Wildfire

It's been awhile since I was able to write my blog as Ginger has been prepping for opening a new account and we have been eating at home as frankly Ginger was too exhausted to want to do more than read email and get some sleep so she could work over the weekend. All of that is over as she has opened the new account and things are nearly back to normal so I decided to make reservations at one of the more popular family restaurants in Schaumburg called Wildfire. My friends have recommended it and I have never been so I decide to try it as a celebration for Ginger and I to restart our Friday evening ritual. I'm told that unfortunately they don't have anything around my desired time (6:30 PM) but they can accommodate us at 5:00 PM. Wow, that's a little early and I'm concerned that Ginger can't be home in time for us to make it but I accept the reservation anyway and tell Ginger via email that we need to be ready to go not later than 4:45 PM so we can claim our table.

We arrive and the parking lot is full. It's not yet 5:00 PM but I deposit Ginger at the front door so she can let them know we are there. I can't find a parking spot near the door so I drive to the back of the building and have to park in the back row farthest from the entrance. If I were to get a tape measure and lay it on the ground from car door to restaurant entrance I would be hard pressed to find anyone parked farther away than me. I walk through the door and on the left is the bar entrance (packed) and I look to the right into the restaurant (packed) and I spy Ginger sitting at a table for two almost in the center of the narrow upper level portion of the split level restaurant. It's not too many tables inside the door and appears to be well located. We look around a bit and exchange observations of the restaurant and small talk about our day when we are greeted by a cheerful waitress with an excellent sense of humor. I quip about the packed house and she quips right back... I can tell right away she will be fun. We order our drinks. Ginger has a Chardonnay of course (house) and I order a scotch on the rocks (Johnny Walker Black Label). For this evening we don't order appetizers as would be our usual practice but frankly don't see anything on the starter menu that we both agree on. Okay here comes the itty-bitty carafe again.....boy this is irritating. Everybody is doing it and that tells me that one of my pet peeves will soon be a fact of life. Once they all start doing it those little carafes will seem normal. So much for the generous pour of your favorite cocktail or glass of wine. Gone are the days of the bartenders favored customers getting that little extra splash in the glass. We enjoy our drinks and continue to discuss topics of the day.....work, news, food, family, friends etc. until our waitress returns and Ginger orders the Teriyaki and ponzu tuna and I order the NY Strip steak with a horseradish crust. We joke with the waitress and comment on the crowd. She tells us that the night will be very busy and we are lucky to have a table. I tell her of my call for reservations and she tells me that we are lucky. Had I made the call 30 minutes later there would have been no seating available for this particular Friday. (Note to self..... call a day in advance for future visits).

After just a short wait our meals return and I have a gorgeous piece of beef on my plate with smashed red potatoes and Ginger has a very generous piece of seared tuna on her plate. We tell our waitress how good it looks and we thank her for our meals. She exclaims "Enjoy" before she turns her attention to others. She is good at what she does, and I watch her stop here and there and share a laugh with this family at a nearby table, or handling the concern of a serious patron at another table, as she makes her way back to the food pass to get the next set of plates or put in the last order she just received. It's clear to Ginger and me that she is a practiced and experienced waitress that any restaurant would gladly have on their staff. We dig into our dinner and we are instantly impressed with just how good the food is. My steak is marvelous and the smashed potatoes are creamy and beautiful with a texture that is reminiscent of truffled mashed potatoes. Very good and I tell Ginger to give them a try. The meat is succulent, easy to cut and done perfectly to a medium rare. Ginger proclaims her tuna excellent and I can tell by looking at it that it has a perfect line of sear at uniform thickness on every surface. She says it is tasty and warm as it should be and her vegetable is also done perfectly. We are very happy with our dinner and we tell our waitress that as she stops back by our table to check on us. We tell her that we are happy and thank her for taking such good care of us. She tells us that she likes her job but this is her second job and she actually works during the day in Chicago and here at night. Wow! She must be superwoman. To hear her tell it, she lives in Chicago, goes to work early in the morning and then commutes to the suburbs for her waitress job and then commutes back home to Chicago at night.... Phew!! I couldn't do it. She brings us our check per our request and we know she has earned every penny of the tips she will receive this night to include the few extra dollars we leave above our normal tip.

Since we ate dinner so early it is still just the beginning of the evening and we decide we can have another beverage as a nightcap in the bar before we leave. We are able to find a place at the far end of the bar under a large screen TV and watch some of the Winter Olympics action.... I believe it was curling.... Canada men against the UK men..... Not really sure how this could be considered an Olympic sport.... I get downhill skiing, hockey, even figure skating but curling? Don't you have to break a sweat or breathe hard for any activity to be called a sport? Anyway we enjoyed a chuckle or two with the bartender who was every bit as pleasant as our waitress and equally sharp witted. We sipped our drinks, watched curling and laughed. It was time to go after 45 minutes and we were home before 8:00 PM. It was a fun enjoyable evening with delicious food and of course an attractive and enjoyable companion in my wife Ginger. We had a good time and I know we will return to Wildfire in Schaumburg as soon as we can. If you haven't been you owe it to yourself to give them a try and make sure you make your reservations early in the week.

http://www.wildfirerestaurant.com