Hi friends,
We’ve got lots of amazing stuff to share with you, from all over California and beyond. Here goes:
* Over the last few months, we’ve established a good relationship with Old Creek Ranch in Cayucos, CA. Old Creek Ranch is a very progressive, sustainable farm which raises organic 100% grassfed meats, pastured pork, and citrus and avocados without pesticides. Their season has started again and we’re happy to say we have all-natural, sustainably farmed, grassfed California meat in the house. We’ll start with…
* Goat! We have hand made curried goat sopes, served with avocado salsa. This is 100% grassfed, pasture-raised California goat from Old Creek Ranch. We didn’t have a lot of rain this season, so the meat has a really lean profile. Goat has such a strong, delicious flavor, too, and it’s great curried. We’re really excited to be serving this dish. There’s a limited supply of this dish, after that we’ll move on to Old Creek Ranch lamb.
* Speaking of “limited supply”…hello, Reuben Tuesday! As many of you know, last time we made corned beef, we drastically underestimated the demand for corned beef. This time…we made a lot. We’re celebrating by offering our acclaimed Reuben, with house-made corned beef, on Tuesday April 17th. From 5 to close (or until we sell 100 or so sandwiches, whichever comes first).
* Rey’s Carribean-style fish dish was so good last week we’re holding it over one more week. This week, we’ll serve it with wild Mexican yellowtail. (The dish includes pan-seared plantains, quinoa, and pineapple mango salsa.) It’s a perfect match with Virgin Islands Pale Ale, a mildly hopped pale with mango essence. I really like this dish and this pairing.
* Speaking of fish, don’t forget that the Ballast Point brewmaster’s dinner is Tuesday, April 24th — in less than two weeks. We’ve started getting reservations but there are still slots left. It’s going to be mentioned in the Union-Tribune next week, so I expect it will fill up quickly after that. The dinner is 6 Ballast Point beers and a 6 course tasting menu by Rey. Where the beers are named after fish, the fish will be featured on the matching dish. We’ll also have Even Keel by Ballast Point on cask, and a special dessert brew of Victory at Sea Imperial Stout, brewed with coffee and vanilla, and aged in syrah barrels. The whole dinner, including beer, is $55 for all six courses, plus tax and service. Send me an email at jay@thelinkery.com or call the restaurant at 619 255 8778 between 2pm and 6pm or between 10pm and 11pm, to make reservations.
* Pork belly lovers: you won’t beleive how good the pork belly confit is this week. We’re serving it with organic clementines which are from the garden at San Luis Obispo, the first crop of the season — super sweet!
* Three great cask conditioned ales this weekend: 1) San Diego Brewing Company’s “Admiral Baker’s Best”, a medium English bitter (a mild beer), a real treat to feature a cask from Dean at SDBC! 2) Firestone Walker’s “Bravo” Imperial Nut Brown, a 10% ABV nut brown which has been aged for a year in oak, will go on Thursday, and 3) Stone’s 10th Anniversary IPA (also 10% ABV), will go on when the Admiral Baker’s blows.
* Speaking of Firestone Walker, we visited the brewery and brewmaster Matt Brynildson this weekend, and we were incredibly impressed with the brewery, the beers, and everyone’s hospitality. There’s a reason Firestone’s beers are so popular in the Central Coast. Actually, there’s lots of reasons. We’ll be featuring some of their beers for a while so be sure to try them out. Particularly this Imperial Nut Brown!
* To celebrate the inevitable, Death & Taxes will go on draft this weekend. That’s Death & Taxes schwarzbier (“black beer”, a dark colored, light bodied lager with rich flavors) from Moonlight Brewing in Santa Rosa. It’s considered one of the best schwarzbiers around, and I agree. We make trips up to Santa Rosa just to get this stuff and it’s worth it!
* We’ve also got Walker’s Reserve Porter on draft, from Firestone Walker. This is a mild, oak fermented porter which is great. And Lunatic Lager, also from Moonlight Brewing.
* Sausages this week: Chaurice, Linguica, English Bangers, Pad Thai Pork, and Chicken Cranberry Pecan, to start.
* Heirloom tomatoes have come in to season from Jamie Farm, we have those available now. And Central Coast strawberries. I’m told the kitchen’s new shortbread cookie dessert is pretty good, too.
* Chelsea dreamed of a sandwich, and the kitchen is serving it. Organic California asparagus, poached real ranch egg, mixed citrus aioli from Santa Barbara fruit, and frisee, on onion-rye bread from Bread on Market. If you’re a carnivore, we toss on house made pancetta.
* We picked up some Santa Maria Red Oak (courtesy F. McClintock’s Restaurant, a Central Coast institution — thanks!) and have started smoking our pulled pork over it. We’re making progress to defining a “California pulled pork” style, which is our goal. Personally, I love eating this dish…I need to cut back!
* Alexander’s Restaurant has opened across the street from us. So far I’ve had their pizza, which is delicious. Come by and check them out, they’re nice folks and the space is lovely.
* It’s Ray @ Night this weekend, the big North Park festival on Ray Street which happens the second saturday each month. A lot of folks come to the event and then have dinner and drinks on our little corner. Hope to see you!
Thanks everyone for being part of our Linkery community.
Best,
Jay