Every week, Amy Brand makes 40 or 50 pounds of sausage—roughly 150 or so links—that she sells from her tiny storefront in Tomales, wrapped up in soft deli rolls and topped with traditional staples like sautéed peppers and onions, as well as playful creations like apple-ginger slaw.
Her business, K and A Take Away, has been open for three years last month. Open Thursday through Sunday, just around the corner from Diekmann’s General Store, the tiny take-out restaurant also serves fare such as sandwiches, potato salad, soups, and occasionally, a locally beloved meatloaf. Ms. Brand, who is 34, strives to source local ingredients while keeping servings hearty and affordable.
“Locals should be able to eat local food, because otherwise what’s the point? Then it’s just for tourists,” said Ms. Brand during an interview at Toby’s Feed Barn. She was still dirty, she said, from harvesting vegetables for the restaurant from her dad and stepmom’s large garden in Sebastopol.
Ms. Brand, a lifelong West Marin resident who often punctuates statements with an effervescent laugh, comes from a long line of fisherman. She loved spending time with her mother in the kitchen as a child, but she had little cooking experience herself before opening the sausage shop. Despite working at the Tomales Bakery for seven years, starting when she was a teenager, pastry is not her forte.
She decided to open her own business after a brief stint working for a veterinarian’s office. Making sausages was entirely new territory, but her husband, Trevor—noting her regular consumption of the links—encouraged her.
After stockpiling cookbooks and reviewing recipes, she experimented for two years, upgrading from her Kitchen Aid to a restaurant quality meat grinder and a link stuffer. Her friends and family consumed her creations and offered feedback.
“Then it was on,” she said. She finally opened in August 2012, and she now works six days a week—the restaurant is open four days, and she spends another two days picking vegetables, shopping and prepping.
Along the way, she’s learned a few things. When she first opened the shop, she tried mixing figs into a batch of chicken sausage, but her first attempt turned into mush. Assuming she had made a mistake, she tried again with another 30 pounds of meat. The same thing happened, so she did some research. It turned out, the problem was an enzyme.
“Figs break down the meat and then it turns into a disgusting meat pudding,” she said. This coming weekend, she is incorporating figs into a chicken sausage—as a topping.
Ms. Brand makes the sausages in small batches, sourcing much of the meat from Devil’s Gulch Ranch and Sonoma County Meat. She uses beef from Stemple Creek Ranch in Tomales. The vegetables come from her family’s garden and Table Top Farm in Point Reyes.
Two staple sausages—hot Italian and bratwurst—are always on the menu. The brat, flavored with caraway and topped with onions cooked in beer, is made in a classic German style, Ms. Brand said. The hot Italian, topped with onions and sautéed peppers, bursts with flavor, though only a hint of heat tingles the palate. She loves heat, she said, but many people are wary so she tones it down.
Last weekend, the third flavor on the menu was a chicken and date sausage. The sweet and savory mix—seasoned with turmeric, cumin and cinnamon, topped with an apple-ginger slaw and wrapped in a soft yet hearty roll—reflected Ms. Brand’s love of autumn and the comforting, homey recipes that accompany the season.
K and A Take Away also serves other sandwiches, often featuring braised meats, as well as soups and stews. A vegetarian option such as simple grilled cheese, tamales, or quinoa pancakes, always appears on the menu. The specials generally change every two days.
Not much has changed in the three years she’s been open, though when business slows a bit in the fall and winter, she has a bit more time to experiment. Now she’s contemplating a new challenge. “I’m working on hot dogs right now. Slowly,” she said.