The first churrascaria I ever went to was the Fire of Brazil in the old Alpharetta location. It was a business dinner and I enjoyed it. Afterwards I took relatives there, and what clinched the experience was taking my family once on a Father’s day. On Father’s day they offer exotic meats (kangaroo, ostrich, venison, duck, alligator) and my daughter to this day has not stopped talking about the food she had there.
We went to the Perimeter location on the weekend of my daughter’s birthday. She became sick on her birthday and we couldn’t eat anywhere, but the day after she was well and specifically requested going to Fire of Brazil. We spoke of going to Fogo de Chao, but frankly, I wasn’t sure of being able to get there on a whim, I generally dislike the drive into the Buckhead area, and Fire of Brazil was what the birthday girl asked for.
The restaurant is good looking on the outside, but my wife finds it a little cramped compared to the old Alpharetta location. Seating is around a “wood” fire (stone logs fired by natural gas, probably) and near the windows they have a salad bar. I tend to raid the salad bar for palm hearts, smoked salmon and anything else interesting. The mussels were interesting this day, so I got a few of those.
For those who have never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, or churrascaria, these are places where the meats are cooked on a rotisserie. The meats are then taken off the heat, while still on the skewer, and moved by staff called passadores from table to table. You are then asked if you want some of the meat, and if you do, a thin slice is usually cut off for you. The slices are thin so you can sample a wide variety of meats. For someone like my daughter, whose tastes run to meats, this kind of eating is a little bit of heaven. There is a fixed price ($41.50/person on this day) and you can eat all you want.
New York strip
Flank steak
The meats were running hot and cold this day. The New York strip was a deep red and full of flavor. The flank steak was good, and sausages were tasty. The sirloin with garlic, on the other hand, was a little flat and tasteless. There was a spicy chicken that everyone seemed to enjoy, and my daughter the carnivore was doing her best to get her share. My mother-in-law was with us; this was her first churrascaria and she hadn’t gotten half way through her salad before the meat started arriving. She usually took the same foods my wife would choose.
About halfway through serving the meats, side dishes arrived. They were a heaping bowl of white rice, a thin bean “soup”, and fried plantains and yucca fries.The beans were tasty, but I can make kidney beans at home. The plantains my wife described as “interesting”, and said she preferred Cuban style maduros. The yucca fries were dry and starchy and otherwise an ordinary side. They would be better as a side to a good burger, in my opinion. Yucca fries at FLIP would be a lot of fun.
Towards the end of the meal, a passadore came and asked if we wanted anything else. I asked for lamb and my wife asked for turkey. They hadn’t served either in their first pass through. Lamb is my favorite meat in these kinds of steakhouses, even on Father’s day. There is a flavor in lamb that I can’t get anywhere else, and I believe is associated with lamb fat. The chunk of lamb I had was a little chewy, but delicious. My wife was quite happy with her turkey.
Beef ribs, Fire of Brazil style.
leg of lamb. delicious!
At the end I raided the salad bar one last time, to make sure I had all the various kinds of salmon they served. It turns out their salmon salad that day was delicious.
Service: I had no problem with table service at all. Drinks were filled, there were no lulls in people coming to the tables and asking if we needed anything. The meats did have a pattern. They would begin with chicken and sausage, proceed through their meats, and then pause. It’s in the pauses that the passadores ask if you want anything in particular. I’ve always taken this to mean, “Is there one last meat we can get you, so that you’ll be happy?” but it could be taken as, “Is there one last thing we can serve you to get you to leave?” In a business where small perceptions in quality of service are the major differences between the churrascarias, that’s a perception Fire of Brazil needs to guard against. Otherwise, I had a great time here.
Verdict: One of our favorite steakhouses. A little cramped compared to the old Alpharetta location. Highly recommended.
