Sweet Fire Donna's — Restaurant in Alexandria

Edited Original review with 1 star: They use latex gloves. People have allergies to latex. It is dangerous and careless of restaurants to use latex gloves for food preparation. It is a hazard to their employees and their patrons.

I really do love Sweet Fire Donna's. I found them after my husband got a hankering for Texas barbeque. He is from Texas and there just isn't any genuine Texas style barbeque in the DC area. A lot of it is a jumble of barbeque techniques that call themselves Texas barbeque but are really North Carolina or Tennessee. I read many reviews of many local barbeque joints and decided that Sweet Fire Donna's was our best bet.

We visited them for the first time about 6 months ago. I was disappointed to learn that they use latex gloves for food preparation in the kitchen and they had no way to guarantee a guest's safety from their food being exposed to latex. They could simply try to reduce the likelihood of exposure. I do not know what that process involved.

We ate there 3 or 4 times and I knowingly risked it. It is a rare treat for me to find a safe restaurant to eat at and I mostly have to stick with large national chain brand restaurants where it is their practice to not use latex in their restaurants because of the risk it poses to their employees and latex sensitive guests.

There are only a few documented case studies of an allergic reaction from latex exposure from food contaminated with latex. The number of reported cases is low, but I suspect more people suffer an allergic reaction and treat themselves at home or don't realize that their allergic reaction came from their food being exposed to latex.

So, every time I ate there, they would "take measures" to try to safeguard me and my food against latex exposure. Again, I don't know what they were doing, but I trust they were doing something, perhaps not enough.

My past visits to Sweet Fire Donna's would often end up with me developing hives at some point and also mouth sores. That's the worst part about this allergy. It causes the skin in my mouth to burn and ulcerate and it hurts for 3 days until the reaction passes. In the past when I ate at Sweet Fire Donna's, I would get the mouth sores.

So, I took to Google maps and vented my frustration.

The next time I visited, they recognized me when I came in through their door.

I am happy to report, I did not get hives.

Almost a day later, I do not have mouth sores.

What ever they did differently this time worked 100%

Now I am super happy with Sweet Fire Donna's!

Seriously, try everything on the menu. Order a big platter to share, because you will want left overs, trust me.

They cook everything right.

Their greens are stewed and seasoned just right, and I am picky about greens.

Their corn bread is the best! I never take home cornbread because I make my own cornbread from scratch and I had not found better cornbread until Sweet Fire Donna's.

Their macaroni and cheese is my favorite side. I can't begin to explain how delicious it is. Not all macaroni and cheese is created equal!

Easily, the best ribs in town.

Their original barbeque sauces are unparalleled.

I have had barbeque at small joints in Georgia and Tennessee and Texas and Southern Virginia (it's different than the DMV metro bubble)... and I really can't remember any barbeque being as good as Sweet Fire Donna's. I have had good barbeque, but none as memorable as Sweet Fire Donna's.

I was seriously super upset that they're food is really THAT good, but I could not safely eat there. I had been trying to eat at local restaurants but had not been able to safely dine at many of them. Having this allergy sucks and I haven't tried to find new restaurants to eat at for a good 10 years, because I got tired of the disappointment and more or less being turned away because my allergy is too much of a risk. I really got tired of feeling so isolated, food wise, in a foodie mecca of America.

So thank you, SFD's for giving me a safe and amazingly tasty...

