I hadn't been to Shultzy's since my junior year in college, when it was a tiny closet on the Ave run by adorably mouthy punks. Since I graduated, the place has moved a few doors down into a much larger space and expanded the menu exponentially. It's not so punk rock anymore, but the addition of fresh sides augments the handmade sausages nicely. I highly recommend pairing the andouille or Cajun link sandwich with red beans and rice and an iced tea, but there's always bratwurst, grilled onions, and Pilsner Urquell; or a kosher beef frank, seasoned fries, and a Budweiser. Welcome to tube-steak heaven.

So you weren't working here when it was a hole in the wall up the street?

"No, but I went there all the time in college."

Me too. But I don't remember the menu being nearly this big.

"Yeah, there were no sides or fries; just sausages and chili. There are great stories about how [the menu] started developing. Our salsa recipe has roots from the back of someone's random library book. Some older lady from New Orleans came in wanting to sell us on her andouille sausage recipe, but she just dropped off the recipe and never came back. Now my wife makes all the sausages."

Do your specials rotate each day?

"Yeah [gesturing to the chalkboard], although this Diablo Sausage is continuously popular because it has jalapeños and cayenne pepper in it. The chorizo is popular too, but we have all sorts of stuff--chicken Florentine sausage, Haitian links...."

So your wife makes all these sausages. Does she come in every morning and chop up little pig parts?

"No, we use pork butt--which is actually the shoulder part of the pig--it's the highest-quality part of the pig. If you go into a Safeway and buy sausage, it'll just be every random part of the pig; very gory. So we use the butt, grind it up, and make sure to take out any parts that don't look good before we add spices and seasonings."

It must be an interesting medium to work with--there have to be so many variables....

"Oh yeah. It's so cool to come up with something new and slowly tweak it to make it better. And it's great that we know everything that goes into [the sausages]--the quality control is excellent."

Interview by Hannah Levin