years ago, before our culture bred pigs into “the other white meat.” We only have a little bit of it (both the pigs and our smoker are small), so we’re serving it as a taster with organic Bosc pears, Point Reyes blue cheese and local avocado honey.

* Pastrami on Rye. While Michael was makin’ bacon, he was also making pastrami. (He wants everyone to know that it was really time-consuming, but the taste difference worth it). The pastrami is made from Brandt Beef, a farmer of all-natural beef in Brawley, CA. We’re serving our handcrafted Pastrami on Rye — the rye bread is from the folks downtown at Bread on Market — with thin-sliced artisan cheese, local Roma tomatoes, and a pepper aioli.

* We also made corned beef, and when the pastrami is gone we’ll switch over to a corned beef Rueben with house-made Russian dressing.

* A few of you have asked about the Crosnes we’ve been serving with the pork tenderloin the last few days. They do look like grubs, but actually they’re tasty vegetables also known as Chinese Artichokes. They’re grown in Southern California by Weiser Family Farms and they are very precious. Enjoy!

* Along the same lines, we no longer have Oregon baby kiwis with the ‘roo steak — we have organic California Kiwis from Chiechi Farms in Gridley, CA. They’re the best kiwis I’ve had. I know it’s not strictly geographically correct to lump New Zealand-style produce with Aussie meat, but the dish really works well…maybe it’s the curry tying everything together.

* “Proper” Guadalupe Valley wines are back in the house, as we have L.A. Cetto’s Petit Sirah and Nebbiolo Reserve available again. They complement our San Pasqual wines made in San Diego from Guadalupe Valley grapes. We’re working on getting some additional Guadalupe Valley wines in, it takes a fair amount of effort to get what we want but I think we’ll have some very unique wines available in a few months.

* A couple new Aussies on board: Blackwing Shiraz and Cooper’s Best Extra Stout. Both are very good and really modestly priced.

* It’s strong ale season and right now we have Avery Jubilation Ale, AleSmith Yulesmith and Deschutes’ Jubelale. We’re tapping a cask of Stone IPA on Friday.

* To call attention to a nonalcoholic drink for a change, Marcus (a new chef for us) has become a strong proponent of Barritt’s Pineapple Ginger Beer from Bermuda. I have to admit it’s really delicious. If you’re looking for an interesting soda to drink, check it out.

* Friday was our probably our busiest day ever, we were sad we couldn’t accommodate everyone who wanted to join us that night, and we thank those who waited patiently for tables to become available. (For what it’s worth, Saturday was mellow and we were able to seat people quickly all night.) We’re working on moving to a bigger location (still in the same neighborhood) next year, where we’ll have a kitchen big enough to serve more people. In the short term, we’re looking into what small changes we can make to accommodate more people, and hope to put some things in place soon. It’s flattering and a good sign that so many of you want to eat with us — we’ll figure out how to serve everybody!

* Our new “no-tipping” policy got a very good response, at least from the folks who talked to us about it when they were in. We’re appreciative to have such a great community of guests that come along with us when we try new and different ways to make the restaurant better. Thank you to all of you.

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody, be safe and savor the weekend!

Best,
Jay

Here’s a really compelling article from the website Grist, about how small Midwestern communities might be able to reverse their financial problems and help revive local food economies by simply growing more food for themselves.

I found this via the Ethicurean, which has become a daily read for me, and not only because they keep linking to our website.  (To our friends at the Ethicurean: we sincerely appreciate the props, but I do ask that you refrain from referring to me as “Chef”, as it leads to no end of grief from my co-workers.)

I just bought naming rights to Seth Godin’s car, henceforth to be known as his Jay Porter Prius.

The price was a donation to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

In a previous post I asserted that one goal of the titan foodservice producer-distributor alliances — by this I mean huge distributors like Sysco and USFoodservice, in league with producers like Tyson and Hormel — is to perform as much of the actual flavoring and cooking of the food as possible, before it even gets to the restaurant kitchen. In this model, the restaurant focuses on the “guest experience”, while the food, prepared with the enormous resources of a large distribution corporation, is very consistent in quality and carefully costed to maximize profit. Although, of course, this food is not something I’m particularly interested in eating, for a multitude of reasons.

There are plenty of restaurants that work in this model at least to some degree. And my eating-out experiences suggest to me that the number of these kinds of restaurants is growning.

So I wasn’t surprised to stumble across the following article yesterday, perusing the July issue of Restaurant Business magazine.

