The Linkery

dave12285

California

5/5  rDev +14.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$$

I've been to the old location a few times and i'm not sure why i never reviewed it then but oh well, here it goes. They've moved to a new location on 30th and North Park wy (not far from the old place) and it is beautiful. The decor is very low-key but amazingly cool. The staff is genuinely nice and welcomes questions. Most of the food is locally grown and organic which makes for a very neat rotating menu. The also make their own sausages and ice cream. The beer selection, although not plentiful, is very high quality and they are one of the few locations around to have more than one cask on at once. Highly recommended and a must visit if coming down to the San Diego area.

07-04-2008 01:10:35 | More by dave12285

Loki

North Carolina

5/5  rDev +14.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

One of my favorite places in San Diego. I love the farm to table concept. I love the in house butcher. The fact that they can serve up to eight casks at a time without a major change. I love that they have their own wine, in cask, in the restaurant. Oh, and then there is the beer and food selection.

The atmosphere is lively, upbeat, local, and probably a bit hip. Fantastic mix of all ages. Good layout. Very busy. The place seems a live and has a great presence.

Quality: Top shelf list of beers both on draft and in the bottle. Small production beers, seasonals, and tons of craft beers, with a huge emphasis on local beers. From cask Stone Ruination to 09 Lost Abbey Angel's Share to aged beers.

Service: They add in 18% gratuity to all checks automatically and don't accept additional tips. (if you think they deserve more you can donate to the charity of the month) So anybody walking by can and will help you. You're never far from a server and never have to worry about your server being overwhelmed. All of them seemed knowledgeable and more than friendly. Including the manager who I spoke with briefly on the way out.

Food: Fresh, dynamic, seasonal, and creative. Fantastic menu, full of flavor, and with choices you will not find in many other places. (well maybe in SoCal). Fantastic sausage. Great lamb.

Value: for what you get, the freshness of the food, and beer, the value is fantastic.

My second favorite place that I went to in San Diego and my favorite place to eat and have beer.

11-12-2009 22:50:37 | More by Loki

marcpal

New Jersey

4.78/5  rDev +9.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $

This place was tremendous in terms of the food they offered and their beer was beyond what I had expected. Thank you to all the BAs that suggested I add this place to my beer-tinerary while in SD on business.

Atmosphere: Great, laid back almost hole in the wall type place that was tremendous.

Quality: They say real food and real beer and thats what they deliver. Doesnt get much better than arrogant bastard on cask as well as a SD selection that has to be second to none.

Service: Among the best that Ive ever had, maybe Im used to the East Coast. As a topper, they dont accept tips beyond the 18%. You would not have realized it given the high level of customer relations here.

Selection: The size of the menu and beers were not huge but I had absolutely no problem whatsoever getting here twice during the week and thoroughly enjoying every thing each time.

Food: Local food that has menu changing constantly. Nothing short of delicious. Of the 2 nights, I had the tiburon, the greens salad, the stuffed squash, sausage tacos, and pound cake. Nothing short of fantastic.

Highly recommended, A+. A bit out of the way but worth getting there.

01-11-2008 05:30:02 | More by marcpal

gerrick

California

4.78/5  rDev +9.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$$

this place has fantastic food & a nice beer selection. I always start my 30th on 30th night here. The specials for the 30th are always great. the people that own/work here are also super nice. The lardo ice cream sandwich is beyond good. The food is all super fresh. True rarity can be found in the bottle selection, bottles can get pricey. a weekend cask is usually cracked. It is really a foodie/beer lover dream come true. I've been told the homemade pepperoni is worth the price of admission (non of my friends seems to save some for me). have a 30th street pale ale for me.

05-27-2011 21:17:40 | More by gerrick

ocmpoma

California

4.7/5  rDev +7.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$$

visited on 3 Apr 10:

The Linkery is a great place that turns off lots of people because they include an 18% fee for table service and don't accept tips. If you're not averse to excellent food and drink that also doesn't require you to rely on underpaid servers hoping for a decent tip, this is a great place for beer, as well as house-made sausages, great breads, wine, etc. etc. etc.

My wife and I visited on Saturday while waiting for a reservation at a place nearby; later on she said that the Linkery was well worth the trip; our actual dinner destination, not so much.

We had their beer flight sampler: Aprihop, Levitation, Coronado Brewing's red, and Green Flash's stout. All but the Aprihop were on cask, as the place prides itself on having a great selection of brews on cask. The Aprihop was on tap. All were excellent, and the bartender was, as usual, very knowledgable about the brews, as well as the food. A great place.

04-04-2010 20:50:20 | More by ocmpoma

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

4.63/5  rDev +5.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$

Now, if both UKBrewing and Cuz. Colby Chandler of Ballast Point (Home Brew Mart) recommend a place, where should you headed?

The entry was angled to the corner at 30th Street and North Parkway with the kitchen to an angled right. Big, open-windowed garage doors on both corners. Walls were lined with booths with a number of standard tables and chairs center. The whole place was designed on a concentric circle. Brick-red walls, soft lighting, dark chairs.

Great, rotating selection of beers.

Food: German-style, house-made (!) sausages. My second favorite to salmon.

Server: A really cute redhead named Kerry who was wearing her hair in Pippi Longstocking-like pigtails. Oh, ma coeur! She was very patient with me and somehow resisted my advances. Usually, my charm works. Ha!

