And we’re open. Or we will be at 11:30am.

Boyd is studying the menu while we speak.

I’ll get the menu posted later today, but in the meantime, rest assured all your favorite sausage dishes, the burger, the BLT, our salad, the flatbread, grilled local vegetables, chips & dip, they’re all on there.

I recommend the market salad, add a link.

Initial feedback on the cheeseburger is generally along the lines of “best burger I’ve ever had.” I’m just sayin’. Plus it’s grassfed beef, local produce, and good for you. Ish.

Way back in 2008, when San Diego hosted the Craft Brewers Conference and World Beer Cup, we met a ton of brewers from all over the country (and world, for that matter), but for reasons that would eventually become more apparent we really hit it off with the boys from Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Georgia.

After an extremely, shall we say, jovial evening at the old Linkery location, the boys were having trouble getting a cab so Jay graciously offered to give them a ride back to their Mission Valley motel in his inherited-from-his-grandfather Buick Roadmaster, which fortunately for them sat around 10 people comfortably (how crazy is that? Jay Porter actually owned a car at one point). In any event, we kept in touch with the Terrapin crew, particularly Dustin Watts, their head of sales and marketing, and it was only a matter of time before we headed out to Athens.

If you’ve never been to Athens, Georgia and the UGA campus, you really owe it to yourself to schedule a trip out. Not only do you get a healthy dose of independent music (Athens spawned the B-52’s, REM, and Neutral Milk Hotel) and SEC football, but Farm 255 is probably the most farm-to-table restaurant I’ve been exposed to. In fact, the restaurant is so intricately tied to its own farm, Full Moon Farm, all the produce and meat from the farm go directly to the restaurant, and only the restaurant. Add to that one of the South’s premier craft breweries, Terrapin, and you’ve got a little slice of heaven. I could go on and on about the local craftsmanship we were exposed to during our stays, but you really have to experience it for yourself.

Fast forward to 2009, during my last trip out (which oddly enough happened to coincide with Terrapin’s anniversary celebration) Dustin told me that Terrapin was selected by Belgian Brewery De Proef to brew one of the next “Brewmasters Collaboration” series (remember Tomme Arthur of The Lost Abbey’s ‘Signature Ale’? Same deal). We were suitably stoked because it would mean we would legally be able to serve a Terrapin beer here at The Linkery (they don’t distribute all the way out here — yet).

Well, the time has come. This Sunday at 11:30AM, September 5th, we’re tapping a keg of Monstre Rouge.  The Rouge is an Imperial Flanders Red ale.  Some Flanders Red Ales you might have had include Duchesse de Bourgone and Rodenbach Grand Cru with a flavor profile of both sweet and sour.  The Imperial means they used double the malt and sugars and therefore the alcohol is boosted to a hefty 7.5%.  This beer has a very De Proef nose with a heavy malt backbone and a slight funky aroma from the Brettanomyces used in it’s fermentation.  The mouth-feel is complex and delicious with a hint of tartness and toasted American oak, paired with an intense hoppiness that is very American.  This beer is unlike any other I have tasted with both the American and Belgian styles of brewing complementing each other brilliantly.

Come celebrate Labor Day weekend with The Linkery, Georgia, and Belgium on Sunday morning.

Here’s a couple more pics of the tasting session from the day they received the beer at the Terrapin brewery.

Terrapin Brewmaster Brian “Spike” Buckowski (holding the bottle) and Dustin Watts

Dustin, Spike, some guy, and Eric (green checkered shirt, owner of Trappeze Pub, Athens’ version of Toronado

Kettle-fried pastured rabbit (Curtis Womach) ravioli, Serrano chile (Suzie’s Organic Farm) sweet and sour sauce

Local pastured chicken (Curtis Womach), Gouda cheese, basil, heirloom tomato (both from Wingshadows Hacienda) sauce, portobello mushroom

So, starting on Wednesday, we’ll open at 11:30am every day (including Sunday). To be specific, our new hours are 11:30am to 11:30pm, every day.

