Bonfire Earns Its Vanities

At last, a restaurant worth blogging about!! It’s been a long dry spell filled with mediocre meals, and a few real losers. In fact, my despair was so great it drove me to diet. We’d go out occasionally, but it was always easy to order a salad (my fat free dressing traveled with me) and not feel deprived. So it was with low expectations that we went to Bonfire Grill and Bar.

This five month old newbie is in Old Town Scottsdale, occupying the building that had housed Furio. That it is close to The Mission (see my 7/1/10 blog “Kiss My Grits) is no coincidence. Matt Carter, executive chef and proprietor of both The Mission and

Zinc Bistro created the menu, and his former sous chef Eric Guerin is now Bonfire’s executive chef. Carter mentored the manager of Bonfire, Jimmy Swann, a firefighter and newcomer to the restaurant business. It’s rare to find a team so eager to please their customers.

Bonfire serves elevated American comfort food. Many of the selections are cooked over a pecan wood fire, and this divine smell greets you in the parking lot. There were so many temptations on the menu, I knew my diet dressing would remain hidden in my pocketbook. We started by sharing a grilled artichoke ($8) filled with sun dried tomatoes, and served with a delicious garlic aioli. It was quite large, perfectly tender, and fed three of us. 

It wasn’t easy to select our entrees. One of everything would have been nice. But eventually I ordered the BBQ Short Rib Skewer sandwich ($9) served on MJ bread with beer braised onions, Tillamook cheese and a chipotle BBQ sauce. It came with fries, lightly dusted with onion powder and a homemade chipotle ketchup. The chipotle taste was evident, but the heat level was happily low. The chunks of short rib were tender and moist even though all the fat had miraculously disappeared. Ken had short ribs too, but his entree came from the brunch menu - Short Rib Hash With Buttermilk Biscuits ($10).

The chef obligingly put the potatoes on the side in a cute little iron pot. The biscuits were both chewy and fluffy. Ernest decided on the Skewered Grilled Cheese Sandwich ($7) With Roasted Tomato, Bacon and Arugula. He seemed very pleased. Anna’s Pecan Grilled Harris Ranch Burger ($9) looked good, but her Honey Mustard Coleslaw was the real hit. It was lightly dressed, yet full of flavor. Given the size and quality of these dishes, the price was truly a bargain. The only nit I might pick here (I had to find one so you wouldn’t think I’d lost my edge) is the over-use of the skewer concept.

Since I’d already blown my diet, why pass up desert? A Cast Iron Toasted Marshmallow Smores dish with Shaved Chocolate, Graham Cracker Cookies (homemade, not the flat board-like kind), and Malted Vanilla Ice Cream ($6) went with the Bonfire concept, but Jimmy urged us to try the Chocolate Bread Pudding with Banana Ice Cream ($6). Good choice! A huge portion of warm, gooey chocolate with hints of banana and caramel paired perfectly with the ice cream. Eventually I gave my spoon to Ken and told him not to give it back no matter how much I begged.

The ambiance is pleasant. Lots of dark wood, with an impressive wooden collage on the wall behind the bar, commissioned from a local artist. I think it would be nice if more art work took the place of some of the innumerable TV sets lining the walls. But at least their sound was muted, and enjoyable music was being played at a reasonable noise level (live music Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights). There’s a communal table, booths, high and low top tables, and very comfortable upholstered chairs. A good thing if you can’t bring yourself to leave between lunch and dinner service.

Bonfire Grill and Bar

7210 E. 2nd St.     Scottsdale      480-945-6600

www.thebonfireaz.com

Lunch daily 11-5    

Dinner Sunday - Thursday 5-10, Friday & Saturday  5-11

The Olive Garden of BBQ

     I know why the people behind Big Daddy’s BBQ (the Maestro group, formerly of Maestro’s Steak House and the Ocean Club) named it that. It’s because they see hundreds of baby Big Daddy franchises spinning off this papa. And, sadly, they’re probably right. This is BBQ for the unadventurous, for those who don’t appreciate the glorious idiosyncrasies of the genre. As Olive Garden is to Italian, and Red Lobster to seafood, Big Daddy’s is to BBQ.

     Located on the west side of the Pima Crossing Shopping  on Shea Blvd. at the 101, you’ll have to walk a ways after you’ve parked. The ambiance is kind of fun. There’s a big mural of the Budweiser wagon on a brick side-wall. Several garage doors open to the picnic-tabled patio, and there are more picnic tables with umbrellas inside, as well as stainless steel topped tables. Paper towels are on each table as well as a rib bucket. I get the feeling the bucket is strictly for show and an alarm would go off if anyone dared to dirty one. As you enter you’ll see the menu on the wall. No selection is over $20. Decide what you want and proceed to the counter to order. Then you pay and will be given one of those annoying vibrating, flashing light things that let you know it’s time to pick up your order. It will be ready surprisingly quickly. This is a VERY bad thing at a BBQ restaurant.

     Ken and I shared a 3 meat combo (the menu on line says $13.95, but I think we paid more) with 2 sides and a piece of cornbread. The most exciting thing on the list of sides was creamed corn, which we ordered, along with coleslaw. Our platter contained one beef rib, three pork ribs, and about 5 slices of brisket which had a small amount of BBQ sauce on top. There is more sauce available on the counter with the drink machine, but there’s no selection - it’s the only one. Neither spicy nor sweet - just blah. All the meats were quite dry, and somehow they all tasted the same. We were wishing for a pepper shaker when we tried the coleslaw. It was totally bland, as was the creamed corn, which had a bizarrely large amount of flavorless white sauce to canned corn kernels. Ken thought the best thing on the platter was the onion slice. I thought the corn bread won out - it was moist and slightly sweet.

     As we headed home, the farther away from Big Daddy’s we drove, the more dissatisfied with our meal we became. When we reached Scottsdale Rd., before I could ask him to do it, Ken took a right and headed toward Chocolate Star Bakery. We were in desperate need of a happy ending to truly ungratifying experience. The most positive thing I can say is that it’s a whole lot better than Dickeys, the nadir of BBQ restaurants.

Big Daddy’s BBQ  (don’t confuse this with the Big Daddy’s on Cave Creek Rd.)

8698 E. Shea Blvd.  Scottsdale   480-609-0100

bigdaddysbbqaz.com

Lunch and Dinner  7 days  11 - 10 (or later)