So, I’m almost halfway home. Halfway to a time when I can have potato chips and popcorn again. The dental work is healing nicely, thank you.
And, this week, I walked into a place that I drive by on a regular basis. I have driven by Links Woodfire Sausage Co. dozens of times as I ferry my son to his baseball workouts in an industrial area of St. Albert. I’ve gassed up in the service station that’s right next to Links. But, this week, I finally decided to go in. After all, it is October, and that means it’s a time for beer and sausages, especially German-style sausages.
Links has a few wood-grilled sausage treats (and yes, because sausage is one of the greatest food inventions know to humankind, we can use the word “treats” to describe them) on the menu. There’s a Chicago Dog (no ketchup, damn straight) and a Big Sicily, with Pecorino cheese and arugula. But I’m here for the Jansenville Brat. It’s a beer braised bratwurst, that’s fire grilled. No steamies to be found here. It’s covered in grilled onions, pickles, spicy mustard and, most important of all, a few tablespoons worth of sauerkraut. If you don’t like sauerkraut with sausage, it’s great that you have that opinion, as long as you’re comfortable knowing that you’re the kind of person that’s wrong a lot of the time.
This is where my dental surgeon — if he’s reading — needs to turn away. Part of the soft-food diet is a rule where I’m not supposed to eat anything with tiny seeds. And, well, the bun is covered in poppy seeds. The flavour combination is perfect, so I can’t turn it down. The beer flavour comes through really nicely, and the onions and sauerkraut bring a rush of acid to combat the richness of the bratwurst. It’s a totally satisfying pit stop.
Links Woodfire Sausage Co.
Campbell Business Park | 275 Carnegie Dr, St. Albert | 780.419.7200 | linkswoodfiresausageco.com