“Value-added” is the buzzword in the meat industry, and pork is no exception. Dennis Goettsch, VP of marketing for the foodservice division of Hormel, estimates that pre-seasoned, pre-marinated and pre-cooked pork products are growing at twice the rate of traditional pork cuts. The main reason: they take pressure off the back of the house. Minimum-wage employees can prep these items, it’s easy to maintain portion size and there’s less chance of cross-contamination than with raw meat. [emphasis mine]

It then lists a bunch of popular products in this vein, from Osso Buco to Asian spiced pork tenderloin to ribs and roasts.

To rephrase this press release in a way that makes sense to me: a growing number of the restaurants we eat at are not using their own recipes or even cooking their own food. We, as their guests, are paying restaurant prices solely for the opportunity to be served this pre-cooked, factory-produced food in a dining room that helps us feel some certain way about ourselves. By embracing this system, we are able to get slightly less expensive restaurant meals, and also ensure that potentially challenging, creative kitchen jobs are replaced in our community with monotonous minimum-wage kitchen jobs. What a great deal for everyone, no?

This is where we’re headed: Every restaurant meal, from neighborhood places to fine dining, produced like jalapeno poppers.

What we can do to stop it, or at least slow it down: get to know the restaurants you eat at, what ingredients they’re using, where they buy things from, and best yet, where and what the farms are that grow the foods. (And recall that Niman Ranch and White Marble Farms sound like farms, but they’re actually brands.) Be prepared to pay a little bit more for real food. (It shouldn’t cost a lot more, though, really. Just a little.) Enjoy the taste of real food when you get it, ’cause it might not be as available to us in the future.

On a related note, you might be wondering why I was reading Restaurant Business magazine. It’s actually a pretty interesting insight into the operations of huge numbers of restaurants. Being a business magazine, it tends to consider every restaurant primarily in terms of its profit-making, which is of course alienating to someone who loves food. However, business realities are important to every restaurant, and when there are tested techniques to improve one’s business standing, it doesn’t hurt to learn about them. For instance, apparently the new big thing is to save laundering costs by not using tablecloths and just having bare wood tables. So our operations team is looking into that possibility for us.

(That last bit’s a joke, in case you haven’t been here before.)

Riviera magazine gave us props in their August issue, not just once, but twice. In an article on North Park they say that we and Apertivo make North Park “one of those pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods where, yes, everyone knows your name.” And in their article on the best restaurant dishes in San Diego, they complement our links (”best sausage in town”, natch) and the sausage taco (”could go head-to-head with any fish taco out there”), but reserve a place in their “best dishes” list for…the veggie lasagna. “Assorted veggies layered with house-made whole wheat pasta, creamy tomatillo salsa, and queso fresco that forms a melted, loving blanket to unite the goodness within.” Gotta love it. Thanks, Riviera!

But if you sent me anything between Monday nite 15 August and Tuesday 16 August at 6:30PM PDT, it has been lost forever. So please send it again.

We served beer & wine at the Old House Fair last weekend, and got to meet the folks behind a couple of the new restaurants which will be going in in the South Park area.  Combined with the restaurants we already knew about, there’s a lot going on.

• A new tavern called Hamilton’s will be going into Sparky’s old space on 30th north of Beech.  Hamilton’s is owned by a couple of local gents and will feature quality local beers in their selection of beer and wine.
• On the northeast corner of Beech & 30th will be Alchemy, a restaurant with full liquor.  My understanding is that the owners of Alchemy own other restaurants in town and won the liquor license in the annual lottery, prompting them to look for a space to open a new place.  I spoke with several of them at the Old House Fair and they were very friendly.
• Across the street, in Santos’ old spot, will be Citron, which I understand will be a fancy cafe with cheese plates, gourmet coffee, light entrees, wines and so forth.
• Across the street from us, in the former San Diego Giant Pizza space, the family that owns Old Venice in Point Loma will be opening a small Italian bistro.
• On 30th north of University, in the building that was Mailo’s, our own Mike Flores will be opening the Ritual Tavern.

That’s all the news I know about upcoming places.

“Crazysalad is back.”

I am helplessly, hopelessly addicted to Pandora. I don’t wanna eat, I don’t wanna sleep, I only want Pandora to help me discover one more song that I’ll like.

I wonder if my Pandora is better than yours.

I may have a problem.

PS On a different music note, Michael informed of the new greatest-named band around: What Made Milwaukee Famous. I’m a fan. Their music sounds pretty good, too.

UPDATE: I think this is a link to my Pandora station, so you can listen to it too.

I think this is great.

