I met my husband-to-be on a snowy, romantic February 18th many, many years ago. So when I heard that Doug Katz was making a “meatless monday vegan dinner” this past Monday, February 18th, husband cleared his schedule and I made us a reservation right away!
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Now you may or may not know that I’m not a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. But I LOVE real food, and that’s why I wanted to spend an evening at fire food & drink.
Once we had all been seated and the restaurant was full, Doug came out from the kitchen and told us a story about how times have changed: Maybe 8 years ago he decided to make a vegetarian dinner, but 3 weeks later he had just 18 reservations. It took a long time to get up the nerve to try something like that again, but this time the dinner — no longer vegetarian, but now vegan — sold out in only a few days! And we were ready to eat!
It was a great celebration. Drinks were passed first; I chose a champagne-gin concoction with a sugar cube and a thick slice of orange peel. Plates of fritters filled with mung beans, scallions and parsnips were placed before each diner, and we spooned over them the tamarind, coriander, and mint chutneys already set out on the tables and whose fragrances I appreciated the moment I stepped into the restaurant.
A salad of roasted chioga beets (these may have been the best beets I’ve ever eaten), leeks, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and baby greens, all tossed with a spicy walnut vinaigrette, was my favorite of the evening.
Chickpeas, roasted tomatoes, dry cured olives and almond couscous came in warm bowls and were a perfect choice for a very cold, windy, snow-blowsy February night.
The fourth course was a sweet potato-black bean cake decorated with a smoked chili adobo sauce and, alongside, a watercress salad dressed with cilantro and lime vinaigrette. Sweet, sour, spicy and earthy, all at the same time. By now I was waaaaay full.
Dessert was called “dark rum baba, cherry compote, almond nougatine granite, candied orange.” I didn’t see any left over anywhere.
So…thank you to the entire staff at fire for making the magic happen once again. And happy anniversary to my very wonderful husband.
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