A handful of thoughts

The other day I went to Fire and Ice. Its an Italian specialty restaurant. If you do not love Italian food, do not go to Fire and Ice and if you do not go to Fire and Ice, you will miss out on more than you can imagine. It is one of the newest Italian restaurants in Kolkata and is located bang opposite the ‘Maidan’ metro station on Middleton St. Kolkata. It opened in 2005 as a branch of the pizzeria in Kathmandu of the same name (If you are interested to know more, please visit their site coz I dnt want to put in all their story here- http://www.fireandicepizzeria.com/in/index.html).

What drew me to Fire and Ice was- Vodka Martini; the staple drink of Bond, James Bond. Some of my friends are quite fond of the ’spirit’ and lost no time in informing me of the novelty. I am not sure if any other restaurant in Kolkata serves vodka martini; in any case the number of such restaurants would not exceed three or four. Anyways, to come to Fire and Ice. This vodka martini they serve is very dry. It’s a cocktail of smirnoff in martini with one olive which they claim is ‘imported’. Imported or not, the olive is quite tangy and the cocktail is well….you need to have it in order to understand what I mean. But for one thing, this is not for the lovers of screw driver or tom collins….NO. It’s a real good drink and would give you a nice high after 2 or 3 pegs (could also quite knock you out). There are also a whole list of other cocktails and two other types of martini they serve which I intend to taste since I am definitely going back to this place.

The food is good, Italian and very hard to pronounce. On my part I called the waiter, pointed my finger to the dish I wanted to have on the menu card, and placed the order. If you are not adventurous with your food, you can safely settle of a pizza. The waiters here are also very sweet by the way. Very chirpy and informally warm and cheerful; some of them are even HOT. The women I believe shall have a nice time out here.

What’s Unique-

• A bottle filled with oil and spices and dry chillies with a wick is kept on each table. I dunno what purpose they serve but they look good in any case
• The waiters here do not serve the food into plates; you’ve got to do that yourself
• The walls of Fire and Ice, Kolkata are decked up with black and white pictures of the silver screen ranging from La Dolce Vita to our very own Bollywood
• The waiters wear a scarf on their heads

A meal for two with desert should come at a moderate 1000 rupees. The cocktails come between 160 and 250 rupees.