On weekdays, we’ll have a dedicated lunch menu which will be different than our dinner menu, but still feature some of the same favorites such as the sandwiches, burgers, salad, and flatbread. On weekends we will offer the same menu all day, as we currently do.

The Linkery is usually pretty nice during the day, too, maybe we should let people in.

Starting late next week, look for El Take It Easy to open for lunch every day, like a proper cantina. Again with a dedicated lunch menu.

Our first ever beer dinner was with Stone, in 2006, and as it was Lee’s final days as Stone’s lead brewer, the dinner was all-vegan in observance of his preferred diet. Lee, of course, wore his World Pork Expo T-Shirt.

Stone Brewing Vegan Brewmasters Dinner at the (old) Linkery, February 2006

This September 9th, we come full circle. A celebration with multiple Stone casks, Stone drafts, and a pairings menu full to the brim of pork — barley fed Berkshire pigs from Jesse Jutz in Minnesota. Perhaps current Stone head brewer Mitch Steele will show up wearing a PETA shirt, I sure hope so.

All pairings will be $9 for the food and a half pour of beer.

THE LINEUP

Cask conditioned Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale | pork belly and rabbit eggroll

Cask conditioned Stone Levitation | House cured thuringer slider

Cask conditioned Arrogant Bastard Ale w/ oak | Pork tenderloin marinated in mole

Cask conditioned Stone Smoked Porter w/ vanilla | Pork rib and pear flatbread

***

San Diego Session Ale, a collaboration with Kelsey McNair, Ballast Point and Stone (on draft)

2008 Vertical Epic Ale (unconfirmed) (draft)

2009 Vertical Epic Ale (unconfirmed) (draft)

Should be a hell of a night, no? Thursday, September 9th, 5:30 until 11:30.

Come meet the folks who put out this wonderful magazine and enjoy happy hour prices on drafts and micheladas, as well as some free tosti-locos!

Coupled with 30th on 30th, EZ should be rockin’ tonight.

If you’re dining in at the Link, we’ve also got $2 half pours of our cask wines, red or white.

And on the front patio at El Take It Easy, starting at 6pm:
We’ve also got $2 half pours of 30th St. Pale, and

$3 pork belly tacos (Just say “PBT me, asap”)

Remember: at both joints the 30/30 specials are cash only, service and tax included, and we’ve got ‘em until we don’t (but hopefully until at least 9pm).

This dish at El Take It Easy is inspired by the places in San Diego where you can most dependably get a charred burger cooked on a flat-top, with mayonnaise that mixes in with the tomato for old-school secret sauce, and a slice of cheddar cheese. I’m not talking about In-N-Out, I’m talking about your local taco shop. Or at least mine, wherever I’ve lived in this town.

I’m told that in other cities, this is called a drugstore burger, but I call it a taco shop burger.

As much as I loved eating burgers at my local xBerto’s a dozen years ago, these days I have a lot higher expectations about what I eat, and more importantly, about what we feed you. So this burger is wholesome: grass-fed beef, local heirloom tomato, local lettuce, Spring Hill Jersey cheddar, house baked semolina bun, and house-made mayonnaise from pastured chicken eggs. And those ingredients also make it the most delicious drugstore taco shop burger you could possibly have.

Served with fries that we make ourselves, and most importantly, served in the spirit of the taco shop. This burger is as good as it gets. You might order a second one. I did.

PS Bobby probably has some pretty good pairings up his sleeve for this, but he wasn’t working tonite so I went with the Txakolina. It was a great match, I recommend it.

Also, yesterday, we received 2 barley-fed pigs we had ordered a while ago, from Jesse Jutz in Minnesota via Eden Farms. They were too big to cryovac, which meant that we had to break them down today as well. Totalling 500 pounds of barley-fed Berkshire pork.

