Firebirds

Tonight I was able to take advantage of a perk of my job and that was an invitation by one of the local restaurants to enjoy a meal on the house. Firebirds, in South Park opened in August of 2008 and is the 15th restaurant for this chain that began in Charlotte eight years ago. Although founded in Charlotte the restaurant has a lodge feel with lots of stone and wood as well as fireplaces and a show kitchen. They use three types of wood to fire their grill and obviously feature mostly grilled meats.

Staff members from the hotels in the area were invited and treated to an assortment of appetizers that included their signature app, Lobster Spinach Queso Dip as well as sliders, buffalo shrimp and onion rings. The Lobster Queso Dip with tri-color nacho chips were the stand out closely followed by the buffalo shrimp. Next came our salad course where they served us a sample of their BLT Salad with ranch dressing and a mixed green salad with chile pecans. Both were fantastic!

For our entree, we had the choice of a Chile rubbed Delmonico, cilantro grilled chicken and wood fired salmon. I was the only person to choose the salmon, the rest chose the steak from what I heard was very good. I really enjoyed the salmon, which was cooked perfectly for me, each of the entrees was served with Parmesan mashed potatoes. But just like the Ginsu knives, there was more - an assortment of desserts featuring Big Daddy Chocolate Cake, key lime pie and Creme Brulee Cheesecake. For anyone who knows me, dessert was the best part of the meal and my favorite was the Creme Brulee Cheesecake which was simply a light cheesecake covered with sugar and the sugar caramelized on top. It was so good, that I brought 1/2 of it home with me. YUMMMMMM.

Usually when you attend these events they put out small samples of the items on the menu, but we were all served a full meal. Shared appetizers, family style salad, full entree and shared desserts (the dessert forks have handles that must be about 18 inches in length making it easy to share the dessert - nice touch!) They certainly gave us a great show and left an impression with all of us in attendance. In all there were 4 hotels represented by 7 people. We were also treated to tasting of their private label wines from the California vineyards of one of the restaurant's investors.

This is most definitely a restaurant that will be on my list to take visitors to Charlotte. The food they served was great, the atmosphere casual and comfortable and the prices were mid-range.

Thanks Firebirds!!