Movies Guide

By Bob Migra

Special to The Plain Dealer

In the end, it’s up to the dining public to make or break any restaurant. It’s up to the restaurant itself to make diners regulars.

It didn’t take long to figure out that Fire Food & Drink on Shaker Square has already pieced together that puzzle. The chic dining room, dominated by a huge mirror at one end, exposed ductwork and an open kitchen, was packed both nights my wife and I visited.

Fire’s menu depends as much as possible on local products, and it had just switched to its fall version the day before our first trip. Based on what we sampled, there won’t be much tweaking required.

Our first dinner began with an appetizer of butternut squash ravioli and mushroom pizza, both $14. The ravioli and truffle-butter sauce alone were decadently — I would argue, overly — rich. But a topping of crunchy, tart pomegranate seeds and slightly bitter brussels sprout leaves gave a nice contrast and balance to the dish.

The pizza was a masterpiece. I told our knowledgeable and enthusiastic server it could have been a finalist in The Plain Dealer’s recent pizza contest, if Fire were a pizzeria. An airy-light, thin-and-crispy dough with just the right hint of charring was topped with portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions and sweet-and-nutty gruyere cheese.

First-night entrees were also impressive. My wife’s duck confit ($27) matched classically prepared duck leg and thigh sections — crispy on the outside, rich, moist and tender inside — with buttery herbed spaetzle, local mushrooms and sauteed spinach. Sure, you can call Fire’s menu “modern American,” but this dish was old-school French comfort food at its best.

Fire serves several dishes cooked in a clay-walled, wood-burning tandoor oven. I picked the rib-eye ($34). The serving was huge, thicker than the cut most restaurants serve in a 16-ounce steak dinner. It was perfectly cooked to order, medium rare, and tasted as though it came off of a grill. My only complaint would be that the dish was rather plain-looking (just a steak, a mound of mashed potatoes and another mound of creamed spinach) compared with the restaurant’s other presentations.

Another round of comforting, satiny richness greeted us when we began a second visit with a veal-meatball appetizer ($18). Mildly flavored meatballs and rustic bread were the perfect sponges for yummy, extra-garlicky asiago-parmesan cream sauce.

Karen’s Caesar Salad ($8) was accompanied by an interesting presentation of five different salad toppings (the cured salmon was outstanding) served on individual spoons. My only issue was that the salad itself was very mildly dressed, without much garlic, lemon or anchovy flavor.

For entrees, my wife chose the organic chicken ($26) and I went with diver scallops

($29). Moist-and-tender chicken was paired with an interesting combination of cauliflower puree, mushroom pierogi, braised kale and maple-ginger jus. Rich, mushroom aroma and flavor, almost trufflelike, oozed from the pierogi.

Quality scallops were cooked perfectly — seared outside, tender and medium inside — and paired with a crisp risotto cake and spaghetti squash. I thought the walnut-romesco sauce was a bit too mildly-flavored to do much for the artistically plated dish.

But that’s a quibble. The diners that fill Fire nightly don’t appear to have any complaints.

TASTE BITES: Fire Food & Drink

Where: 13220 Shaker Square, Cleveland.

Contact: firefoodanddrink.com, 216-921-3473.

Hours: Dinner, 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday; 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Brunch, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Closed Monday.

Prices: Appetizers, $4-$14; salads, $8-$10; entrees, $18-$34; dessert, $6-$12.

Reservations: Recommended.

Credit cards: All major.

Cuisine: Eclectic, modern American with influences from around the world.

Kid-friendliness: Kitchen will accommodate requests. Kids (and some adults) enjoy the crayons and paper table covers.

Bar service: Full service, with good selection of wines from around the world, craft beers and some original cocktails.

Accessibility: Fully accessible.

Grade:

Ratings: One star means fair; 2 stars, good; 3 stars, very good; 4 stars, exceptional. (Zero stars: not recommended.) Plain Dealer reviewers make at least two anonymous visits to each restaurant and do not accept complimentary meals. Read past reviews at cleveland.com/dining