Fire of Brazil
118 Perimeter Center West
Atlanta, GA 30346
(770) 551-4367
October 19, 2009 at 3:53 pm
You must, MUST try Fogo. The quality of meats they serve is A++ which is reflected in the price. You can taste and smell the high quality in every meat. It’s also a more “authentic” place (here is that word again!) in the sense that at Fogo, in order for someone to be a passadore, he (yes, no females are allowed to be one) must be an apprentice for a full year. He shadows an experienced passadore for many months then does the chicken and sausage (no slicing involved) for a couple more months. Then, he graduates to simpler meats (pork loin) where slicing is simpler before becoming a full-fledged passadore. My family has been regulars since it opened in 2002
The house special (Picanha), filet mignon, rib-eye, lamb chops, and leg of lamb are all must try. After the meal, save room for the Papaya Creme, only available here and nowhere else. They are house made from fresh papayas into what resembles like a creamy smoothie then topped with creme de cassis. Heavenly. They also have a milky lemonade drink that’s very good and includes free refills.
Go next time!
October 19, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I didn’t say in the FOB review, for fear I’d get taken to mean I’d reviewed Fogo de Chao, but I went to the Smyrna location once (this location has now closed) for lunch. Good sides, good salad bar, the meats didn’t really send me into orbit at the time.
But I’ve never been to the Buckhead location, so I can’t say anything about it.
October 19, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I hate when they ask you if there’s anything else you want. Last time our family went to Fogo, we got asked that 30 minutes into our meal. We weren’t even through half of the meats yet!
FoB is about $10 cheaper than Fogo but it’s a lot more accessible. Might have to give this place a try later on. Thanks for the review!
October 19, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Appreciate the feedback. It’s good during the regular week, better on Father’s Day. I don’t know if Fogo offers anything fancy on Father’s Day.
FnS.
October 20, 2009 at 7:16 am
It’s pretty much the same at Fogo even on special days like Mother’s or Father’s Day or Thanksgiving. The only thing different is that they are open all day during those days.
I’ve tried ALL the churrascaria in metro Atlanta from the high-end (Fogo), to the low-end in BuHi, and all the closed ones in between (Chima, Carro de Boi, etc). It’s really just the quality of meats that set them apart, thus, the price point difference. I had a conversation with a major meat purveryor here in Atlanta and was told that Fogo only gets the top quality cuts, FOB gets the ones slightly below, and the others like RedGreen get the “scraps”. Sounds like sushi
Incidentally, same purveyor told me who gets/sources the best meat. Here’s the list in order of the best:
1. Costco
2. Publix
3. Whole Foods
4. Kroger
Publix and Whole Foods get the same quality meats but there are some meats that WF sources on their own and those they can’t include in their rating so they’re at #3. Just trivia
October 20, 2009 at 8:16 am
Red and Green…not a big fan of that place at all. I’d rather cough up the extra money to go eat at a better churrascaria.
Thanks for the great tip on the meat purveyors Chloe! I’ve always thought the quality of meat at Costco was excellent and now I’m reassured. Just wish Publix carried more unpopular cuts of meat (more veal and lamb cuts, hangars, shanks, etc.).
Here’s my share for tips:
Korean restaurants receive their meat deliveries on Thursday.
October 20, 2009 at 2:27 pm
You need to be careful when people tell you what quality meats they are selling. USDA grades correspond to only one thing:
Kroger, for example, sells a lot of grass fed range fed organic beef, which isn’t going to score well on the USDA scale.
For anyone interested in beef, there are two Rob Walsh articles I think are absolute must reads: his article on the beef used in fajitas, and his article on American Kobe beef (which explains why more fat isn’t the same as more flavor).
FnS
October 20, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Thanks for the articles FnS, giving those a read right now.
I agree on the USDA statement. Some meats at H-Mart have USDA stamps on them but aren’t great in terms of quality.
October 27, 2009 at 11:07 am
[...] because of the depth of research this writer goes through to get his stories. In the comments to my Fire of Brazil review, I gave two “must read” Robb Walsh links, and also about that time, ordered three books [...]