Firebrand Saints

In the last year plus there has been an explosion of restaurants in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, from Area Four to Catalyst to the Friendly Toast, and the list keeps growing.  A recent addition is Firebrand Saints.  Located on the first floor of One Broadway Street, if you did not see the glowing blue lights, you might otherwise walk right by this funky industrial establishment.  When my friend G, who lives in Somerville, and I get together for dinner I always use it as an excuse to cross the river.  Firebrand Saints had been on my radar for a while, so I was happy when G liked the suggestion.

We met up on the earlier side of a random Tuesday night, so the restaurant was rather empty, allowing us to get a nice table right by the window.  Unfortunately you cannot really see out because of the shading on the window, which was a bit annoying!  Before deciding on what to eat, we looked over the rather extensive craft cocktail list.  We finally decided on the Oil Slick, which has blackstrap rum, cinnamon and loads of fresh lime.  The Oil Slick had a bit of bite, but the lime juice toned down the rum a bit to make it a more refreshing drink.  The cinnamon added a nice accent to the drink, giving more depth to each sip.

Oil Slick

We also got the Namesake, which has Karlsson's vodka, King's ginger, house grenadine and lemon.  This was a bit of a lighter cocktail, but the ginger definitely gives it an edgier bite than the more traditional fruity vodka cocktails.

The Namesake

When the time came to order some food, G decided on the Harvested Mushroom sandwich with a red pepper tapanade, balsamic onion, grilled asparagus and smoked mozzarella.  While this was tasty deliciousness, it was hard to classify it as a sandwich at first because G had to eat it with the fork due the huge amount of food filling the the bread.  I think by the end, she was able to maybe fold the bread over to make a sandwich out of the meal!  For $9 this is tons of food.

Harvested Mushroom Sandwich

The meal may be cheap, but it does not come with any sides, so G got the Local Lettuce salad, which had a nice combination of greens that were lightly dressed and topped with some shaved Parmesan.  The greens were a nice, lighter addition to the many components of the sandwich.

Local Lettuce Salad

Since Firebrand Saints has some notoriety as a bit of a burger place, I of course had to get the Sirloin, Chuck and Brisket burger served with lettuce and onion and your choice of cheese on a toasted brioche bun.  I went with with a straight American cheese and some grilled red onions.  This was a solid burger for $9.  The meat was flavorful and juicy and the toasted bun was fresh (and at the right bread-to-burger ratio).  I'd say this was one of the best burgers when for the price - these days it can be very hard to find a top-tier burger for anything less than $16, so its nice to see that it can be done.  With plenty of other different burgers to try at a similar price point, you won't get bored (or go broke) from frequent visits.

The Burger

I did order some fries and they were great!  They are thick cut steak fries that are well cooked with a dark golden brown crispy outside.  These are totally different from the thinner fries you generally get at similar restaurants, and I liked the twist.

Steak Fries

While we were not really hungry for dessert, when I heard the pies were baked fresh at Russell Orchards (the one on the way out to Crane's Beach) I could not pass it up - its my favorite!  We settled on the berry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  As expected, the pie was nothing short of delicious and the perfect cap to the meal.

Berry Pie

With an eclectic menu that offers a somewhat random variety of foods, there is always something to keep you coming back for more.  With menu prices of mostly under $15, Firebrand Saints will give your wallet a bit of relief.  I would highly recommend seeking out the blue lights on Broadway and enjoying a good meal and craft cocktails.

Have you gone anywhere recently that had delicious food at a good price point?