Update: I forgot to add that I found this link on Seth Godin’s blog, which is one of about a dozen entrepe entrepren entrenp business blogs I read regularly. I’m fixin’ to post descriptions and links to them on our links page and on my blogroll, it’s just still on the to-do list.

NEW UPDATE: The segment is now viewable online here. I want to thank Mr. Himmel for taking the time to put together such a nice piece about us. But they didn’t include all the raving I did about how great Mars’ whole menu is! I guess the sausages just will have to get folks in the door, and then everyone will find out about the rest of the deliciousness.

UPDATE: I missed the segment but hopefully they’ll post it and we’ll link to it. In the meantime, there’s a web-text version on the News8 site.

We’ll be on News 8 around 5:25pm. Larry Himmel came in and did what looks like a cool segment. He interviewed Michael and filmed him making sausage, and showed the restaurant nicely.

Having watched Larry Himmel since I was growing up, it was nice to learn that he is a really nice and genuine guy. I was also interested to learn that his first job in San Diego was as a bartender at the Sunshine Co. in 1972.

When we were in Melbourne we rented a car and drove out to Mt. Langi Ghiran winery. We sell their wines and thought it would be cool to meet the folks who make it, and see the place. Well, it was a trip!

This winemaking region is very remote — and desolate — compared to McLaren Vale and Barossa. I think they said the nearest vineyards to them are 6Km away. Unlike the Barossa and McLaren Vale, which reminded me of California wine regions, this reminded me more of the California desert, off of Highway 395.

The winery itself was startling in this location, and the little area it’s in is beautiful. We had lunch there, which was simple and fabulous — little sandwiches, cheese, and fresh fruit — and some of their wines. Their wines are great, particularly their reisling, their shiraz, and their Cab-Merlot blend.

One problem they’re having this growing season is lack of water. It’s been so dry in the area that the local water authority has cut their ratio of water. We went up to the local reservoir to check it out. The stumps are normally below the water line.

As a side note, driving to the winery we went through a town called Ballarat. Ballarat has a tourist radio station, on which they play (among other things) the Ballarat song, a waltz which describes all the wonderful things in Ballarat. (They also play the Begonia Waltz, which lists all the kinds of begonias grown in Ballarat. But that’s another story). Anyway, in the Ballarat Song, I believe it’s mentioned that Ballarat is the “birthplace of Democracy.” Take that, Athens!

Melbourne has a lot of public art, and because the Commonwealth Games are going on, there’s even more than usual right now. In the Yarra River, which runs through the city, there is a display of huge metal fish, each one representing a country participating in the Commonwealth Games. Here’s Cameroon:

I had no idea the country was named after a shrimp!

All together the fish look pretty cool. I think theres about 30, overall. Here’s a few:

An asian bistro in Adelaide

A lamp from a St. Kilda bar

Looking out from the Hairy Canary in Melbourne

Inside the Gin Palace in Melbourne

Adealaide did have a few pigs…

Great oysters at Oyster Bar, mediocre food at a restaurant to stay unnamed. Had a Pinot Noir by Shadowfax, which I think I’ve had before…tasty and indistinct.

As I understand it, both the Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Adelaide Fringe Festival is going on this week. I think somebody told me it’s the second largest Fringe Festival, besides Edinburgh. I honestly didn’t know Fringe Festivals were a chain, but I’m unhip.

Anyway, we went last nite to dinner at Star of Siam in Adelaide, which was fantastic. Afterward, we headed to the Garden of Unearthly Delights, which is the outdoor grounds for — I think — the Fringe Festival. It was really — for lack of a better word — festive. The weather was perfect and tons of people were out on the streets and in the park.

We saw a provocatively-clad trapeze artist, and hung out near the carousel. We also chatted with some local sports jounralist folk and are trying to set up a visit to the Crows’ practice tomorrow…

Apparently, lawn bowling has been undergoing a resurgence of popularity, particularly with younger folks, here in Australia. I’m told it started with a documentary film about lawn bowling that was released here a few years ago and was a bit of a hit. Personally, I think it’s because lawn bowling is the rare sport that you can drink *and* smoke on the pitch while actually competing.

Since we were bowling in wine country, it was only natural that the winery next door to the green would be moving large metal tanks around.

Well, we’re here in McLaren Vale, outside of Adelaide, Australia. Travel was relatively painless, though long. (It took us about 27 hours to get from San Diego to our destination).

The weather has been great pretty much since we got to Australia. Flying into Sydney was beautiful - this pic doesn’t do it justice.

