Today I wanted to be two places at once — at the Linkery for 30th on 30th, and in the Guadalupe Valley putting together a new olive oil blend, since we are running low on the current blend.

I gather that the response for 30th on 30th was way beyond anything we expected, and we quickly sold out of everything we prepared, along with the series of substitutions that followed. I apologize to those of you we couldn’t accommodate, we are flattered and stoked about how many people wanted to check out our neighborhoods’ restaurants, and next month we will definitely make more of everything!

As for where I would be, well, we couldn’t risk running out of world-class olive oil, and we always like to take the opportunity to develop our own blends when we have the chance. So off we went to see Tito Cortes of Rancho Cortes, who makes the best olive oil I know of. He lets us taste from among the oils he’s pressed in the last couple seasons, and to develop our own blend among them which will become a signature for our menu in the next few months.

In addition to pressing olive oil from all over the Ensenada area, Tito also makes amazing artisan cheese from the milk of his cows, and raises grass-fed beef and lamb. The cheese, beef and lamb are available at some great restaurants in Mexico, notably Laja in the Valle de Guadalupe and Merotoro in Mexico City.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story from here. The only things I can think to add as narrative are: 1) Rancho Cortes grows the oats and grasses that they feed their cows and lambs, on their large parcel of land in the Valley, and 2) the bar with the cheese grater lights is Mescalera, on Calle Sexta in TJ.