When you have 500 pounds of tomatoes, and 500 pounds of pork, all of which has to be handled immediately, there’s only one thing to do: set up a Brady-Bunch-like competition between the girls’ kitchen and the boys’ kitchen, and get to work canning and butchering. Being pre-industrialists, we stuck with the traditional sex roles and the boys cut the meat. (Being no fool, I worked with the women.)

It was actually a pretty long day for everyone. Both canning and butchering are plenty of work.

The guys of were separating out the pig into its many parts, some for sausages and cured meats, some for hams, some for pork chops and pulled pork.

At the end of the day, we had gotten all of the pig broken down and most of the tomatoes canned (I guess that means my team lost).

Of course, this is just the beginning — we still have to cure and cook it all down the road.

But at least when you see that we have local heirloom tomatoes on our menu in December, you’ll know how that happened.

As a result, Bruce from Wingshadows Hacienda showed up today with 400 pounds of heirloom tomatoes. We go through, like, 100 pounds a week. There’s no way we could get through these before they are no longer excellent. So tomorrow, a bunch of us are going to get up early and can all our overstock so we have them in winter.

However, if you we can sell a bunch of these BLT’s tonite, that’s just a little less work we have to do in canning tomorrow. So, come on in, help us out.

Fortunately, the sandwich is pretty bomb. The aforementioned heirloom tomatoes, butter lettuce also from Wingshadows Hacienda, house cured Berkshire breed bacon from Eden Farms, house made mayonnaise from pastured chicken eggs, and house baked beer bread. Served with organic potato salad. So I know you can really contribute to this effort.

Once you’ve savored the BLT, you can enjoy these wings with a heightened sense of well-being.

Local pastured chicken wings with pickled pastured chicken eggs, both from Curtis Womach

As background: By 2008 or so, the Linkery was fairly well known in town for our commitment to sourcing produce from local farms and meat from independent farmers who raised animals right. We were hardly the first to carry this banner, though when Region restaurant closed perhaps we afterwards became the most prominent in the center city.

The Linkery at New Roots Farm, January 2010

At Wingshadows Hacienda, 2007

In those years, it seemed like most serious restaurants at least had to make the choice about whether to be farm-to-table in produce: diners and the media were asking these questions. It was really great for all of us, as neighbors and eaters, that so many new restaurants in the 2006-2008 years chose to pursue getting the best produce from the best local farms. (Off the top of my head, I think of Alchemy and Spread and Sea Rocket and Ritual Tavern and Starlite and J6, but there are lots of others.) With such an explosion of quality ingredients throughout the region, one had the sense that San Diego was really coming into its own and that we would soon live in a food town that could be as worthwhile as first-tier dining regions like the Bay Area, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Pastured cows on the farm operated by Farm 255 restaurant in Athens, Georgia

Since that time, even though the market has contracted due to the larger economy, for the first time in my lifetime it’s become really quite feasible to operate a high-volume San Diego restaurant offering principally local produce, grass-fed meat, and local pastured poultry. The growth of farm and distribution infrastructure, including complex operations like Suzie’s Farm, has finally brought this to fruition.

This is a huge moment for San Diego dining, when finally we can develop restaurants on the kind of food that great restaurant cities are built on — real food that tastes better, is more nutritious, and is better for the economy and the ecology. It was because of this wonderful inflection point that we jumped at the opportunity to open El Take It Easy, knowing that we could at last serve a menu comprising world-class ingredients without having to spend a lot of effort developing the necessary infrastructure. This moment should be a great opportunity for many other restaurants and eaters as well, to hop on this moving train of delicious real food that is suddenly easily available.

Lettuce from Suzie’s Farm, grown in the City of San Diego

And yet.

And yet, at this moment that we should finally see an explosion of great and locally-farmed ingredients being served in restaurants across the city and across all price ranges, it seems like the consciousness of the city is going the other way, and is now trending toward ignoring the provenance of what we eat. Gleaning the many new “New American” gastro-type places that are becoming popular, one senses dwindling interest in the best local produce, and no interest at all in pastured meats.

