By Chris Schirm, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

When you think of a steakhouse generally three things come to mind: white linens, glistening beautiful cuts of meat that melt on your tongue and a great wine list to match.  Fleming’s — located just off the I-10 and Ray Rd on 56^th St.–  meets all of these requirements. Their adherence to these principles has resulted in their skyrocket success of over 60 restaurants throughout the country in the past 12 years.  Their new spring menu, developed by Executive Head Chef Russell Skall, has taken the new menu through a six week trial in restaurants throughout Scottsdale and plans to release the new items to the nation on May 1^st.  I got a chance to preview their new menu items with a friend last week. 

The first thing out of the kitchen was a cheese plate that presented me with two of my favorite tastes in the world into one bite.  The Guinness infused Porter cheddar was a delicious accompaniment to the Simonet-Febvre sparkling white.  You could taste the rich coffee and chocolate inherit that comes with Guinness with a bit of a bite from the cheddar.  Sadly, they did not let me take a block of it home.

Exquisite additions to the menu

Our first course was a Roasted Mushroom Ravioli with a Porcini butter sauce and a Lump Crab Louis Wrap served on a two leaves of butter lettuce with avocado, bacon, egg, tomato, chives and a light 1,000 island dressing.  

One of the things that I always look for in ravioli is the filling to pasta ratio (FPR).  Far too many times do restaurants forego the filling, by trying to wow you with the presentation of the pasta, however much to my palate’s favor Fleming’s ravioli was stuffed full of Portobello and shiitake mushrooms that you actually needed multiple bites to finish.  Doing my best Dick Vitale impersonation I would say, “Oh, Fleming’s ravioli has it, BABY!  That perfect FPR.  They’re incredible, baby!” The porcini butter sauce added a thick creaminess to the dish without distracting from the perfectly cooked mushrooms.   

The Lump Crab Louis Wraps despite the misnomer was not finger food… at least not at this tasting.  Served on two leaves of butter lettuce, the generous helping of fresh crab meat was balanced nicely by the touch of tomato, bacon and eggs.  This salad let the meat and freshness speak for itself without drowning it in dressing.  It was a nice light warm-up to the main entrees to come, yet nothing to write home to mom about. 

When I was first asked to do the review of Fleming’s I was excited at the chance of devouring cuts of meat and humbly waddle my way out of the restaurant with a tryptophan-induced grin on my face.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long for the food coma journey to begin. The first new entree on their menu is a Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole with a lemon butter sauce, joined with crab beignets and a Sanford Chardonnay.  They have also added a Peppercorn New York Strip, crusted with black and white peppercorns, coupled with the Fleming’s original F-17 steak sauce, and paired with a Frog’s Leap Merlot Rutherford.

Let’s start with the reason that we are in a steakhouse…the Peppercorn New York Strip.  The steak was served a pleasurable pink medium.  It delivered that balanced juicy taste that has made the New York Strip the most popular steak in America.  The crusting of the peppercorns gave it just enough of a bite to make you reach for the Frog’s Leap to wash it down with the glorious gluttony of eating a great steak.  Served on the side of the steak in a double shot glass was the sauce called the F-17.  The sauce gets its name from the 17 different ingredients included. The taste of this sauce reminded me more of the afternoons of backyard barbeques filled with plenty of salt and “secret” sauces that did a great cover-up job for overcooked ribs rather than serving as a tasty sidekick to a great piece of meat.  Pass on the sauce and take another carnivorous bite of the steak by itself.

This steak stands alone!

Admittedly, I do have a bias when it comes to fish — the more spice and blend of tastes the better.   However, the only thing that popped into my mind upon the first taste of the Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole was that it needed to do a séance for James Brown to come back.  The sole in other words was soulless.  Invoking the spirit of the Grandfather of Soul is perhaps just what this dish needs.  Apart from the texture of the fish being well cooked and the slightest hint of lemon butter from the sauce there was very little taste. Thankfully for the sole, the crab beignets pulled a Culinary Superhero act and saved the dish. Served on the side of the fish in a group of three the crab beignets are crusted with the popular Japanese Panko bread crumbs and stuffed full of crab meat, red peppers, and corn.  On the first bite, I was amazed that the contents of the beignets were not overpowered by the bread crumbs and delivered a balanced and delicious combination of flavors with just a slight hint of spice on the end.  If it is possible, order the beignets and leave the sole at the kitchen door.

