The recipe is family

Bryce Alderton

HE IS

A primer of pasta sauce and pizza dough

BACK TO HIS ROOTS

Brian McLoughlin cooks, cleans -- does anything to help out his mom at

the family restaurant. He’s been doing it off and on for close to 10

years.

His first job when he was 16 was stirring spaghetti sauce and folding

dough for calzones and pizza at Lino’s Pizzeria on Beach Boulevard in

Huntington Beach.

Since then he’s graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a sociology

degree and moved back to Huntington Beach.

His mother Pat now owns Lino’s, which she bought five years ago.

McLoughlin hasn’t decided what career path he wants to follow. He has

entertained thoughts about working in Los Angeles for an advertising

agency.

Right now he’s trying to save up as much money as possible to move out

and get a car.

“The perks are good -- like the free food,” McLoughlin said as he

stirred pasta sauce in a silver pot.

His day usually begins at 10 a.m. and ends about 4 or 5 p.m., but this

day, he said he’ll probably be there until 10 p.m.

“I just help out whenever I can -- when she needs me,” McLoughlin said

as he rolled dough for two calzones.

IT’S ALL IN THE PREPARATION

For McLoughlin much of the work is in preparing the ingredients when

he gets to the restaurant in the morning.

“You have to make sure all the dough, meats and pastas are ready,

especially for the lunch rush,” McLoughlin said. “There’s nothing really

hard or difficult to make, but when you get a line of tickets everything

gets difficult. It’s all a matter of time.”

Something that doesn’t take McLoughlin much time to make is pizza.

“I can make that with my eyes closed,” he said as he pulled a cheese

pizza from the oven with a wooden board.

The lunch rush lasts from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“Then it’s time to clean up the mess we made, do the dishes and get

ready for the dinner rush,” McLoughlin said.

ONLY THE BEST

He will reveal the secret to the lasagna, fettuccine and calzones that

can be found at Lino’s.

“We use the good stuff -- we don’t skimp,” McLoughlin said as he added

pepperoni and sausage to the calzones. “The pizza dough is hand-tossed

and made in the morning. It’s just a special mix of ingredients. I like

garlic in the sauce personally.”

After nine years, he should know what works best.