The Beloved and I took a break from a pretty busy weekend on Saturday night to head out for a bit of a date-night to a restaurant that we’ve been interested in trying ever since we received the latest issue of Imbibe magazine.

In the article entitled, “The 100 Best Places to Drink Beer In America” was listed a restaurant in the North Park section of San Diego, called The Linkery.  It was cited for having a great list of beers on tap, in cask, and in bottles as well as an exceptional wine list.  The kicker was that they also specialized in making their own sausages.  Count us in.

Not only did both the bar menu and the links live up to expectations, but the resataurant was a real treat – espousing a farm-to-table philosophy, it has a menu that constantly changes depending upon what the chefs can get their hands on.  In addition to sausages, they had several higher-minded entrees, including vegetarian choices.  The atmosphere was young and hectic – it didn’t seem that anyone working there was over 30.  The bar was packed with folks watching USC annihilate Ohio State.  The tables in the back afforded enough quiet for a wonderfully pleasant dinner.

Inside

We started off by sharing a couple of very tasty sausages (with homemade mustard and saurkraut) and I had a Death & Taxes black lager, which had some of the overtones of stouts, but (to me) a more refreshing taste.  For dinner, the Beloved got grouper and cheesy grits, and I got an open-faced reuben that was excellent.  With dinner, I had a Prima Pils, which was also excellent – light and crisp.  I was curious about the large selection of Belgian-style ales they had, but I don’t know much about them.  I could have used my neighborhood’s resident expert for advice.

All-in-all, a great, fun experience.  Good food, good drinks, good atmosphere, reasonably priced.  Portion control was also sane – well, except for the dessert I got (carrot cake with citrus icing), which was also excellent.  We definitely needed the walk around the North Park art galleries afterward before heading home.

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One of the things that the Beloved and I have really gotten hooked on in the past year has been cooking-competition shows – namely Top Chef and Iron Chef America.  She insists we’re not “foodies” but I think we’re closer to being them than not.

One of our favorite additions to Iron Chef has been the newest IC – Michael Symon.  He’s personable and cooks in a style that we really like – typically taking everyday comfort food and putting a high-end cuisine spin on it.
We had pretty easy travel and arrived in Ohio on Friday night early enough that we were able to enjoy dinner at his restaurant Lola in downtown Cleveland.  Lola was hip and urbane with a small, but really interesting menu and wine list.

Michael Symon

We split a couple of appetizers – a shredded beef pierogie that had mushrooms and horseradish (very good) and a slab of bacon (think small bacon-steak) served with pickled tomatoes and toasty cheese that was phenomenal.  For entrees, the Beloved had a black bass that was very good and I had a fantastic venison loin that was grilled to perfection and served in a red-wine chile sauce.  Yum!

Overall, the food was excellent and the prices reasonable by high-end restaurant standards.  The service started out a little aggressive – as if they were trying to turn the table over pretty rapidly (it was busy).  But after we made it clear we meant to take our time and linger, they really backed off and let us enjoy ourselves.
A great way to kick off our long weekend.

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Hapalove's comment about going up to Pasadena this weekend reminded me of something notable that I forgot about last weekend.  On Sunday, we needed to come up with a place to eat that evening. Now usually when we’re going out (especially when we’re out of town), we try to go out for a) things we can’t reasonably cook at home, and b) restaurants we might not be able to find in San Diego.

Following these plans, we chose to go to the Tibet-Nepal House, which claims to be the only restaurant of that cuisine in Southern California. It was really fun. The food was a mash-up of Indian, Chinese and Central Asian styles (as you might expect from geography) – and we really enjoyed everything that we had.

Himalayan Yak

I decided to really go for it and ordered the yak. Yes, that’s right, why-ay-kay, yak. It was really good -- very lean, a little gamey, very tasty with the spices and vegetables that it was cooked in.  In general, I think it tasted more like buffalo (bison) than beef.  Also, many of you will be releived to note that it was free-range yak.

Try it next time you’re at your neighborhood Tibetan place.

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“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy.”  -- Albert Einstein

Well, I think we’re almost there.  In the last 48 hours, we’ve had two new tables delivered which I think completes our transformation of ground floor of The Aerie.  Its actually pretty coincidental that we got them both so soon together.

Bar_table

The first one we ordered about two months ago from a great shop in Solana Beach.  We wanted to replace my old multi-purpose table (which I’d gotten in High Point NC when I went to graduate school), which didn’t serve as a place to sit for us, but only as a place to stack things.  We opted for a bar-height table, because we thought that the higher table might help prevent people (guests or even ourselves) from just standing in the kitchen while food was being prepped.  I really like the way it fits in the big window.

Dinner al fresco

The second we found Sunday on what I can only refer to as The Great Patio Furniture Hunt.  I came close to composing a post about the ordeal but I sort of lost track at the number of places we went to and the horrible sticker shock that I was hit with.  Eventually, we found a good table at a reasonable price – and that could be delivered in 48 hours. 

So last night we had the dilemma of choosing which new table to eat at – it was warm and so we choose to eat outside.  A table, grilled lamb chops, salad, sliced tomatoes, cocktails and an iPod – what else does a man need to be happy?

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Cheerio

Cereal:  Acceptable or Unacceptable as a choice for dinner?

Please weigh in...

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