Steak Tourism at Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I try to make every steak meal at Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) in Salinas, California a surf and turf meal when I do what I consider “steak tourism” in a region with 40 pioneering ranch families, whose brands are emblazoned on two walls of the back dining room.
For starters, I ordered Monterey Bay Fried Calamari that have a delicate flour and corn meal crust. I love dunking these warm morsels in chipotle cream cocktail dipping sauce. This part of my surf and turf meal at Pub’s brings back many happy memories to me of my honeymoon in Barcelona, Spain, using up the last few days of a Eurail Pass vacation of Italy, Spain, and France.
I prefer seafood to steak, but when I eat steak I like to go to Pub’s for delicious meat at varying sizes and price levels so my husband Laurent can eat items like rack of lamb while I can happily eat the flat iron steak meal.
The Angus steaks at Pub’s seem to come from two local sources in Monterey County – Corral de Tierra off Highway 68 just outside Salinas and Parkfield located off Highway 101 inland from San Miguel Arcangel. (Parkfield is famous for its spa with horseback riding and café.)
I like my steak medium rare, which was perfectly cooked with sea salt added as the only needed extra flavoring. For the potato option in this meal, I ordered scalloped potatoes made with delicious aged cheddar cheese. (Scalloped potatoes are a favorite hot dish in Wisconsin where I lived for several years and took family vacations as a child.)
This steak meal came with a green leaf salad as an appetizer, which I ate with the house-made Thousand Island dressing. The buttered and seasonal vegetables with the steak – steamed broccoli, zucchini, and carrots – were excellent as you would expect from a growers’ pub.
We brought our own bottle of wine to dinner (purchased at COSTCO) and the reasonable corkage fee of $20 for our Château Carbonnieux Bordeaux.
This winery was established in the 13th century and has changed hands between a local Benedictine Monastery and bourgeois families of Bordeaux since that time. The Perrin family currently owns it and has instituted sustainable wine making practices, which you can read about on their website.
Château Carbonnieux is also the proud owner of a pecan tree planted by Thomas Jefferson on a 1786 visit to the Châteaux.
This Bordeaux wine comes from the Graves sub-region of Bordeaux and lies along the Garonne River that flows into the Gironde Estuary that opens out into the Atlantic Ocean.
I felt like I was drinking history in a glass as I sipped this wine with my steak meal.
Other diners who want to combine an excellent wine with their steak tourism meal at Pub’s can check out the following stores in town in case you want to bring a wine bottle to go with dinner:
-COSTCO
-Star Market
-BevMo
For relaxed and delicious steak tourism in Salinas (California), Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) should be a destination on your visit to Salinas and Monterey County.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
