Fun and Friendly at Foxfire Grill

Gabriele and I headed west on the Little River Turnpike Saturday night and ate at the Foxfire Grill. Some restaurants make you feel as if they will do anything to make their customers happy. We definitely got that vibe from Foxfire, and had a very nice experience.

It’s located in a shopping center just before you get to the heart of Annandale. The interior design is bright and clean, with a lot of glass and suspended lights. Starting with the host who showed us to our table, everyone at Foxfire was extremely accommodating. Our waitress was very attentive and helpful with suggestions, and the bartender let us taste a few different wines Foxfire sells by the glass before settling on a bottle.

I really like the obvious effort Foxfire puts into making wine accessible and affordable. There is a “20 under 20” wine list with bottles under $20, making it very easy for a  table to add a bottle to their meal. With most restaurants charging $8 or $9 per glass, this was great to see.

Beyond the 20 for 20, the wine list was small. We would have liked to have seen more intermediate choices on the list. The big majority of wines were under $30, then there was nothing until you hit a few bottles at the $50 price point and above.

After the generous tastings, we settled on the Snoqualmie Whistle Stop Red Cabernet/Merlot blend 2007 from Washington state. This is a soft, round and easy to drink red that will work with a lot of different dishes. It’s 70/30 Cabernet to Merlot, so there was no Merlot creaminess that I do my best to avoid. Lots of cherry fruit and a touch of pepper on the finish, which prevents boredom from setting in. Looks to retail for around $10, and is a fair value at that price.

Our meal was very tasty. Gabriele had mussels that were very good with a traditional white wine and herb preparation. I had Ahi tuna served with barbeque and wasabi sauce – a totally different preparation and very good, and nicely presented as well. Gabriele had a grilled spicy shrimp dish over blackbean salad, and I had an above average plate of ribs. The barbeque sauce with them would have been better hot, rather than cold and on the side.

If we lived close by, we’d be at Foxfire a lot. Since we don’t, the question is — is this a destination restaurant? I think the answer depends on what you are looking for from a dining experience.

In many areas there is a dearth of dining options between the sit down chains (TGIF, Ruby Tuesdays) and true dining (more subjective since top places are more informal these days, but let’s call out Overwood, Majestic Cafe and Neighborhood Restaurant Group alumni like Columbia Firehouse). Foxfire Grill fills this gap brilliantly. You can have a casual sandwich, or you can have a full on dinner experience with apps and an affordable bottle of wine. And that dinner will deliver most of the fine dining experience at a lower cost.

That equation – plus the enthusiastic service we encountered – seems like a recipe for success.