First Look: Furio – Scottsdale

This post first appeared on The Spirit World in March 2006.  With Baseball’s Spring Training officially starting this week I thought it was a good time to move this post here.  It won’t be long before I’m heading back down to watch this year’s boys of summer! 

Another place M and I checked out while in Scottsdale was a little place called Furio. We had tried to visit in past years but it was always too crowded. They sit off the main Old Town street and a bit south of most of the action so not as many people drop in but they have a core group of regulars. On this trip we actually visited twice. We stopped on our way to J Bar, just to check it out and then liked it so much we decided it needed a night all its own.

The first night we stopped in we were in time for Happy Hour. Appetizers are specially priced; well drinks, domestic beer and house wines are $3 and they have a specialty drinks for $5. The Cosmopolitan was on the specials menu so that was my choice, M had a Juicy Tangerine. Both cocktails were good, although the Cosmo was a bit on the sweet side. But what really caught our attention was the food! We had ordered a Bistec del Furio from the Happy Hour menu. It was sooooo good! Thin slices of steak; warm, melty, ooey Brie; and pesto on a warm baguette. It was a sandwich and I’d had more of a bruschetta pictured but that was my misinterpretation. Since we had plans to move on to J Bar we pulled the tops off the sandwich and ate the bottom open-faced so that we wouldn’t get too full. The steak was cooked to perfection, the Brie was warm and smooth and the pesto added that extra little kick that moved it into the unforgettable category.

I won’t go into great detail about the food since this post is starting to run rather long, but we ordered: Beef Tenderloin Bruschetta with telagio cheese and grilled asparagus (what I thought I was getting the night before); Pan Fried Red and Green Tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and baby greens; Lobster Risotto. Absolute heaven! I loved the asparagus on the bruschetta – it was a perfect crunch and roasty taste. The red tomatoes weren’t as red as they should have been but since I like fried green tomatoes it didn’t bother me so much. Next time I go I’m going to order two or three lobster risottos, put it all in a big bowl and just jump in and wallow in it. I melted when I tasted the first bite of that creamy, rich bowl. It was so rich the two of us couldn’t finish it.