I have been coming here for many years, I chat with many people from my office, which is near by, usually at this place, and I recently over the last few months started coming to Sweet Fire Donna's (SFD) almost every day and night ordering food and a fountain drink such that the staff now know me by name. I became such a regular that I was racking up and using rewards. I always politely and inconspicuously sat or stood in the back of the restaurant even though I watched sports from a distance on the TVs, which are only located near the bar although often people at the bar know me. Honestly, I was just starting to feel welcome at SFD until tonight. I ate beef chili and paid a tip. I prefer Guinness over normal beer but SFD doesn't have it so I rarely have alcohol at SFD but I sometimes drink the hard stuff. I patiently waited until after a large number of people at the bar left and the crowd widdled down, I let the remaining people take the most favorable seats at the bar before I then took a seat at the worst seat position at the bar, with respect to viewing the NFL game on the TV, for just a brief moment thinking that it was ok since the bar would be closing in 30 mins, and the crowd had diminished. What happened next really insulted me to the bone. Rebecca greeted me by my name, and asked if I wanted a drink. I replied that I am ok for now with my iced tea but I might order something soon. She then told me that she wanted to make money tonight, and that basically she did not want me at the bar. I was in shock so I told her that I would leave if somone else needs a seat to end the confrontation. After taking a moment to absorb what just transpired, I stood up and told a man who just arrived, that he can have my seat, and I promptly left. I found her actions to be very insulting and revealing. So even though I am a paying customer there almost every day, I can't sit for a moment at the bar because I'm not in Rebecca's alcoholic clique (not frequent enough drinker for her). It's like I was already black listed by her as a non-drinker to be unwelcome at the bar although I have seen people drink water and soda at the bar in my time there. The truth dawned on me that I'm being viewed by her as a persona non grada just because I don't usually consume alcohol at SFD. I felt like I was being pushed to order something on her schedule even though I just ate there and was a regular, daily, paying customer there with a fountain drink in my hand. I don't think she made a good decision scaring off an almost daily paying customer only 30mins before closing (9:30PM) on a Thursday night. I think it was a sh$ty thing to do to a customer, period. I realize now that I should spend my money elsewhere where I know I am treated better at the bar even though I don't always order alcohol or drink frquently but I was about to. No one knows for certain that the man who I gave my bar seat to would have NOT ordered and NOT tipped had he not had a seat at the bar. I was contemplating what alcoholic drink to order while finishing my iced tea in my hands but her rude comment to me then turned me off from ordering anything so I left. What we do know to be certain is that I spent over $214 over the last month at SFD and I will spend $0 over the next month at SFD since I will not return after this experience. A bar tender with an attitude who scares off more dining focused type of customers because she makes false assumptions about them and thinks they don't serve her own financial needs, just wonderful. Good luck to the rest...

"BBQ in Northern Virginia? You must be crazy," I whispered to myself as I walked into Sweet Fire Donna's this past weekend.

Typically, quality BBQ is typically only found in small, mom-and-pop, hole in the wall restaurants located beside rural highways running through southern states.

Northern Virginia is about the opposite of all of those things, so to say I was skeptical about this place would be a bit of an understatement.

Friends, let me say that all my skepticism went out the window as soon as I slipped the first pieces of meat into my mouth. This is some of the finest BBQ I've tasted anywhere in the world, by far the best I've had in Northern Virginia.

Here's the rub (haha), the restaurant itself has a really interesting, Americana kind of vibe. You walk in and on your left is a bar with plenty of options and TVs playing sports games, in front of you is a counter where you order your meal and on your right are plenty of tables for seating.

There are plenty of food options and nothing too far from what you'd find at a typical BBQ place. You've got pulled pork sandwiches, brisket, sausage, chicken, ribs, pretty much whatever you want.

They also have meal options for a group where you can get a wide selection of meats and sizes and kind of sample everything the place has to offer. This is what I ended up doing because I wanted to try the whole shebang. I believe, in total, it cost me around $20 and the meal fed a group of 6 hungry guys.

Our platter came with pulled pork, brisket, sausage, chicken, mac 'n cheese, baked beans, coleslaw, cornbread and potato salad. None of the portions were particularly large, but they were generous enough for everyone to get to try a fair amount of what they wanted.

And the food was fantastic.

Typically BBQ places struggle with their meats being a little dry, but everything was cooked to perfection. The brisket wasn't chewy or fatty, the sausage and pulled pork was juicy and the chicken was tender. I didn't try all of the sides, but the baked beans and mac 'n cheese were definitely worth my time.

I also loved that I was provided four different BBQ sauce options right on the table in front of me. I was able to add as much as I wanted and test out different flavors with different meats.

Overall, this place is absolutely fantastic. I'll definitely be returning to get my BBQ fix...