Craft by Smoke and Fire — Restaurant in Pasadena

The good. Cool casual sports bar with a relaxed yet upscale vibe....love the angel wings when you enter, the tasteful but offbeat original artwork, even a mural of the Lakers hidden out of view until you approach the bar ..even an original in the ladies restroom. Plenty of places for cool selfie.

The grilled ribeye. 5/5 My mom asked for medium rare, and it came perfectly medium rare. It was the size of the platter, bigger than my moms head. It might have been sitting under a heat lamp, bec it was warm, not hot off the grill. But it was a steak with nice marbling and fat, so she was happy, though she noted the temp being just warm.

Our server Wendy brought us complimentary nachos. This was a lovely surprise. Thank you. 5/5 for the freebie. We liked the corn, the pickles and the bbq sauce on the nachos, kitchen sink toppings, a shame the chips we ate were all stale. 3/5

The mango mocktail, with the taijin dipped on a side of the rim...nicely sour from the lemonade....it's a pretty drink, but it's served in an orange juice-type glass that doesn't impress or excite. Wish it were served in a bigger glass (and chilled) to accommodate more ice. The mocktail drinks were warm, so had to wait until until the few cubes did it's work. But mom liked her drink, so the mango mocktail put a smile on her face, she liked the flavor and that it was warmish. 4/5

The music. I personally liked having a nice long leisurely lunch with my mom...listening to her but also to some great music on a good sound system...Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Earth Wind & Fire... We were there at 1 pm to 3 pm with no checkins or refills but we weren't rushed either. 5/5 for the music and the unhurried pace. Thanks!

The cons. The regular baked potato that came with the ribeye was a good size, with plenty of sour cream and chives. The iffy part was the skin, hard and tough. The potato itself was not fluffy or hot whatsoever...it wasn't cold...but just tepid. Again probably sitting under a heat lamp.

The blueberry mocktail. Not a balanced drink, too sweet for my taste and again tepid in an underwhelming glass, with too few ice cubes. A warm sweet albeit pretty drink...you have to blow bubbles at the bottom in order to mix the drink, which was fun...but hard to forgive the presentati9n and the tepid temp... ugh. 1/5

Tried to order the beef rib, but was told it takes six hours and wasn't ready at 1:30 pm in the afternoon. SAD. so I was encouraged to try the bahn mi sandwich instead...wish I had listened. I wanted to try the bbq straightup. The tri tip was lean, so on the dry side. A small container of thick bbq sauce, which had a great taste but was really thick sauce.. kinda jelly gooey-like it had the plopped out of a bottle quality. Hmmmm. You get about four thick slices of tri tip along with a small clutch of dill pickle rounds...and a smallish slab of corn bread 3/5, also dry but had a nice corn flavor. It was all kinda skimpy and stingy in presentation...again for a bbq place, it just felt ungenerous. I did like the smoke on the tri tip... not overwhelmingly smoked, but subtle...ultimately though...I couldn't eat it as dry as it was, doggy bag it to doctor it up at home. 2/5

Service. We were warmly greeted by a young guy. Our server Wendy took about 15 minutes to find us and kindly answered questions ...Wendy was lovely and cheerful...but she looked to be the only server working the entire place. So allowances and we were sitting at the front of the restaurant while the 6 to 8 other diners were seated near the bar and the entrance to the kitchen. A large spacious dining area was practically empty. And only 2 people walked in during the entire time we were there. Sad on a lovely warm sunny Monday afternoon. But we had fun and just enjoyed chilling in this very comfortable open space watching football and taking selfies with the cool...

Loaded BBQ Nachos - $16.99 This was the first dish served, even before the wine glasses arrived. Normally, I find nachos to be a boring but necessary appetizer. However, this dish changed my mind. It used black tortillas with beet-pickled onions, cilantro, pickled chips, and BBQ brisket. It was well-seasoned and balanced with queso. The flavor was excellent. 9/10

Brisket Mountain High Loaded Fries - $16.99 After the great nachos, the loaded fries didn’t stand out. Swapping the tortillas for waffle-cut potatoes resulted in similar flavors. I wouldn’t recommend ordering both the nachos and the loaded fries—choose one or the other. 8/10

The Last Supper - $226.99 We ordered this set, along with additional sausage and short ribs. The name of the set felt odd—perhaps even offensive to Christians—but as a Buddhist, it didn’t bother me. The set included five kinds of meat, cornbread, and a choice of six sides. All the meats were good, which I’ll detail further, but considering the price, it felt a bit stingy to charge $2 extra for each “Premium Side.” The meal arrived on four separate plates: one for the combined meats, another for the Tomahawk steak, one for the sides, and a separate plate for the baked potato.

