Sunday, September 18, 2016

Fireside Tavern, Strasburg, Pa.





Sometimes, a step up is required.  Like, when Herself has a birthday.  That's a good time to stretch out a bit and reach for something a little better. Perhaps, a little fancier.  

That would be how we ended up at The Fireside Tavern recently. (Check out their menu on-line, and their pricing.  We can recommend the braised beef (stunning), and the shepherds pie. Also the Garlic mussels are a real treat.  Avoid the 'Catfish Po-Boy' like it was death warmed over, unless you like a great heap of warm pickle relish between two slabs of bread with a sad mushy piece of fish in there someplace. C:I had the veggie sandwich that visit, and left it on my plate mostly uneaten. I think the thing that upset me the most at that visit was the blatant lack of caring by our waitress. Bad food can happen, bad service is virtually unforgivable. Although a redeeming note on that visit was the spinach artichoke dip, served in a bread bowl, it was WOW tasting, but pricey at $11.50.)

The Fireside is a favorite of ours, but not every day.  We reserve it more for special occasions, or when we head out with close friends and family.  Located on the east side of Strasburg on Historic Drive, the Fireside has been there for as long as I can recall.  Yet, we only 'discovered' it within the last year or so when we needed a nice place to take visiting family.

The Tavern is upscale, but also has a pretty nice bar to boast of as well.  Multiple dining rooms, with live fireplaces as their name suggests. Also outside dining as the season permits, on the deck out front under a huge spreading tree.


I'm not going to suggest that every meal at the Fireside is a sybaritic experience in hedonism.... but they usually do a pretty good job of getting it right.  Just once, for lunch, they served us both a true stinker of a meal, most of which was left uneaten, while a somewhat shocking lack of caring was shown by the wait staff.   On the other hand, every dinner we've had there has been memorable, with excellent service and superb food (our waitress this visit was Michelle, she was a joy!).

Speaking of superb food, lets get to this particular dining extravaganza.

Arriving in the late afternoon, we decided to eat outside.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and despite some parking lot noise, the deck outside is a relaxing and entrancing place to eat.   Upsides: Great setting, nice views, lovely breeze, nice shade.  Downsides: 
Occasional diesel pickups, and the occasional loud yuppy loudly talking about his loud job and loud travel and loud echo in his loud head.  Mostly, it's a nice experience eating on the Fireside deck. (He was decidedly more annoying than his 9 week old infant daughter. He definitely fussed louder!)

Their drink menu is decent, with a pretty darn good selection of microbrew beer as well.  I chose a solid Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, while herself had something foo-fooie involving fruit, bourbon, and lemonade (a blackberry Bulleit Bourbon Lemonade, it was very tasty and served in a "fishbowl" style glass. It was blackberries, muddled with mint and cardamon, with bourbon, ice, and topped with lemonade. An excellent blend of flavours! ).

For this meal, we shared dishes as we usually do.  Starters involved onion rings (straight up bar food) with a fair horseradish dipping sauce.... and Duck Meat Spring Rolls with a sweet chili sauce.  Yeah... I put Duck Spring Rolls in capital letters.  They deserved it.

The duck spring rolls were really very, very, good.  Tender and tasty duck, with crispy slivers of cabbage, carrot, red pepper, and maybe celery root (?). All wrapped in crispy fried wrappers.  The sweet chili sauce seemed house made perhaps (Most of their sauces are house made. That is a huge selling point to me, as sauces can make or break a dish.), and it was exceptionally good.  Maybe it was the added flavor of dining in the fresh air, but those spring rolls dipped in that sauce were remarkable (They were delicious. The duck meat inside was moist, and the combined flavour was great. If I had any complaint, it would be that they could have been wrapped tighter. When you bit into it, it had a tendency to fall apart).

We also shared a grilled romaine salad, drizzled with balsamic glaze and buttermilk dressing.  Chopped peanuts were sprinkled on, with sliced cherry tomatoes and warm crustinis.

To my taste, the grilled romaine was okay.  Not spectacular, but a decent workmanlike salad.  I'd have liked more of the buttermilk dressing on the side, as it seemed lost among the stronger flavors (In this we disagree; I found the salad to be a delight! The buttermilk dressing's creaminess cut the tart bite of the balsamic glaze, the peanuts added a nice nutty crunch, and the grill on the romaine was perfect).

For main, we tried one of the days specials; Grilled flatiron steak with Asian slaw and sweet chili mashed potatoes. 

Taken as individual components, each was really very good.  The steak, while more medium than the medium rare we ordered, was tender and had excellent flavor. I thought it might have been brined or marinated, but our waitress reported it was done simply with salt, pepper, and Montreal steak seasoning.  The slaw was colorful, crunchy, and added a nice dimension to the dish.  The mashers were smooth and tasty, and complimented the dish. (We fork wrestled a little over the mashed, they were out of this world. Creamy and rich! With a hint of spice.)

All that said..... I would not have plated it the way Fireside chose to.  There was a large pile of Asian slaw over both mashers and meat. While this leant both color and height, it effectively hid the star of the show, the flat iron steak.  Perhaps a little experimenting with plating options might be worthwhile?

Desert and coffee.......  was perfection.   

We ordered a slab of peanut butter pie to share, and thankfully only the one.  Honestly, I was so stuffed at that point, the plan was to leave birthday-girl with most of the pie, minus perhaps a spoonful.  The thought of this had Herself doing the 'Pie Dance' (Piiiieeee!) in her chair.  I'll let you work on the image in your head for a while. (It is a bit of butt wiggling with jazz hand thrown in for good measure, while singing the word "Pie!". It is a modern art, not to be appreciated by everyone. )




The peanut butter pie was smooooth, without even a hint of graininess. Creamy, rich, flavorful, and downright decadent. Chocolate graham cracker crust and sprinkled with chunks of Reeses peanut butter cups.  It was scary, scary good and the idea of not eating much was abandoned at first bite.

To be straight up with you... I growled and slid the pie over to my side of the table, daring Herself to snatch a bite of her own. (Let's be clear here, Himself ROLLED his eyes at my pie dance and desire for dessert, and then stole my pie! It was worthy of theft though as this was without a doubt the best peanut butter pie I have ever had.)  Eventually, I relented and shared. 

Somewhat (definitely) over-stuffed, a cup or two of respectably good restaurant coffee served in glass cups finished off the meal perfectly, while we sat back and enjoyed the sun going down on the Fireside Tavern deck.

Happy Birthday, Babe. (Thank-you, Love)


"Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly."
 ― M.F.K. Fisher


David & Steve's Fireside Tavern is awarded: 
4.25 out of 5 forks for flavor 
4.75 out of 5 forks for atmosphere
5.0 out of 5 forks for location
4.75 out of 5 forks for service

4.6875 forks overall!  

Total ticket, with tip:  $90
 

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