That’s what I notice, at sense, but perhaps I’m missing something. Has any restaurant started serving grass-fed meat this year? I can’t think of any fixed place, I can only think of the MIHO Gastrotruck (though, thank Gaia for these guys pushing the quality of local street food far, far forward). And as far as I know you can’t buy a local pastured chicken in any San Diego restaurant where the chef’s name is not Max Bonacci. Even when it comes to fish, it seems there’s less local yellowtail or local grouper on menus now, and more and more farmed cod and trout and salmon (fed corn and soybeans, no doubt).

Max Bonacci with poultry (and more) farmer Curtis Womach

Anybody who’s looked into where their food comes from, or has come to really trust their palate, or is serious about nutrition, knows the myriad reasons why industrially farmed food is inferior to real food in terms of flavor, human well-being, and environmental and economic health. This is why the real food movement was growing so much just a couple years ago. But is it the case now, with fewer dollars to spend, that we are so reluctant to give up the luxury of eating meat with every meal, that we’d rather go back to pretending that commodity meat is worth eating? Or at least, is it the case that the incentive to eat better quality food is being overwhelmed by the fear of not being able to afford to eat out as much as we want?

I wonder if that’s what happening — if we as a community are surprisingly ready at this point to stop, or at least slow, our pursuit for better food, made from the best ingredients. If we want to eat better, it has to come from us as diners: for the most part, restaurant operators tend to offer what the market is ready to buy. Yes, at the Linkery/EZ (along with a few other notable places in town) we try to do it a different way than most places, where we generally offer what we believe in and then encourage our community to believe in it too — a method which both makes us the target for a lot of personal derision and also makes it harder to sustain the business financially*. I don’t think we as a community are likely to get many more restaurants to sign up for that program. Nonetheless there are plenty of chefs and restaurant owners who would prefer to work with these ingredients, but are stymied because they believe that their customers just won’t pay for them, or won’t understand what they are paying for.

So, if we want to eat joyously, real-farmed food when we go to our neighborhood place, we have to ask for it. We can demand that we not be served feedlot beef, even if it is being disguised by being called “natural” or “certified” or “heritage” or even “Meyer” or “Niman” or “Brandt” (yes, all of those are feedlot beef). Demand to eat eggs that come from chickens that live like chickens, not that exist as part of some billion-egg-per-year factory. Demand to be served meat chickens that were raised by people that we could call on the phone; and greens that come from farmers who live in our area, and tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, peaches that taste like peaches, and fish that tastes like anything other than bland fish fat. Demand better. Demand the best.

Michael dressing turkeys at Womach Ranch, Thanksgiving 2009

Yes it will be more expensive, and it may mean that we eat out less and eat at home more. Is that a loss? I think not, particularly since we now can buy such great food at the farmers markets, on par with what the best restaurants can get — and of course, the best food at farmers markets is a whole lot cheaper than even bad restaurant food.

I’d sure like to see us as a city revive the pressure to make more restaurants step up to that plate, of great local produce, pastured meats, outdoor chicken eggs, locally caught fish. It would make our city a better place to eat, and to live, and it would make our communities economically better off. And, frankly, we at the Linkery would like you to increase the number of our serious competitors, ’cause it’s fun to have more company in what we do, and ’cause we’d like to have more places we want to eat.

Chelsea and friend at Tierra Miguel

* You know what makes money? French fries. Particularly if they come with truffle oil and/or aioli. We don’t serve “an order of fries” at the Linkery, because that wouldn’t make any sense with our cuisine. But it really would be profitable if we did, as Russet potatoes cost a hell of a lot less than green beans.

On draft: 

Ballast Point’s version of Brother Levonian Saison is on tap right now.  This beer is a tribute ale brewed in honor of a fallen friend to the San Diego beer scene.  All of the proceeeds of this beer go the family of Brother Levonian.

