Dinner With the Old Boss at Craft by Smoke and Fire

 Craft by Smoke and Fire

195 West Center Street Promenade

Anaheim, CA 92805

Some Instagram feeds just draw me in. One such account is Smoke and Fire Social Eatery in La Habra. They opened a month into the pandemic, which probably made me love their pictures even more. Their food can best be described as a collection of comfort food from all across the country. There's Nashville hot chicken, Texas barbecue, smash burgers from the west coast, and giant steaks that look like they would rival what's served in uppity east coast steakhouses. 

Opened by three guys who had roots in Southern California, but spread their culinary wings in corporate restaurants like Red Robin, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Pizza Rev, and Wood Ranch. Smoke and Fire is the culmination of what they liked to eat from across the nation, served in a variety of ways throughout their menu. It's definitely struck a chord with customers, as they have now opened three other locations, Paramount, Pomona, and the one we were visiting this particular evening with our good friends Kyle and Melissa, in Anaheim. 

To be clear, this location in downtown Anaheim is Craft by Smoke and Fire, which is a slightly different concept from their locations slightly north of here. I haven't been to those spots, but from what I hear they are smaller, and do not have such a polished atmosphere and elevated cocktail program as this Anaheim spot. 

We had made reservations on a recent Friday evening at 7:30 and were met with a very full restaurant. We ended up having to only wait a couple of minutes before we were seated. The restaurant is pretty loud when it is full. The feel of the place is comforting, with large TVs on many of the walls, black ceiling tiles, grey accent walls, hanging chandeliers, and wooden floors. There's also outdoor seating on their good-sized patio in the front of the restaurant. I already kind of briefed you on the menu, so let's take a look at what we had this evening. 

Before we even ordered, we were brought this Ay Dios Mio Guacamole ($9) as a comped item, which was a pleasant surprise. From the reviews I've read online, they comp items with regularity to show appreciation for your business. A very nice touch. This guacamole was a mixture of jalapeno, green salsa, tomatoes, cotija cheese, and a smattering of pomegranate seeds on top. This was a very freshly made guacamole, which had plenty to offer the four of us flavorwise. I could not really detect too much jalapeno, so if you are averse to heat, you should have no problem eating this. It was nicely seasoned and the green tortilla chips were a fine vehicle for dipping. 

Birria is the big food trend going on right now. Even places like El Pollo Loco and Norm's are serving it, so I was not surprised to see birria on the menu here. One of the birria offerings at Craft is this Short Rib Birria Quesadilla ($12). This football-shaped quesadilla was filled with cheese, tender prime short rib, and the outside was drizzled with their comeback sauce, which I'd describe as chipotle ranch, with a hint of spice to it. I really enjoyed the crisped cheese on the outside of this quesadilla, and they filled this with a good amount of smoked rib meat. Definitely a very good start to our time here. 

As you can see from the guacamole picture and now this shot, Melissa is very subtle about getting her on-point Yorba Linda manicure included in each picture. Yes, we are all impressed by your nails, Mel. She was just as impressed with her sandwich this evening, The Madison ($15), which is piled high with smoked pastrami, coleslaw, cheese, pickles, and comeback sauce. From across the table, it looked really tasty, and she felt this was one of the better pastrami sandwiches that she has eaten. 

Probably their most popular sandwich, and the one that gets featured the most on their Instagram, is the Mac Rib Sandwich ($31). This monster of a sandwich comes with three kinds of meat; brisket, short rib, and just for good measure, a cheese-covered Smashburger. It's dressed with more of their comeback sauce and three pieces of Texas toast. The sandwich comes with the bone, and our server took it out clean with a flourish at our table. It was challenging getting the first bite into my mouth, but it was worth the trouble. One of the best sandwiches I have had. The short rib and brisket were tender and flavorful, while the Smashburger kind of got lost in the shuffle, but it made no difference. This was a very heavy sandwich as you could predict, but it was amazingly balanced. I ended up saving half of this for lunch the next day, and it was still just as good. Yes, it's a thirty-dollar sandwich, but so worth it. 

Another favorite was Katie's selection, the Brisket Grilled Cheese ($17). This is comfort food to the max. Lots of gooey cheese with a big helping of brisket. Katie was shocked by the richness of this, but she powered through to finish it. It was dressed with a very good barbecue sauce and some pickles to help cut the richness of the meat. Another winner. 

Since I follow Craft by Smoke and Fire on Instagram, I get to see some of the off-the-menu specials that they sometimes offer. When we visited they had this Smoked Barbecubano Sandwich ($27). It's their take on one of my favorite sandwiches. Here they use smoked turkey and brisket as the meats, then finish it with swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles. I was a bit let down by this sandwich. The turkey to brisket ratio was off, as there was way more turkey than the delicious brisket. I also felt that there was not enough mustard included in this, which would have helped tie everything together a bit more. I still enjoyed the half of this that I ate the next day, but I did end up adding mustard from my fridge, which helped out. 

Kyle had the same sandwich as Katie, but he still wanted to be included in this review, so he got the Brisket and Short Rib Sausage ($6) to try. This came pre-cut to our table, which made it very easy to share. The casing on this was very sturdy and the meat inside had a very pleasant texture to it. Flavorwise, it did not blow me away, but it's worth trying at only six bucks. 

One side is included with each sandwich, and since we had five between the four of us, we got to try five of their eight options. The best one was probably the Loaded Mac and Cheese. If you like a gooey cheese that clings to each noodle, this is for you. There were little bits of meat in there as well, and the bread crumb topping rounded this out. My second favorite was the Creamy Blue Cheese Slaw. The one we got was not as creamy as others I have seen in other pictures, but I still found myself hogging this. The Brisket and Grits were just straight-up the definition of comfort food. I usually like a creamy potato salad, but this Loaded Brisket Potato Salad was very good, big chunks and all. The worst of the bunch was the purple-hued Garlic and Herb Mash Potatoes. I detected some herbs here, but this fell flat because there was no garlic in any of the bites that I had. The only bland item of the evening.   

Craft by Smoke and Fire is worthy of all the love they get online. They prove that they are not just pretty food, like others I can think of but won't name, they actually back it up with some really delicious stuff. If this was merely just a barbecue spot, it would be really good, but you add their special spin to it, and it makes them great. The service was really good, especially when you consider how busy they were when we visited. Yes, the prices are a tad high, but the serving sizes are very good sized, and some of you can make two meals out of one of their sandwiches. I can definitely see us visiting here again in the near future, especially for that incredible Mac Rib Sandwich.  

Out of five fire trucks, (because when you see smoke or fire, it's probably a pretty good tip that you should call to get some fire trucks real quick), five being best to zero being worst, Craft by Smoke and Fire gets 4 fire trucks. 

For more information about Craft by Smoke and Frie, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.craftbysmokeandfire.com/