It’s a treat to be back in a region/country/continent where fresh, great-tasting ingredients are the rule, not the exception. Even our inflight meal (en route to Adelaide from Sydney) reminded me of this. They served us a penne chicken salad, with rocket (arugula), and the rocket had an intensity of flavor - spicy heat, pepper, and bitterness - that I think is very rare to find in rocket in the US, even in the most-acclaimed restaurants. I didn’t dress the salad with the provided vinaigrette because I so enjoyed the flavor of the rocket. And this was an airplane meal. (The chicken was processed and lousy, though).

I don’t know much about the area between Sydney and Adelaide, though a good portion of what I could see as we flew over was agricultural. Some of it was more desert-looking, though.

Adelaide is a cool-looking little city. I think we’re going to try to spend a day or two exploring it after we leave McLaren Vale.

McLaren Vale, I suppose unsurprisingly, looks a lot like California wine country.

The hotel we’re staying is about 20 rooms, in a few modest one-story buildings, at a winery. It’s very bucolic. In fact, the whole hotel staff leaves at night…they told us to be sure we remember our keys when we go into town, ’cause they’ll be gone when we get back. Glenn pointed out that it’s kind of like Camp Crystal Lake with all the counselors gone. And it’s also millipede season, which kind of adds to it.

Actually, one of the cool things about Australia is the panoply of bugs and plants and animals they have. This morning there was some sort of bird crowing at the dawn the sounded very unlike a rooster…I’m pretty sure it was a pterodactyl. Or maybe a raptor.

Oh, and the wine is good. And there’s some interesting stuff. Before dinner last nite I had a glass of sparkling shiraz, which was surprisingly full-bodied and dry, but with a really fruity front.

Dinner itself was at a beautiful wine country restaurant called the Barn.

The American guests (most of the group is from L.A.) were commenting on how much they liked the way the restaurant put bottles of water on the table, which made us smile.

During dinner, we had several kinds of wine, including a really good (and inexpensive) Riesling. After dinner, I drank most of a bottle of Shiraz-Grenache-Viognier, which is cool-medium body and interesting fruitiness. After that, I just drank Toohey’s New beer from New South Wales, while listening to the new Rhett Miller album, which is outstanding. I particularly like “Question” and “Singular Girl”.

Oh, and I finished Peter Kaminsky’s book “Pig Perfect” on the plane, which put me in the mind to eat some pork - and hopefully see some pigs - while I’m out here in the rural areas. Haven’t seen any pigs out here yet, though, just sheep.

Yesterday, Michael briefed me on the various special treats we will have for St. Patrick’s Day. Apparently this is a rather big holiday for Irish Americans. Who knew? Anyway, Mr. McGuan will see to it that, this weekend, we have the following:

* House made Black Pudding (sausages)
* House made Corned Beef
* Raised Pork Pie
* Rillettes (sounds French to me!)
* Happy hour prices on Guinness all day on Friday

I’ll be away, attending the well-known St. Patrick’s Day celebration in McLaren Vale, Australia. (OK, actually, a wedding). Michael will be looking forward to seeing you!

Mad thanks to our good friend Byron John Joseph III, who name-checked us not once but twice in his profile on the cover of Street in yesterday’s Union-Tribune. Good work mate!

In keeping with this week’s trend of high-profile publicity for friends of Linkery, Jami (who sadly has moved on from her Linkery work, but we still claim her as our own) was featured in the Secret Sexy Someone section in this week’s CityBeat. I do not know who her secret admirer is — Linkery customer… or co-worker!?

Everything you need to know to get the most out of your dining experience - as printed on the back of the menu at Grill, a great restaurant in downtown Tucson.

Yesterday a friend used the word “quitter” in kind of a negative way, and I regret that I didn’t go on my pro-quitting (or, more accurately, anti-anti-quitting) rant. Short version: “Quitter” is a word people use to try to dissuade you from changing your life to spend more time doing things you really care about.

For the last 6 years I’ve kept a clipping from the New York Times Magazine that a longtime friend cut out for me: an article from Michael Lewis (later famous for writing Moneyball and marrying Tabitha Soren) on the virtues, and sudden popularity in the midst of the rise of the dot-coms, of quitting. The dot-coms may have faded, but the joy of quitting remains.

In that article, Lewis references the book The Quit by Evan Harris. The Quit is part of the Linkery book library, so any aspiring quitters can come in and check it out.

Remember, any time anyone has accomplished something worthwhile, their first step was to quit doing something else. Viva the quit!

Free Radio 96.9 is back on the air. I find listening to Pirate Radio to be one of the most enjoyable cultural treats of living in Golden Hill. Welcome back, friends!