Fire and Vine

One thing I enjoy about the holiday season is the opportunity to eat out often. Holiday parties, luncheons, get-togethers ... I love it. Last week my department celebrated the season with a luncheon at Fire and Vine on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach.

I love Fire and Vine but initially I was apprehensive because it was a work function and why go to a place with a 5,000-bottle wine inventory if you can't sample any of it? That would be like going to McDonald's and not ordering fries. Anyway, of the 5,000 bottles, 350 are considered new world wines. In other words, they come from regions that have only been producing wine for less than 400 years. The lunch took place on a Friday afternoon and my manager treated us to a couple of bottles and I took the rest of the day off. I also purchased a bottle to take with me as a Christmas gift.

I have reviewed Fire and Vine's wine selection before so this time I'm talking about the food.

The lunch menu doesn't have a lot of variety and it is for this reason that the New World's Chef's Table is offered as part of three different combination lunches and also with any of the four entrees at no extra charge. The Chef's Table is basically a salad bar with very unique selections instead of your usual salad bar fare. If you order a soup & skewer or a wood fired sandwich the Chef's Table is extra.

I ordered the French onion soup


topped with gruyere cheese and croutons. I am not an expert when it comes to French onion soup. In fact, this may have been my first time and I'm grateful that Adam, our server recommended this over the soup of the day. It was very good. I was afraid that the onions would be overpowering and offensive but that wasn't the case at all. The soup had a mild flavor that I really enjoyed.

I also ordered the Cuban wood fired sandwich


The cuban is prepared with house-smoked porkloin, stone ground mustard aioli, olive caper relish, mozzarella and spicy pickle chips. The sandwich came with steak fries and only cost $8. It was the perfect accompaniment to the soup and made for a delicious lunch.

This is my third trip to Fire and Vine and I have yet to be disappointed. The service is always friendly and quick. Since it is the holiday season there were other luncheons going on but that didn't seem to affect us at all.

Fire and Vine has a daily happy hour from 4:30-7:30 where $5 woodfired pizzas and $5 martinis are featured. Check the website for the menu and other specials.



1556 Laskin Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 333-4824
www.fireandvine.com