FLAMING TO PLEASE
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit heading to Dania Pointe
is a steakhouse chain opening Nov. 4 at Dania Pointe entertainment complex.
Trendy steakhouses are smoking up a storm across South Florida. There are now wood-burning grills inside open kitchens at Andy’s Live Fire Grill in Fort Lauderdale and cook-your-ownsteaks on lava rocks at Black Rock in Fort Lauderdale. But nowhere are the roaring flames closer to customers’ faces than at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a steakhouse chain slated to open on Monday, Nov. 4, inside the muchbuzzed-about Dania Pointe entertainment complex.
The first spectacle to greet visitors at Firebirds will be directly behind a glass partition wall near the entrance: a symphony of cooks in an open kitchen flipping filets and aged rib-eyes over a hickory- and oakfueled open fire. Customers can chit-chat with chefs preparing the meals or watch meats grill over white-hot embers from the comfort of their dining tables.
“The flames are right in your face, so to speak,” says Stephen Loftis, a Firebirds spokesman. “Fire is leaping into the air literally when you come in. We prefer open flames because it imparts better flavor on the steaks and seafood, and people get to experience it being prepared in front of them.”
The 6,637-square-foot Firebirds Wood Fired Grill at 110 N. Pointe Drive, Dania Beach, will seat 262 guests and occupies a – what else? – orange flame-colored corner storefront at the sprawling mixed-use complex. This is the second South Florida outpost of the North Carolinabased steakhouse chain, with the first, in Pembroke Pines, opening in December 2017.
Firebirds stands among dozens of new chain eateries and bars destined for Dania Pointe, which will eventually include apartments and hotels, a movie theater and bowling alley, and a Lucky’s supermarket. The massive shopping center, still dotted with construction cranes at least through 2020, hugs northbound I-95 north of Stirling Road.
At Firebirds, hot plates will be served in a dining room adorned with wood and stone columns, teal and fire-orange accents and paintings commissioned by local artists. The steakhouse’s FireBar – a clubby sidebar stocked with floorto-ceiling liquor bottles – will carry 15 local craft beers on draft and in bottles ($4.50-$7.25), including Wynwood Brewing and Funky Buddha, plus 11 craft cocktails ($10.50-$11) and three mocktails ($4.95).
“To be candid, we didn’t want to alienate our core guests. We still want to be your dad’s steakhouse, a place for the Boomer generation,” Loftis says. “But we wanted the Firebar to appeal to millennials and [Generation Z], too.”
The bar’s top-seller, Loftis says, is its Double Black Diamond vodka martini ($10.50), topped with pineapple wedges marinated for 21 days in vodka.
Entrees, identical to the menu in Pembroke Pines, include an applewood bacon-wrapped center-cut filet mignon ($29.25-$32.35), a 12-ounce chile-rubbed Delmonico ($26.95) and wood-grilled salmon basted in Key lime butter ($25.99).
The restaurant’s 4-7 p.m. Monday-Friday happy hour menu, launching on opening day, includes discounted bar bites ($5-$13) such as crispy ribs and chile-dusted tenderloin medallions. On Mondays, all wine bottles and glasses will be halfpriced.
Here’s what else is opening at Dania Pointe
The South Beach-headquartered Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, currently in comeback mode after closing several locations in recent years, debuted its 13th location on Oct. 15 at Dania Pointe with an eye-popping dining-room centerpiece: a functional queso fountain.
Two doors down is the 19th Florida location of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which opened Oct. 10. Outposts of PDQ and Outback
Steakhouse arrived this summer.
Toss Up Salads, with locations in Cooper City, Pembroke Pines and Fort Lauderdale, appears to be weeks away from opening. Workers have already mounted the restaurant’s signage and have finished most of the eatery’s buildout.
Restaurants, hotels and parking garages will soon transform this sea of chain restaurants and half-grown palm trees into 1 million square feet of developed space.
Soon to come will be locations of BurgerFi and chef Ralph Pagano’s Mexican restaurant Naked Taco, a earlier
Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant and Bar Louie; In Ramen; the hybrid restaurant-retail Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar, Bento Asian Kitchen, Tommy Bahama and Bowlero (an upscale bowling alley).
Also coming soon: steakhouse competitors Rodizio Grill and Saito’s Japanese Steakhouse.
Firebirds Wood Fire Grill will open at 11 p.m. Nov. 4, at 110 N. Pointe Drive, in Dania Beach. Hours of operation will be 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Go to FirebirdsRestaurants.com.