I’ve been getting a lot of calls and emails about when we’d have America’s most hand made Reubens back on the menu. I know how it is, you’re out of town traveling and can’t get your fix, etc. etc. Well, the answer is now. We have Reubens back in house for a limited time. After that I wouldn’t expect to see them until mid March.

While I’m on the subject of house cured meats and whatnot, I just wanted to add that those of you who missed out on the Rabbie Burns Day festivities, missed out on some good stuff (spontaneous poetry readings!). Fortunately, we’re still serving our all-pastured, house made haggis. We just moved it to the Precious Bits (offal) portion of the menu.

For those of you who are curious about haggis, it’s traditionally made with a sheep’s “pluck”, which is the heart, liver, and lungs of the sheep. They’re slow-cooked and then mixed with toasted oats, spices, and onion. After that it’s all stuffed into a sheep’s stomach, and boiled in a mixture of milk and water. Easy enough, right? Well, you’d be surprised how difficult it is to get lungs these days. So, for our haggis, we used the heart, liver, and spleen of Bill and Nicolette Niman’s goats. And about as difficult as it is to procure lungs, so goes it with stomachs. I challenge anyone out there to find me a USDA certified sheep or goat stomach. Believe me, I tried. So we ended up using the next best thing, beef bung. That’s the largest natural casing we can get, and it’s the same one we use for the mortadella, thuringer, and boloney.

The end result? It’s pretty damn tasty. Traditionally, the dish is served with tatties (potatoes) and neeps (turnips), and so is ours, with carrots to boot. It reminds me of an upside down shepherd’s pie. As one guest remarked when asked how his haggis was, “Well, I have absolutely no frame of reference, but it’s pretty damn delicious.”

** We’ll also be selling haggis for take away through the NP Meat Co.