Fire

 


         As I walked in, I was almost surprised to not see stripper poles.  Upon entering South Tampa's "Fire Bar and Grill"  (located on Kennedy Blvd near Macdill Ave.) I was surprised to see what a huge difference last year's renovations had made.  What was for years Tampa's grimiest strip club called "The Seven Seas" had been morphed into a large, open restaurant with high ceilings, a huge half circle of a bar and a large, airy outdoor patio.  The inside featured gleaming hardwood floors , and a dozen or so large, roomy booths.

 

 

  Fire featured a fairly standard beer list, but an impressive array of wines and liquors.  I started out with a "Tanqueray 10" on the rocks. (Tanqueray #10 is Tanqueray's newest line of gin.  It has an extremely smooth, impressive flavor with notes of grapefruit, orange, lime, and chamomile.)  For an appetizer, my friend and I shared Fire's version of a tomato/ mozzarella (caprese) salad.  Fire put a new, southern spin on this restaurant classic by incorporating pan fried cornmeal crusted green tomatoes.  The dish also featured large cuts of fresh mozzarella, baby basil, balsamic glaze, and a smoked tomato dipping sauce.  Absolutely delicious, and reasonably priced at twelve dollars.   Fire had an impressive pizza menu, as well.  On my next visit I definitely plan on trying the wild mushroom/ goat cheese/ arugula pizza.

For my entree I chose the blackened NY Strip served with gorgonzola cheese and balsamic glazed sweet onions.  I absolutely loved it.  I could tell from the second I cut into my steak that it was going to be delicious.  The steak was soft and juicy, cooked to a perfect medium.  Not the slightest but dry or tough.  Whatever seasoning the chef used to blacken the steak gave it a subtle spicy flavor.  Definitely not overpowering.  But as much as I loved my steak, my friend's entree took the cake.  He ordered the cornflake crusted chicken breast.  Simple enough, right?  I pictured the chicken my mom used to make for picnics.  Sorry mom, but this put yours to shame.  The cornflakes were completely smashed up, so that they were the consistency of pieces of rice.  The cornflakes fused perfectly with the chicken, and had incredible flavor, as did the honey roasted carrots that were served on the side.  Mouthwatering.  And only 13 dollars.

The service erred on the side of slow, and our server didn't seem to know much about the menu.  (She couldn't answer any questions we had about entrees.)  Also, service seemed rushed.  We arrived at nine, and the restaurant doesn't close until 11 pm.  So we figured we'd be fine.  Yet, our server couldn't hide her annoyance around 10:15 when we were still finishing up our entrees.  We wanted to order from the impressive desert list ( homemade smores, peanut butter and nutella on a toasted baguette, etc), but refrained because we felt so unwelcome.

Mediocre service was in no way enough to make our experience at "Fire" anything less than fabulous.  Delicious. Fresh. Affordable.  I'll be back.