An Incendiary Success :
Amid changes, Doug Katz keeps Fire aglow at Shaker Square
By Douglas Trattner
Salad days
Fire relies on fresh seasonal ingredients rather than fads.
WHEN DOUG KATZ OPENED Fire Food & Drink four years ago this summer, Shaker Square was enjoying a palpable renaissance. Under the leadership of new owners, the square was basking in the morning-after glow of a $24-million revitalization project.
Glitzy national chains like Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Bronte Bistro, Wild Oats Market and the Gap had settled into the then-72-year-old urban shopping center. Heck, Shaker Square even had a swanky new name: The Shops at Shaker Square.
And then, almost as quickly as they arrived, those tenants packed their shopping bags and headed out of town. Wild Oats, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Bronte Bistro, the Gap — all of them gone.
Promise may again be on the horizon; Shaker Square has yet another new owner with grand plans of revival. This progress, too, is palpable. Locally owned Dave's Supermarket is already up and running. Cleveland's own East Coast Original Frozen Custard has opened in the southeast quadrant. And Sergio Abramof, chef and owner of Sergio's in University Circle, has finally broken ground on an ambitious 185-seat restaurant and bar called Samba Kitchen.
FIRE FOOD AND DRINK
13220 Shaker Square
216.921.FIRE
Trattner's Tip: After four years, Fire still looks and tastes fresh.
Chef Katz's reliance on high-quality seasonal ingredients prepared
simply but well, suggests that this bistro should never go out of fashion.
Whether this renaissance will be long- or short-lived, only time will tell. But one thing is pretty much a given: throughout it all, Fire Food & Drink will continue to thrive.
The fact that Fire has not only survived the instability of its environs, but actually continued to succeed in spite of them, is a testament to its approach to food and fashion.
Katz and company wisely designed the restaurant to have a clean, polished and modern feel. A heavy reliance on organic elements like worn wood floors, exposed brick, stainless steel and poured concrete made certain that the room wouldn't appear dated in a few years' time.
The same holds true for the cuisine. Consider the name, Fire Food & Drink, and you begin to grasp the kind of lucidity and sincerity that pervades the kitchen. Rather than peg his restaurant to some passing fad (pick one: low-carb, raw food, tapas, fusion, modern steakhouse), Katz banked on the timeless appeal of quality seasonal ingredients sensibly combined and adeptly prepared.
Even the menu, an unassuming paper document, avoids the current trend toward excessively describing an ingredient's pedigree. It isn't that these ingredients don't merit such tribute — they most certainly do — it's that we, as diners, shouldn't have to concern ourselves with such minutiae. That's the chef's job.
Instead, the menu of robustly flavored American bistro fare reads like an unadorned shopping list: “chicken livers, cherry compote and applewood smoked bacon,” or “wild salmon, corn, clams, bacon, snap peas and potato cream.”
The chicken liver and bacon appetizer ($8) is a paradigm of Fire's cooking. Over the years the breading has changed, and the fruity accoutrements vary from season to season, but it's tough to tinker with perfection. This dish is rich, flavorful, straightforward, and wholly satisfying, something that can be said for practically every item on the menu.
Mussels ($11) come in a big bowl of buttery broth with strokes of fennel and garlic. A large flank of crispy baguette protrudes out of the bowl like a sail. Clay oven bread ($4), another Fire classic, comes out of the tandoor oven crisp and puffy. It is painted with roasted pepper and garlic aiolis.
Seasonal soups can be hot or cold — both literally and figuratively. A roasted red pepper soup ($6), served hot, is smooth and summery with just the right amount of sweetness. A cold carrot soup ($6), on the other hand, tastes more of nutmeg than carrot and lacks much interest apart from a mound of pert micro-greens.
One can't go wrong with any of the pizzas; each exits the pizza oven hot, crunchy and fragrant. Best among them is the portabella and gruyere ($8). Also nice is one topped with Tuscan salami and fresh mozzarella ($9), but be forewarned, the salami exudes a fair amount of fat. One of these, a salad and a glass of wine and you've got a killer weeknight dinner.
Entrees at Fire range from $20 to $29, more than fair considering the quality of ingredients and the fact that each includes sides. Crispy roast duck ($24), for example, pairs the dark-meat bird with well-seasoned speatzle and wilted broccoli raab. A mouthwatering double pork chop ($26), one of the finest pieces of pig served in town, is shellacked in a salty, fatty crust. It is served with savory bread pudding and a spicy succotash of corn, tomatoes and squash.
Fire isn't standing still. Scott Popovic, the restaurant's new chef de cuisine, will surely have his fingerprint on the new fall menu. His talent and creativity are too significant to squander. But don't expect to see trendy foams or vapors appearing at the restaurant any time soon; that wouldn't befit a restaurant named, simply, Fire Food & Drink.