Re: Fire & Ice--Old Lone Star Building in Fairfax City
Posted by:
KrpytoniteKid
()
Date: July 12, 2007 12:32PM
Fire and Ice, you say? I ate there about a week ago. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, the venue used to be a Lone Star Steak house, complete with the standard dimly-lit booths and cookie-cutter steakhouse atmosphere and menu. Fire & Ice seems to have gone to great lengths to renovate the place, having taken out all the booths, replacing them with cafeteria-style tables and chairs. In keeping with the cafeteria theme, Fire and Ice is very well-lit inside, with nary a wall or partition separating one table from another. The first hour or so of my visit was eerily quiet, as no music was playing and the lack of other patrons made conversation between my date and I awkwardly loud. The food was very no-frills: rolls/cornbread muffins were offered to us immediately, much like at finer dining establishments such as Coastal Flats or even Outback; these rolls, however were likely purchased in bulk from an army surplus store. If any of you are former Fairfax County Public Schools attendees, you'll recognize the bland, bleached, white flour rolls from the spaghetti Wednesdays lunch entree, circa 1990. The menu could only be categorized as eclectic, offering anything from fried chicken tenders and burgers to something named "Athenian Chicken." Don't let the pretentious international names fool you, though. Dishes we ordered came with steamed vegetables that taste fresh-out-of-the-freezer, and grilled chicken breasts that tasted like something that might've gotten thrown on the grill and forgotten about until the kitchen started filling up with smoke. Condiments/dipping sauces were served in disposable plastic sauce cups, and knives looked an awful lot like they might've been left behind by Lone Star when they left.
As for the wait staff-- no real complaints. Our waiter was very attentive, though our food took curiously long to arrive. I think my baked potato caught them off-guard. My overall impression of the place is that it warrants a second trip, if only to do some more investigation into whether it offers services other than food or is a front for criminal activity, as I can't imagine that the food was anything more than an afterthought when the owner decided to set up shop. If this place hopes to survive, they're going to have to rely on a hell of a lot more than a microwaved baked potato and frozen vegetables, which brings me to the most intriguing part of the whole experience, as told by a waitress:
- there is supposedly "dancing" between the tables after nine (but no "DJ" or dance floor, as state/local regulations require an entertainment license which hasn't yet been obtained by F&I)
- "cocktail waitresses", who supposedly wear next-to-nothing, serve drinks after 9pm.
- the fire and ice rooms become lounges?
I'll almost certainly be back, but next time for "cocktails," and not anything on the printed menu. ;)