Local growers make Prime beef and everything better

BEEF — it’s what’s for dinner.   We have heard the cry loud and clear: “We want a BIG OL’ STEAK!” Well folks, you asked for it, and we are going to provide.  James and I have found that Meyer Ranch can provide us with what we are looking for.  Bob Meyer has been farming cattle for 20 years and has it down.  Meyer Ranch beef is USDA Prime Angus, and is hormone and antibiotic free. 

We get ribeye loins whole, wrap them in cheese cloth and dry age them for two weeks before cutting.  Dry aging gives our steaks a more intense flavor.  The process of dry aging reduces the amount of water in the loin.  Water loss can result in as much as 20 percent loss from the starting weight of the loin.  The absence of water results in a more intense beef flavor which we all want.  Once the steaks have aged for two weeks, we trim them down, cut them to around 18 ounces and grill them over a hardwood fire just the way you like them.  Now that’s what I call a BIG OL’ STEAK!

Food from closer to home
Over the past couple of cold and snowy months, we have been working hard to build lasting relationships with local food producers.  We want to become a community-supported restaurant as well as a community-supporting restaurant.  I have had great conversations with John Neighbors, Noah Sanders, and The Randle Family, who own Randle Farms just outside of Auburn.  Along with fruits, vegetables, and herbs, Randle Farms also produces lamb, which we hope to have on the menu next month — lamb from less than 60 miles from our door. How great is that?!  It’s hard for me not to get fired up about food when it is so close to our door, not to mention I personally know the people that produced it.  One of the greatest things about what I get to do on a day-to-day basis is meeting people that love to grow and produce food with the same passion that James and I use to cook it.