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| - The Spitfire Grill opened up right in my neighborhood in a space that previously housed 2 sub par restaurants, Sign of the Whale and before that Voodoo Daddy's. I found both of these restaurants to be really repulsive lending to the idea that the location might be jinxed, but nevertheless we gave Spitfire Grill a try and I'm glad we did. We love to support local businesses and Spitfire Grill is easy to love! This place could easy be one of my top five favorite restaurants and the fact that it's within walking distance from my house is a total bonus. This neighborhood desperately needed a locally owned, non-chain restaurant to liven up the area.
They've completely changed the interior from the garish and tacky Sign of the Whale "maritime decor" with nets and plastic lobsters to a cool, modern, rustic southwestern decor. Faux finished walls, iron candelabras and dim lighting really make the atmosphere pretty posh for a tavern. Even though it's a "grill" per se, the ambiance is nice enough that it could easily be a date night place, it's the most elegant looking "bar" for miles around that's for sure.
First of all they give you complimentary spicy paprika hummus with cracker bread. I love freebies and I especially love them when they taste that incredible. The waitress said they make everything in house. The hummus was exceptional...and free. We started with a cup of the butternut squash soup which was finished with molasses. It looked boring but tasted spectacular! I was surprised how much flavor and appeal it had for as drab as it looked. I would definitely order that again. We also had the flat bread with goat cheese, mushrooms and caramelized onions. I was a little surprised that it had tomato sauce on it, for some reason I didn't imagine the goat cheese would taste good with that but it did. The actual flat bread itself, whatever type of dough it was made out of was light and delicious. As far as that particular flavor pairing, I probably wouldn't order that again even though it was tasty and I did eat all of it!
For lunch I ordered the Cuban sandwich. I love, love, love Cuban sandwiches when they are done well. My favorite is from Mimita's Cuban Cafe and my least favorite is from Culinary Dropout in Scottsdale. So now that I've tried Spitfire's Cuban it's my NEW favorite. It's not traditional, it's a more modern take on it. I love that instead of sliced ham, which is usually lunch meat at most places, that they used Serrano ham which is basically Spain's version of prosciutto. Delicious. Then there was pulled pork and sweet house made pickles. The surprising part was some kind of avocado spread, not usually on a Cuban but worked really well. The whole thing was panini pressed and the bread was fabulous. Now on to the french fries. Oh my. The waitress said they were fried in rice oil which is supposed to be healthier for you. I'm not sure how it could be healthy when they taste so incredible. They appeared to be either batter dipped fries or twice fried fries, not sure, but they had exceptional crunch and flavor. I'd like to have a double order of the fries next time!
My friend had the tuna panini but I didnt' taste it, however it looked really good and she said she love it.
Last but not least we had one of their homemade desserts. Cranberry peach cobbler with cinnamon ice cream. It came out in a little cast iron skillet. It was a pretty traditional cobbler/crumble, the topping was really nice, some type of oats and brown sugar concoction. I felt like the peaches may have been frozen, but it did not detract from the enjoyment of the dessert and I don't believe peaches are in season right now anyway. Next time I'd like to try their bread pudding.
So why do I like this place??? It's a couple blocks from my house, I'm sure locals will be packing in there in no time. They use natural meats, hormone, steroid and antibiotic free meats and even have an organic burger on the menu. I like that because I only buy meats that meet that criteria anyway and it's near impossible to find that when dining out. They use local produce and products as much as possible and it's not a chain!!! The biggest reason I love it is because there's FINALLY a good restaurant in this neighborhood where everyone seems to have the palette of a 90 year old nursing home patient. How Marcello's has stayed in business right across the street is amazing to me. They should start worrying because this place is 10000 times better.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, since I'm pregnant and not drinking I didn't really get into it but apparently they have like a couple dozen beers on tap, most of them from local breweries. Can't wait to try that after baby comes!
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