THE PHOENIX FIRE GRILL AND BAR

Finding a new restaurant at which the food is outstanding never fails to be exciting, and when the excitement remains on subsequent visits, it's even better. Such is the case at The Phoenix Fire Grill and Bar. My husband Jack and I noticed it on several occasions as we drove toward Canfield on State Route 46 (usually on our way to the White House Fruit Farm or the Mill Creek Metropark Farm), but we didn't work up the courage to check it out till recently.

And boy, we're glad we did! The food here is way more than a cut above the ordinary, and each time we've stopped since then we've found something new to love.

The decor has a Southwestern flavor - lots of dark wood and peachy colors - that complements the wonderful smells coming from the fire grill; and for the record, the interior is much larger than it appears from the outside (the restaurant is at the end of a small shopping plaza). There's a good-sized bar and an adjacent section with a few booths; on the other side is a much larger area with plenty of booths and tables. Still, it's small enough to be cozy (and be full of diners at peak meal hours, so plan your visit accordingly).

One of the reasons we hadn't stopped earlier, I must admit, is that it looked expensive; we're not frequent visitors at restaurants that cost an arm and a leg, so we figured we'd wait to come here for a special occasion. But on one of our trips, Jack stopped in to look around and picked up a sample menu, showing us we had no need to hold off. The prices here are quite reasonable, and several of the dinner entrees are available in "lunch" portions until 4 p.m. each day. There's also a Happy Hour from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, when draft beers are $1 off and domestic bottles are reduced by a buck and a half.

On our first visit, we asked to sit on the "bar" side. Although we were in a booth, I did notice that this place has avoided one of my big pet peeves about sitting on a barstool, even if it's just for drinks: There's no convenient place to stash my purse. It takes up too much space if I plunk it next to me on the bar top, and I really don't want to stash it on the floor (after all, who knows where that floor has been).

Here, though, large cup hooks have been installed on the sides of the bar several inches from the top - a perfect solution, IMHO!

I'll also admit we probably made a mistake by asking the hostess to seat us in the bar section - after waiting for more than 10 minutes without seeing a server except on the restaurant side, we finally asked the bartender for help. After another 10 minutes, someone wandered over to check on us, apologizing and explaining they'd been "trying to figure out" who should be waiting on our table. Once they'd resolved that issue, though, the service was fine.

Deciding on what to try at a new restaurant, though, always presents a problem when it comes to the main reason we walked through the door. Do we go with something more tried and true, like a burger? Here, for instance, the Fireburger - an 8-ounce ground chuck patty with Buffalo sauce topped with marinated peppers and melted pepperjack cheese ($7) was almost too tempting. In the end, though, the black-n-bleu pizza proved irresistible; diced blackened chicken on seasoned white pizza with garlic, sliced plum tomatoes, bacon, three cheeses and crumbled bleu cheese (and fire grilled, of course) simply sounded out of this world.

Jack wasn't quite as hungry and settled for a barbecue chicken quesadilla from the appetizer menu ($7). A crispy tortilla shell filled with roasted peppers and three cheeses, it comes with smoked onion dip instead of the usual sour cream and/or guacamole.

Our first surprise was delivery of a basket of fresh-baked, still-warm rolls - not something we'd have expected with an order of a pizza and an appetizer. The rolls were excellent, and the herbed butter made them even more delectable.

Jack was exceptionally pleased with his quesadilla, which was stuffed with far more "insides" than we've ever seen in a quesadilla appetizer. It was delicious, and he said the smoked onion sauce added a special touch he loved (I tasted it, and it would be great on other things as well).

My pizza, though, was nothing short of wonderful. The crust is particularly flavorful, and the whole thing was oozing with so much melted cheese that it was hard to pick up without dripping. I don't recall seeing that amount of bleu cheese on anything that comes with bleu cheese before -- I love the stuff, and it was almost too much for me. The blackened chicken is cut in smallish chunks -- as well it should be on a pizza -- and the flavor is outstanding and blends perfectly with all that cheese.

Simply because we loved the place the first time around, our next visit came fairly soon thereafter and this time at lunchtime on a Sunday. We arrived around 12:20 p.m. in hopes of beating the after-church crowd, and at least on this day, it was perfect timing. We had almost the run of the place seating-wise (this time we opted for the regular dining room), but by the time we'd been served, the place was almost full.

We both thought the lunch portions of entrees would be a good way to go this time. My choice was the Shrimp & Scallops Jambalaya $9 for lunch, $16 for dinner), and Jack picked Chicken Marsala Portobello ($8/$14). But then, my eyes spotted something else -- and I threw caution to the wind and insisted I had to have it.

"It" was the Tuna Carpaccio appetizer, or Sashimi-style Ahi tuna marinated, rolled in spices, pan seared rare, sliced and served on assorted greens with ginger soy sauce. I'd become totally enamored with rare Ahi tuna on previous trips to the North Carolina Outer Banks (I found what I consider to be the best in the world at Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe in Nags Head), so even though this was a relatively pricey $9, I wasn't about to let the catch get away even if it is inland.

Delicious? Oh my. The coating on the tuna is a titch crusty, and the sauce is rather salty and ever so slightly less tasty than at Nags Head. That said, I didn't want to eat anything else; and the slices were so numerous that the appetizer would have been sufficient for an entire lunch for me. Even Jack, who wants nothing to do with anything "rare," tasted a piece and agreed it's superb. If nothing else, I'll make a beeline for this place often just so I can have more of this!

Our entrees came with salads, and interestingly, mine was mostly head lettuce that Jack prefers while his was mostly my favorite assorted greens ("rabbit food," as he calls the stuff). Since we poured on different dressings before we noticed, we weren't able to switch, but next time we'll know to look before we dress and adjust accordingly.

His grilled chicken breast and portobello 'shrooms were served over rice pilaf and topped with fire roasted veggies and a lemon with a white wine and garlic butter sauce. The breast was a little on the skimpy side, he noted, but it was quite good (the sauce was outstanding) and the portobello slices were plentiful. Meanwhile, I was oblivious to what he was eating once I stuck my fork in the Jambalaya. It was a bowl of rice pilaf topped with two very large tiger shrimp, two equally large scallops, a few slices of Andouille sausage, all sauteed with bell peppers and onions and simmered in sherry wine sauce with a touch of marinara.

The flavor was outstanding (and properly cooked seafood is a deal-breaker for me any day of the week). The lunch portion isn't huge, but it would have been plenty for a dinner entree for me, especially with the salad (even without the appetizer, which next time out will be my main course for sure).

Except it wasn't. On our next visit, I decided to sample another dish that sounded wonderful - Mediterranean Pasta with Shrimp & Scallops ($10 for the lunch portion). Jack had liked the Jambalaya I got on the other trip so well that he ordered it for himself this time -- and except for a few slices of that Andouille sausage that he gave to me (he's not a sausage fan), he polished off the entire bowl.

My choice came in a bowl as well; the shrimp and scallops sauteed with artichokes, roasted red peppers, red onion, kalamata olives and feta cheese in butter, garlic and lemon sauce tossed with linguine and Parmesan cheese made for a very different taste sensation, but a sensation it was. I'm still partial to that Jambalaya (and of course the Ahi tuna appetizer) though, so looks as if we'll be coming here fairly regularly. If you see us there, stop and say hello!

If you go:

The Phoenix Fire Grill and Bar
5231 S. Canfield-Niles Road
Canfield, Ohio
(330) 533-9999

www.phoenixfiregrill.com

Open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.