Anyone been? Any good? Menu looks a little overpriced for what they offer. We may gamble and head there tonight sans any reviews or recs....which always makes me nervous. I will report back...www.firearestaurant.com
By Huckster
on Apr 8, 2006 08:39 PM
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Hubby and I went to FIRE! for lunch three days ago. Food was borderline inedible. Pale white rotissere chicken and soggy, mushy "flatbread", their term for pizza. I also got a lecture from the waiter regarding the term "pizza". It is their contention that the only real pizza is a Marguerita pizza - everything else is a flatbread. Whatever they call it - it was awful! It truly needs work.
Kate
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Fire has good food in a very pleasant, loft like environment. It was formerly a firehouse, as you might guess. Although it won't compete for the top ten restaurants in New Orleans, it fills the void between upscale dining and all the great po-boy, fried seafood joints in town. They are open for lunch, with is pleasant. Try the 3 sausage plate. I hear the bar is lively at night.
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Wasn't Big Al's there before?
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It was Fire, then it was Big Al's. Now it's the Firehouse or something like that.
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Thanks! I guess if I would have read more I would realize that this is an old post. I did go to Big Al's once and we were the ONLY people in the restaurant. A good friend of mine ate at the other location in Houma (I think? ) and raved about it so we had to check it out. The food was good, but nothing that I couldnt make myself. It was an interesting space, but they could have done more with the place. Hopefully someone can make it work at that location. From my experience, it seems as though some spaces are "cursed" so to speak and once one restaurant goes done, others in the same location will follow. Best of luck to whomever is there currently.
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Sorry for the late followup. So, the ambience is pretty cool. Bar scene did seem like a blast. Food was a butchery of califonia pizza places (and I'm from CA). Started with the dip trio - bad and lazy. You can make just as good, if not better at home. Had the pear and walnut salad, very good dressing, but too much of it and barely any lettuce. Flatbread (shi**y pizza) was only okay. We had the one covered in mushrooms and it was a little awkward as it was the sauce for the pizza. And trust me, I love inventive pizza (fig and blue cheese is my fave).
In general, the food was only okay, overly exaggerated on the menu so they can justify the inflated prices. Honestly, Reginellis has better food in this category and prices. But, the atmosphere and building were very cool and fun.
Their drink list has like 500 martinis (Anthony Bordain would scoff...). Seems like they are like 10 years behind on the CA upscale pizza/bistro trend.
That said, I may find myself guiltily enjoying a pomagranite martini with a friend at the bar. Maybe even eating the sausage plate...I saw it go by and it at least looked good.
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Def not worth the drive over there. It's not really close to anything else and their parking is nonexistent. The staff is snobby and rude, and they stopped opening during normal hours and restircted the place for use only by some social networking group on Friday nights... so not worth anyone's time.
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Tonto's right. Fire has been closed at least two years. Big Al's has also come and gone in that same location.
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so Big Al's is done? i tried them last winter and was pretty unimpressed. no atmosphere, lackluster food.
but it looks like vasu below is saying its back to being Firehouse?
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Yeah, the Big Al's here wasn't nearly as good as the ones in Houma. And that location is snakebitten. It's too out of the way. Don't know if there's anything going on there now. I drove by a couple of days ago, and it just looked plain empty. Not to say that vasu is wrong. I suppose that building, which was a former fire station, could again house another restaurant with a similar name. The Fire guy opened a lunch place downtown. The grocery or something like that.
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There's definitely a sign saying "coming soon firehouse restaurant" or something like that.
You're thinking of The Store on Gravier. The owner of The Store was the executive chef at Fire.
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Right. Thanks. Any idea who's doing the new Firehouse joint?
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The Store is very good. large, high-quality salads, and some tasty specials (thurs is crawfish & squash risotto w/ grilled asparagus).
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Yeah, I agree. It's good. Ate there a bunch this summer. Really good lunch stuff.
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I just found this site, and sadly, most of the information would have been useful prior to my one and only visit to the restaurant three years ago. I, too, found the food tragically uninspired, and I took my complaints to the manager. The on-duty manager (the son) couldn't have cared less about my dissatisfaction. I followed up with an email to owner, Brenda Darr, who echoed her son's sentiment. Clearly, with customer non-service such as this, I would not return, nor would I give a good recommendation of the restaurant to anyone who asked. I cannot say that I'm surprised Fire went out of business, since they did not have either a menu designed to engender customer loyalty, nor a staff that could do the same. That's one night of my life I'll never get back.
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From the header I thought this thread was asking us to nominate a restaurant we'd like to see "fired," a la Donald Trump.
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Really old post and the restaurant is long gone.
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I was driving by today and noticed that it's no longer Big Al's, but now Firehouse Restaurant ... anyone know what's going on there?
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