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It wasn't until my fifth visit to this new pizzeria and bakery on Northeast Fremont Street that the difficulty of opening a successful new "neighborhood spot" registered. Here we have a place with an experienced staff focused on a trending dish and doing a lot right, and yet, after three months, they still have so much to work on.
Fire and Stone opened in late December in a former mini-mart, which has been painted bright orange and outfitted with big, sturdy reclaimed fir booths and long banquettes. Behind the bar, shiny black-charred beams are inlaid to make a handsome mural. The marquee goes to wood-fired pizza on a springy, Neapolitan-style crust, but there's also a cafe and bakery making palmiers, monkey bread and coffee.
Leave it to a veteran crew to try all this. Owner Jeff Smalley comes from Grand Central Bakery. The other principals include former Little Bird Bistro GM Juliana Santos and Joey Alvarez, formerly of Ken's Artisan Pizza. The neighborhood is by all appearances desperate for family-friendly middlebrow dining—service staff at nearby bars in the area call it "Blow-mont," and not because of the coke. Yet, if there's anything a neighborhood spot needs to offer, it's a consistent experience. Fire and Stone is still struggling with that.
Let's start with breakfast, which is served out of the side room where the Forno Bravo oven sits. I've had two unlucky visits, once at 8 am and once at 10 am. On my first visit, they had but four pastries left. "Somebody just came and cleaned us out for a work meeting," the clerk said. The 10 am visit was worse: nothing but monkey bread ($3), a very cakey version without much sugar or cinnamon, and with no stickiness to speak of. Obviously, any new spot has to balance supply and demand, but given the typical markup, most bakeries err on the side of leftovers.
Sometimes it's the simple things that make an experience. Fire and Stone opened with an oddly strict seating policy, which may annoy some would-be regulars. My very pregnant wife was told to stand waiting for 10 minutes because not everyone in the party was present, even as four tables sat empty. On a subsequent visit, I was shown right to a table, where I waited comfortably with my beer.
And yet, all is forgiven when the pizzas ($12-$15) show up. These are traditional Neapolitan pies, with only a slight char and crust that's paper thin and hyperelastic, recalling gluten-based Lycra, and does a wonderful job of showcasing the slightly fruity marinara and goopy mozzarella. Best of all is a salami pie with gamey Molinari ($12), which has a nice interplay of heat, sweetness and salt.
The drink program, on the other hand, needs a tuneup. I send back wine or beer maybe once a year, but have returned both at Fire and Stone. An Oregon pinot blanc on tap was oxidized and an Upright dark rye was flat and stale-tasting. A mix-it-yourself ginger syrup and soda quickly became ginger-touched water.
Appetizers and entrees are a roller-coaster ride.
Among the starters, a plate of "warm" olives ($4) is magma hot, with tongue-singeing pits. A plate of meatballs ($11) is packed like slushy snowballs and served in a discordant and aggressively smoky marinara. But the house bread is excellent, especially a tangy brown sourdough, as is a citrus salad ($11) made from a haystack of pleasantly bitter stalks accented with a few slices of citrus and buttery oven-roasted almonds.
Vegetarians, beware: Among the entrees is an oil-soggy and overly salty eggplant Parmesan ($15). But lamb-lovers, rejoice: The spendiest dish on the menu, a princely $28 shank that's served with earthy onion bulbs, slightly chewy white beans and an umami-intense gravy, is incredible. Between that lamb and the pizza, Fire and Stone has dishes I'd happily make a 15-minute drive for. But to get the family down the street to stop in every Friday? Well, that suddenly seems like a tougher goal.
- Order this: Salami pizza ($12) and lamb shank ($28).
- Iâll pass: Breakfast, meatballs, eggplant parmesan.
GO: Fire and Stone, 3707 NE Fremont St., 719-7195, fireandstonepdx.com.
WWeek 2015