After Levonian we have Firestone Walkers’s Private Label Hefeweizen to offer. This beer won gold at the World Beer Cup this year and is a great example of a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen from right here in California.

Airdale’s Amber Ale is on draft right now followed by Anderson Valley’s Summer Solstice cerveza crema, which is a delicious ale with a strong toffee malty backbone. Very reminiscent of cream soda.

On the lager note we have Victory Brewing’s Prima Pils on draft.  I love this beer, it has all of the typical refresing flavor of a great pilsner combined with a nice crisp hoppiness.

Prima is going to be followed by Sudwerks Brewery’s Munchener Helles-style Lager.   

On the IPA side we are stoked to offer a Rye IPA from a newer brewery to the scene Black Market Brewing in Temecula.  This IPA has a great malty rye character.  It’s really great with food,  it goes nicely with The (new) Sausage Sandwich.

On cask:

I love being able to compare the difference between cask and draft when we have the same beer prepared in different styles side by side.  If you order either style while in The Link feel free to ask for a sample of the other style and try it for yourself.  We have two beers to offer this week in both cask and draft. 

Right now on draft and cask we have Green Flash’s West Coast IPA. West Coast IPA is a well balanced nicely dry-hopped IPA that sets a standard for IPA’s in San Diego.

Later on in the week we will have Ballast Point’s Black Marlin Porter in both forms as well.  The cask form has cacao nibs added. Should be a great addition, I”m excited to try it.

The gold medal winning Sculpin IPA from our friends at Ballast Point is on cask right now. This beer is is one of my favorite IPA’s in town, it’s a bit lighter in body then most San Diego IPA’s and really refreshing.

Have a great week folks, see you at The Link. 

Unlike the traditional pulpo preparation you might get at a mariscos shop in Mexico, this is a simple, grilled cut of octopus, set on a house fried tortilla with radishes, local greens and some fresh crema, and then topped with house made guacamole.

On Sundays, this tostada — along with the summer squash tostada and the special tostada of the nite — are only $5. See the whole EZ menu here.

Plus, there’s the added benefit that the work of neighbors, unlike the work of factory egg farms and Wal-Mart’s suppliers, is far less likely to kill us.

Monday, August 30th at The Linkery and El Take It Easy: 30th on 30th

Thursday, September 9th at The Linkery: Pairings nite with Stone Brewing

Thursday, September 9th at El Take It Easy: San Diego premier of the movie “Calling On Others”, free to all, food and drink specials, full menu available

Wednesday, September 15th at El Take It Easy: Greendrinks, 6pm-9pm, free to all, food and drink specials, full menu available

Thursday, September 16th at the Linkery: Cask beer and vegetarian pairings dinner

Sunday thru Friday, September 19th through the 24th, at the Linkery: San Diego Farm Week (our answer to the restaurant one): prix fixe vegetarian 3-course meal for $25, featuring produce from our brilliant local farms.

Thursday, September 23rd at the Linkery: Airdale beer pairings nite.

Kettle-fried grass-fed beef tongue (SOR), AleSmith X sweet & sour sauce

I’ve been listening to it all afternoon and it’s great.

Sitting In A Tree - event design/coordination
Roots Kind Food - catering
MIHO Gastrotruck - catering
Velo Cult - event hosting
The Station - event hosting
North Park Native Plants - landscaping
DJ Claire - Smooth soul, R&B and yacht rock sounds that get a party started

I’m surely forgetting some, too, I’ll add them as I’m reminded.

The next time you’re having an event, consider keeping it as local as possible - the talent and love in this neighborhood is amazing. Thanks to everyone who participated in any way, it was awesome.

PS On a less immediately local slant, as part of the weekend, we also patronized the Artisan Table at A.R. Valentien up north a bit, and that was just superb, too. And thankfully we know such great beverage makers like Stone and Heidrun and Green Flash, ’cause great booze really makes a great party.