ENTERTAINMENT

Review: Firebirds keeps up in the suburbs

Polly Campbell
pcampbell@enquirer.com
Wood-grilled salmon from Firebirds Wood Fired Grill

The speed with which trends move through the restaurant world from niche to mainstream seems to be picking up. It took a long time for asiago cheese, say, to go from its home in Italy to American Italian restaurant menus to a sandwich at Wendy's. People were drinking cappuccino in New York coffee shops for a long time before you could get "cappuccino" at a gas station. But these days, it seems it takes just a few seasons for something edgy and new to show up at a  chain restaurant in a lifestyle center.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that — if it’s delicious, everybody should try it. Still, a lot is often lost in the translation.

I thought about this at Firebirds Wood Grill in Deerfield Towne Center, when the server described a seasonal craft cocktail that included Aperol, an Italian aperitif with hipster cred. And on seeing the fried spinach on the side of the sesame salmon. Not to mention the very concept of the place, which is the grilling of meat over an open wood fire — an impressive thing to pull off.  There's hangar steak and Kobe beef and blood orange margaritas to enliven and glamorize the menu. But at heart it’s still the kind of meal you expect  in a suburban development: generous in size, presented photogenically, and satisfying even if not thoroughly creative.

Four of us slid into a booth we'd reserved in the dining room for an early dinner. The booth was a thing of beauty; padded, roomy, the right spacing between diner and tabletop, with access from both ends, It was one reason we ended up lingering after dinner for an hour or so. The dining room is large,  has high-ceilings and has many of the familiar modern elements used to make large spaces homier: lots of natural stonework (I feel like I'm in a chimney, said one friend), wood, dry flower arrangements, fireplaces and excellent lighting that felt dim but was bright enough to see by. The kitchen is open behind a window, where you can see that they are, indeed, cooking on a wood fire. The coolest element is the bar, with bottles arranged by color and lit up from behind.

That's where we started, with craft cocktails, or that's what they were called. There were lots of ingredients and brand-named alcohols, but they tended toward the fruity and sweet. I don’t think you can garnish a drink with a frozen peach slice and call it craft.. With drinks, we had the lobster cheesy dip, served with brightly colored tortilla chips, which had a creditable amount of lobster pieces and was, you know, cheesy.

I got a bowl of clam chowder, made according to a principle I disagree with: the thicker and richer the chowder the better. Three salads included an everyday kind of Caesar, delicious fresh greens that were crunchy with jicama and spiced pecans, and another good one, a BLT salad with a creamy dressing.

If you like steak, but are alarmed by the price of really good steaks, there are some moderately-priced choices here, including a $29 strip and a $23 Delmonico. I was interested to see they had hangar steak, and it was nicely cooked, served sliced, but it was a shame to cover it with a  lot of sweet/tangy  steak sauce. It came with cheesy potatoes. I had prime rib, ordered medium rare, and that's what it was, all the way through. It was plenty tender, but a bit muted iin flavor, I thought. The salt-baked potato with it was stale, with a tough shell of skin.

The portion of salmon crusted in sesame seeds was generous, and the salmon cooked through and just a bit dry. It came with fried spinach. When you flash-fry a leaf of spinach, it gets transparent,  super-crisp and melts in your mouth. A few as garnish on a dish is fun, but a whole spoonful on a plate is too much, because it’s oily and not really very much like a vegetable.

Kobe meatloaf was a nice choice: two thick and moist  slices covered with a rich mushroom gravy (much better than most gravy served with meatloaf) , on top of honest mashed potatoes and crisp green beans.

Creme Brulee cheesecake from Firebirds Woodfired Grill

Desserts were the old-fashioned comfort type. Creme brulee made it to the mainstream a long time ago, and cheesecake with a brulee crust was a winner. A warm chocolate brownie was  topped with ice cream, and a warm caramel sauce poured at the table.

Service was long on managers asking how everything was, short of servers promptly clearing the table. Prices were fair for the style and quality - and there’s plenty of parking.

Firebirds Woodfired Grill: ★★

Go if: you live nearby, for a nicer, but affordable dinner

Where: 3075 Deerfield Blvd, Deerfield Township

When: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Prices: Appetizers $8.50-14.75; Entrees $17.25-33.29, burgers and sandwiches $11.25-$16.50, Desserts $7.50

Vegetarian options: very few

Reservations: taken, on-line and phone

Miscellaneous: outdoor dining, bar, accessible to disabled

Phone: 513-234-9032

Website: mason.firebirdsrestaurant.com