Sole and Super Crab Beignets!

For our final course we were presented with a Crème brûlée, made in-house, topped with fresh blueberries and raspberries and a lava cake with a sprig of fresh mint.  The Crème brûlée was delicious but somewhat predictable.  The Chocolate Lava Cake was just that, a staple of food coma sugar inducing bliss that is repeated on multiple valley menus.

Worth every bite!

The new menu will give Fleming’s customers another couple of delicious choices to match with their excellent and ever changing wine menu, in an atmosphere that will have people forgetting about the heat outside and indulging in the heat coming from the kitchen.  

www.flemingssteakhouse.com

By Molly Cerreta Smith, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

I am a total Sam Fox devotee so I was thrilled to be able to try out one of his newest ventures, Culinary Dropout. He is popping out new restaurant concepts faster than I can get my hands on nights out away from the kids to try them! But the Culinary Dropout concept just called to me – inexpensive eats, casual yet hip atmosphere and top-notch cocktails. Sign me up.

The restaurant occupies the former Pink Taco space in the Scottsdale Waterfront, where a few of Fox’s other restaurants, Sauce, and Olive & Ivy, not to mention the FRC office, also reside. If Sam Fox is planning on taking over the world, he seems to be starting with the Waterfront!

We dined on a Thursday evening, and the bar crowd was already alive and well at Culinary Dropout. No surprise there – with an ample patio, bar that opens up with garage-door style windows, and ideal people-watching positioning, it’s a Scottsdale day drinker’s paradise. Culinary Dropout’s staff is dressed like, well, everyone else in Scottsdale on their way out for a night on the town. So, unless you get a good look at your server, you might get a bit confused if you need to flag him/her down for another drink.

In all the ways that Olive & Ivy is sleek and sophisticated, lil’ bro Culinary Dropout is hip and funky. The purple walls, the giant green and purple chandeliers and over-sized chairs are reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland (the one from my imagination, not Tim Burton’s). A stage for live entertainment is juxtaposed to the bar, and the menu is suited for late-night bar snackers, comfort foodies and culinary sophisticates as well.

Speaking of the menu — you’ll notice the prices are decidedly fair. Perhaps part of the rebel restaurant’s devil may care attitude? We started with the chilled oysters and the soft pretzels and provolone fondue. If I may, I’d like to devote a moment to the idea that I do not partake nearly enough in food served in a cauldron. Our server recommended the starter, and she did not steer us wrong. Looking around, nearly every other table was adorned with a cauldron. Homemade pretzel nuggets were the perfect dipping apparatus for this smooth and rich fondue. A few times our server offered to take the emptied cauldron and its pathetic drippings away, but I just couldn’t part with it.

A cauldron of cheesy goodness

For our main course, my husband, a Georgia boy but not a good ole boy, could not resist the fried chicken. The chicken was super-crispy outside and super-juicy inside – amazing. But we were left wishing for a thicker, stickier-to-your ribs mashed potato accompaniment.

Woah. Irresistible.

A pasta lover through and through, my eyes went straight to the butternut squash cannelloni. I pulled an amateur move, however, and ordered one super-rich dish after another… and only regretted it slightly by way of an all-night stomachache. It was worth the pain. The cannelloni was reminiscent of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Delish. The only thing better were the leftovers the next night. If you want to be light on your feet for the rest of the night, don’t make the same mistake I did. If I had to do it over again, I’d trade out either the cannelloni or the fondue (God forbid) for something lighter such as the artichoke salad, which is another star on the menu, according to our server.

This Cannelloni makes any day a holiday!

Culinary Dropout’s signature dessert is homemade apple monkey bread. I was secretly hoping it’d come served in a cauldron, but I wasn’t disappointed when it arrived in its own cast-iron skillet with a scoop of ice cream to keep it company.

Swing in for some serious monkey bread.

Culinary Dropout’s menu lends itself to a variety of dining experiences. Whether you are looking for a light bite before heading out for the night, a comfort food extravaganza or simply a plate of meats and cheeses to graze upon, Culinary Dropout has you covered in a unique way that only Sam Fox can pull off. And I didn’t even touch the cocktail menu. But I’ll let you delve into that on your own… I’ve got to put the kids to bed.

http://www.foxrc.com/culinary_dropout.html