12-24-2009 13:16:17 | More by woodychandler

Floydster

California

4.58/5  rDev +4.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Some friends and I checked this place out for a quick beer after breakfast at Hash House A Go-Go on Sunday, parked right alongside it on the street and noticed it had a very modern look that was wide open, never saw the old location but this place looked cool, atmosphere was upscale with people fitting that mold, most of the employees were young and suprisingly knew a lot about beer, we sat down at the bar and immediately saw the taps board, there was six total but they were impressive, they consisted of Firestone Opal which I ordered, Parabola, Telegraph Stock Porter, Mad River Jamaica Red, Alesmith X, and Boon Mariage Parfait Gueuze, they also had a cask of Firestone Double Barrel, prices were a little steep and my 6 ounce glass of Opal wheatwine was seven dollars and change when it was all said and done, they charge tax and gratuity up front, and do not allow tips, but you can donate to local charities on your way out, I was glad to see some of the Firerstone from their brewmaster dinner was left over, no complaints about the quality in this place, it was very clean and organized, now perhaps the best part about this place is its bottle list, some of the cool things it includes is Alesmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout for only 33 dollars, quite the deal since it is twenty dollars when released at the brewery, do not know how they got them but all power to them, they also had a three year vertical of Stone Old Guardian, Russian River Temptation, and Port Ne Goein Saison to name a few, only bad thing about all this is that you cannot buy bottles to go, the food looked amazing but like I said above we had just ate, sausages in particular looked awesome and you can choose what ingredients are inside, cool idea and I will definitely be taking advantage of that next time I am there, was not exactly cheap but their selection was impressive and I will definitely be going back, you should check this place out as soon as possible if you are in the San Diego area

10-30-2008 19:22:37 | More by Floydster

kleffman

California

4.43/5  rDev +1.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$$

Went to the Linkery for a keg of Green Flash Super Freak (wine barrel aged Le Freak) but blew it because the North Park Beer Jackals attacked the crap out of that keg and finished it in under an hour before we got there. Crazy. Luckily there was also a cask of Green Flash Trippel, dry hopped. Very excellent and served in a wine glass which I liked. The food was fantastic. Everything is on the pricey side though. Nice place, we got a high table by the window which is perfect. I think the one downfall is you don't have one normal server, you have about 26 servers all asking you the same things: "Can I get you some more drinks?"..."Oh, she already got us some"...30 seconds later, a different server: "Hey, need another beer?"...come on. Still, I want to return to this place for sure.

07-14-2008 20:28:05 | More by kleffman

augustgarage

California

4.33/5  rDev -1.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$$$

A localvore's dream come true - The Linkery sources pretty much every item on your plate (or in your glass) from a local farm, preferably one utilizing traditional organic practices (e.g. grass-fed and finished pastured beef).

The interior is dark, but flows very well with a mix of booths, tables, indoor and outdoor seating - most of it with a good view of the kitchen.

Meats are their forté, and if you make a trip to the restroom, you'll notice a curing/aging room proudly displaying all manner of cuts on the way. I shared the goat head-cheese (ask for the house-made mustard as it is a bit bland otherwise), their burger (which is topped with an egg and house-cured bacon - far superior to the burgers from Father's Office, Apple Pan, Library Alehouse, Billy's Grill, or anywhere else you think makes the best burgers in SoCal), and their "low-country boil" (extremely overpriced and underflavored despite the house-made andouille sausage, clams from Carlsbad, shrimp, corn, potatoes, and corn-bread). The food quality was truly outstanding, although the execution was hit-or-miss so I won't rate them a perfect 5.

Their beer selection isn't enormous, but they clearly emphasize quality (and usually local-ness) over quantity, and have 4(!) cask engines running along with some high quality if not rare (Moonlight!) draught (5) and bottle (~30) offerings.

Service was prompt and friendly without being pushy. Beware that tips are not allowed, but an 18% gratuity is added to your bill automatically. Also, sales tax is not included in the prices on the menu so keep that in mind when ordering.

Great for a special occasion when you want to satisfy the staunchest foodie without compromising on beer selection (their wine list isn't bad either).

07-12-2010 04:32:04 | More by augustgarage

Yetiman420

Ohio

4.33/5  rDev -1.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$$

I did a three day brewery, brewpub, beer bar tour of San Diego and made a stop at the Linkery in the late afternoon on Sunday after stops at Stone Lost Abbey, and Ballast Point. My goal was to kill some time and consume well more water than beer.

The Linkery occupies an open corner location on the 30th street corridor which is lined with shops, bars, restaurants, and down the street from the Toronado.

The Chargers were playing the Raiders and there was a very busy bar caddy corner which was loaded with Raider fans doing a lot of cheering. There were 4 other people at the bar and two in the dining area all sort of watching the game.

I had the sausage plate with an additional sausage and a half pint of the cask Alesmith Halloween Red Ale. I didn't take very good notes but I recall the cask selection was ok and since I'm not a huge fan of cask beers, I didn't take much of an interest in what they had.

The sausages were all made in house. I had a Brat and a Kielbasa. I've made sausages a number of times and take an interest in any place that makes their own. These were pretty tasty but provided a little sticker shock when the tip-included bill came. The water they serve is infused with sage which I enjoyed.

I'd recommend this place to those that can say artisanal food is of equal or greater importance than quality craft beer. Also keep in mind their draft selection is all cask.

10-18-2010 02:41:22 | More by Yetiman420