Prime Tomahawk Steak The steak was served on a separate plate, with the plate slightly tilted to let the fat oil slide to the side. The fat was garnished with cilantro and diced tomatoes, which gave it the appearance of chimichurri—though serving it with actual chimichurri would have been a great idea. This was the best Tomahawk I’ve ever had—tender, juicy, flavorful, and perfectly meaty. Simply excellent. 10/10

On the meat plate:

Double Prime Brisket The brisket was clearly superior to the pastrami—softer, moister, juicier, and less salty. 10/10

Double Prime Pastrami Brisket This was below-average pastrami. It looked good but tasted dry. I’ve had much better pastrami elsewhere. 5/10

Short Rib An okay rib—it would have been considered good if I hadn’t already had the excellent Tomahawk and brisket. 7/10

Sausages The sausages were fine—nothing special, but no complaints either. 7/10

Cornbread The cornbread was very good, but we were only served two pieces. I’m not sure if it’s refillable or if those two were the only ones included. 8/10

Loaded Baked Potato (+$2.00) I strongly do not recommend this—it was tasteless and undercooked, with the potato hard instead of soft. 0/10

On the sides plate:

Broccolini (+$2.00) This was our favorite side of the night. We re-ordered it twice because it was perfectly crispy without being dry—a must-order! 10/10

Brussels Sprouts (+$2.00) These were just as good as the broccolini, though they tend to be harder, which is just the nature of Brussels sprouts, not a fault of the chef. 9/10

Roasted Carrots (+$2.00) They were okay. 6/10

Creamy Bleu Cheese Slaw Also just okay. 6/10

Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes Average, nothing special. 6/10

Eventually, we ordered some cocktails because the presentation was fancy. However, they honestly weren’t great.

Sorting Hat - $18.99 I wouldn’t recommend this one. Don’t order.

Burn The Ships - $15.99 This one was slightly better, but still not impressive....

The Brisket Mac Saga

Okay, so. We came with a party of four for dinnertime, me being the only member who had never been. We ordered a few items - the brisket, the tri tip, the sausage, an appetizer and a handful of sides.

I ordered the brisket Mac and cheese. The menu did not say it was spicy, there appeared to be no spicy ingredients, except for the actual spices on the brisket itself.

But after about three bites, an unexpected heat was building. I couldn't tell where it came from. I continued eating, thinking it was just me, as I have a very low spice tolerance. But not too long after, my whole mouth was burning, and I was developing a stomachache.

My partner noticed that I had stopped eating, and I told him about the Mac. He tried a bite himself, as did the two other members of our party. They agreed, there was something in the brisket Mac and cheese (that was definitely NOT present in the plate of brisket, which we also ordered) that made it very hot.

We asked our waitress, Stephanie, what was the heat in the brisket Mac and cheese. She suggested (obviously somewhat uncertain) that it might be from marinating the meat additional time for the Mac, which was not a satisfactory answer, but we shrugged it off. I set the brisket Mac and cheese aside and picked off of other plates.

Towards the end of our meal, Stephanie delivered us a dessert, on the house, to thank us for our patronage. It was a very sweet gesture, and of course appreciated (who says no to free dessert?) but I couldn't help still feeling suspicious.

THE RESOLUTION: As we were signing our receipts, Stephanie returned once more to say she had solved the mystery. Apparently at least two other groups of customers had mentioned an unexpected heat to the brisket Mac earlier in the day. She told us that the chef who has made the brisket Mac that morning had added extra spice to it, which he was definitely not supposed to do.

To hear this information was incredibly validating, and her going out of her way not just to solve the mystery, but to explain it to us as well, definitely brightened my experience.

Five stars for Stephanie.

As for the rest of it: service and atmosphere are wonderful. The food is just decent in quality (there were other details, such as the plate of brisket having large sections of un-rendered and inedible fat, the sausage being too salty to finish, and the tri-tip tasting mostly of pepper, but pepper fans would probably like it). We felt that the sides were generally better than the proteins. But with a few drinks and a close group of friends, it was a good experience.

I would probably not come back on a date for two, and I would not attend if you were looking for a "real good barbecue" place. But with...