With the Wife out of town last weekend, I was a geographic bachelor, and trying to figure out what to do with myself. After sitting in my bathrobe and playing on my computers until 4, I got a call from a friend of ours who wanted to know if I’d like to join him and his fiancé for dinner and a movie. I appreciated the pity invite, and while I might normally decline getting together, he enticed me with the reminder that it’s restaurant week, and I should use this opportunity to try something new. After minimal arm-twisting, I agreed.
We decided to go to Firebirds in Stonecrest, and then head to the movie afterward. We met, and fortunately, he had called ahead for seating. It was crazy-busy. I don’t know how long we would have had to wait had we just walked up, but I’m sure we would have missed our movie.
We started at the bar for a drink while we waited for our pager to indicate our table was ready. I managed to spill his fiancé’s drink on both of us (just a little), which gave me the opportunity to relate the story of Clyde’s to them, and how my drink spilled ALL over me earlier in the week. I then realized how much Firebirds reminded me of Clyde’s. Both restaurants are casual elegant dining, with beautifully-appointed dining rooms.
We probably waited 15 minutes and then headed off to our table. The restaurant menu was, as expected, a fixed menu selection. Everything on the regular menu was available, but not for the $30’s for Restaurant Week. Each meal came with an appetizer, main course, dessert, and a flight of wines of your choice. I commented in the Restaurant Week post about how Charlotte’s Queen Feast wasn’t always the greatest deal. THIS was a good deal.
I selected for the grilled chicken salad, filet (medium rare), and the lava cake. Since we’re headed to Australia in several weeks, I selected three wines from Down Under to enjoy with the meal.
The salad was good, but not great. It was pretty big, though, for a pre-meal salad.
The filet was excellent. It was tender and perfectly cooked to order. The crab meat on top was very tasty, but didn’t add as much as I expected to the taste of the beef. The applewood bacon was a nice touch, but I really didn’t add much to the flavor, but did add a nice supplemental texture. The mashed potatoes were fluffy AND creamy. I do love asparagus, and it was well-cooked, but it certainly wasn’t the freshest asparagus… a little overripe.
Unfortunately, we were running a little late for our movie, so we had to order the dessert, pay the bill, and nearly swallow our lava cakes whole. It was tasty, and I wish I had more time to enjoy it. I’m not a big fan of cherries, but the wholly uninspired addition of vanilla ice cream to chocolate cake was wonderfully executed, in an explosion of flavor and texture.
