[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”11″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_imagebrowser” ajax_pagination=”0″ order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Would you drive five miles out of your way to once again savor the culinary creations of Chuck Arnold, the very talented chef who a few years ago was wowing diners at Bijou in Vero’s Old Downtown?
Well, Chef Chuck and another familiar Vero restaurant face, Roger Lord – friends from years ago in the Carolinas – have just opened a new bistro in a most unlikely location: the Winn-Dixie strip mall on Oslo Road in South County.
If you’re tempted to go, and memories of Chef Chuck’s creations sure lured us, you want to turn west on Oslo Road from U.S. 1, and their new restaurant, Fire & Wine, is a bit over two miles out on the right.
This out-of-the-way restaurant is our Vero Beach dining discovery of 2017 – great food, great atmosphere, great service, great prices. A headline on its website describes Fire & Wine as a “sublime dining experience.” We strongly agree.
Look & feel: From the parking lot, the nondescript exterior of this restaurant – which still has the Oslo Diner sign overhead – isn’t very inviting. But inside, we found an eclectic newly-decorated restaurant with a Chef’s Counter in the front – where a half-dozen diners can watch meals being prepared in the open kitchen – and a narrow but adequately spaced white-table-cloth bistro to the rear.
Food: On this initial visit, we started with a soup, a salad and an appetizer, had three entrées, and finished with a house-made dessert.
The soup of the night was a sweet potato poblano soup ($6) with a blue cheese crouton as well as toasted pecans. Delicious. The baby arugula salad ($8) had shaved Brussel sprouts, dried cherries, roasted nuts, a fried goat cheese medallion and was dressed with a spiced rum vinaigrette.
But the most interesting of the starters was Chuck’s take on an escargot appetizer ($8) – snails sautéed with country ham, zucchini and tomato served over a fried egg in a nest with parsley vinaigrette. My husband, who loves escargot served in the classic manner, thought this dish was tremendous.
For entrées, I ordered one of the evening’s specials, monkfish ($28), my husband went for the salmon ($21), and our companion chose the garganelli pasta ($18).
My pan-seared monkfish was served on an artichoke and potato puree, surrounded by a sauté of PEI mussels and spinach done in an orange saffron broth. From the perfectly prepared monkfish to the tender little mussels to the wonderful artichoke and orange saffron tastes, this dish was fantastic.
My husband’s pan-seared Faroe Island salmon was also cooked just right, topped with pickled beets and grilled asparagus, and served with a red wine vinaigrette and goat cheese empanada. Our companion’s pasta was also excellent tossed with house-smoked salmon, white beans, grilled asparagus, charred tomatoes, shaved parmesan grana and a lemon white wine reduction.
We concluded with a luscious orange panna cotta. To die for.
Drink: Fire & Wine serves beer and wine, and we accompanied our meal with a modest bottle of chardonnay from a decent wine list.
Service: For a restaurant in its second week, things appeared to be operating very smoothly, with Roger greeting and seating diners in a two-thirds-full house. Our veteran server Mike was both knowledgeable and attentive.
Prices: Appetizers and salads are extremely reasonably priced, and entrees run from $14 (for a burger) to $28 (for the beef tenderloin), with most in the $20 range.
Initial impression: This restaurant makes a very modest boast on its Facebook page: “The best food in South County Vero Beach.” While it no doubt will get strong support from this growing part of Indian River County, island residents will be missing out on something very good if they don’t seek it out as well. C’mon! It’s not that far.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of this newspaper.