Salty Dog Bar and Grill in Huntington Beach

I really love restaurants and one of my goals for this blog was to do more restaurant profiles. Not just taking pictures of food as a diner at a restaurant, but getting into the kitchen, talking to the people behind the food and really getting a feel for what the restaurant is about.  Unfortunately, I haven't done one since Bamboodles, but I'm going to try to get back out there starting with this new post.

Luckily, The Salty Dog Bar and Grill fell on my head one Saturday, so I had no excuse not to get in there with my camera.  I walked in one day before opening and met owner Kevin Klaess, standing in an empty restaurant, covered with dry wall dust.  He invited me to their soft-opening a few weeks later, which was also being covered by a film crew from the TV show "The Opener" on The Food Network. The Salty Dog will be featured on an upcoming episode, and will chronicle their opening with guidance from Canadian celebrity chef David Adjey.

Part of Chef Adjey's input was to expand Kevin's original idea of offering a variety of chicken wings from eight to twenty flavors and it soon became "Wings of the World."  I'm the first to admit that wings are not exactly ground-breaking, but they've come up with some really creative flavors. Really, how often have you found beets, Jamaican jerk, or wasabi in your wings?

Irish wings: finished with a Guinness sauce and topped with pretzels. 

Good old American Buffalo wings in mild, medium, hot and extra hot. 

Canadian: tossed with maple syrup and sprinkled with bacon.

A great little mini sampler: fish taco, BBQ pulled pork, mini burger and a 4-inch Nathan's hot dog.

The Canadian connection comes up again with this famous dessert called a Nanaimo bar, a crumb crust layered with vanilla and chocolate, which, according to Kevin, is as beloved in Canada as chocolate chip cookies are here. 

I would also recommend trying the Pulled-Pork Quesadilla with Roasted Poblanos (delicious!) and the seriously hearty Sausage Mac n' Cheese (you will need to share this one).  Wash it down with a selection of domestic and premium beers at really reasonable prices--$5.75 for a 20 oz Newcastle is pretty decent, and if you come in during Happy Hour it's $4.75. I was told they'll soon be pouring beers from Stone Brewing too!  I've already made my preference for Oskar Blues' Dale's Pale Ale known, hint hint. The only thing I think they're missing is a signature Salty Dog cocktail...

One of my favorite things about the restaurant is it's focus on a charity called Orange Dog, that the restaurant's Canadian investor heads up. Orange Dog sponsors "Freedom Flights," in which dogs are flown on a private jet from shelters in California to no-kill shelters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where small dogs are more likely to be adopted. Anytime I can eat, drink and support an animal charity I am totally on board.

Not withstanding the focus on quality food and charity, The Salty Dog is truly a sports bar, featuring 7 flat-screen TVs, Monday Night Football specials ($6 pitchers of beer and $6 buckets of wings). Live music is in the plan too. Get your toe-tapping shoes out and brush up on your air guitar skills!

The Salty Dog Bar and Grill
18552 Beach Blvd. (at Main/Ellis)
Huntington Beach, Ca. 92648
714-861-4449

End of Summer Tomatoes

The summer is coming to an end and the days seem to be getting shorter exponentially faster.

We watched our garden explode with tomatoes and now the vines are spindly and bending over. They are still quite a few beautiful little tomatoes hanging on though and we're enjoying them at almost every meal.

We'll look at this photograph in January when we're eating pasta with canned tomatoes and think back and sigh.

Colorado Impressions

After traveling to Colorado for the last several years at Thanksgiving to visit Anson's family, it was really a nice change of pace to head out during the warm fall.  No winter clothes needed this time, I left with one half-full suitcase and a carry-on of tomatoes and flying saucer squash from our garden. I went from cool beach weather to hot, dry mountain air (AKA Good Hair Weather) and had to shed my jacket as soon as the plane touched down. 

First stop was meeting with my friend Claire, who has blog called A Plate Full and lives in Denver. We originally met at Food Blog Camp in Mexico last January and it was fun to see her again and really sit down and talk. She brought us to a couple hip places on Larimer Square for some drinks and eats.

We got to TAG right between lunch and dinner, but we were able to get some interesting cocktails and great appetizers.

Crú: A Wine Bar had a nice selection of wines, available by the glass or in flights. This dry rose hit the spot on a hot day.

Day Two we headed out to Boulder where a farmer's market at was in full effect.

Amazing bell peppers.

Farm-fresh corn

We stopped for lunch at Walnut Brewery, "Boulder's Original Brew Pub," where I drooled over Anson's lunch, a burger with a Jim Beam Bourbon glaze and gorgonzola cheese. It was fittingly called the Bourbonzola Burger. The beer was great too, I had a light-colored Indian Peaks Pale Ale and Anson had the Big Horn Bitter. I argued with him that the server mixed up our beers when I saw the gold-colored beer set in front of me.  Turns out they make their pale ale a little lighter and their bitter is a caramel color.  Who knew?

We headed back up the mountain to where the real fun began.  And by "real fun" I mean "back-breaking work."

The impending winter meant there was lots of wood (3.5 cords) to be picked up, loaded, unloaded, stacked, covered, and chopped into kindling.  And then there was the untreated railroad ties made from oak that had to be split with a sledgehammer.  Fortunately, there was enough beer to keep the guys going and enough sharp tools to keep me engaged.

Anson, along with his brother, cousins, parents and I formed a well-oiled assembly line for unloading and stacking the wood.

The last log!

Anson Bunyan

And believe it or not, there are still plenty of trees left.