Firehouse Steakhouse, Middletown, CT

The Firehouse steak house located at 412 Main street in Middletown, CT is a place that I had been dying to try out. It offered a firehouse theme and Steaks, sounded good. I took the wife and My son and met some friends there.

From the out side it appears to be a converted storefront with large windows and sports some Fire Department memorabilia from around Connecticut.

We go in to the dimly lit restaurant and sit in the black leather-like booth. The bar is upstairs and I didnt venture in, but appeared to be nice.
The service was slow but pleasant. The menu was poorly designed, it yielded bright colors on a black background(drove my eyes nuts and gave me a headache) and was organized in no particular order making it difficult to find what I was looking for. The children's menu was a cute fire truck coloring book page and boasted the standard kids fair (Mac n cheese, nuggets etc.)

The food:
For starters we opened with Wings- hot of course. They were cooked perfectly and had a very unique wing sauce, the extreme heat and subtle fruity flavor indicates to me that there is atleast some habanero or scotch bonnet pepper used in the sauce as opposed to the standard variety. It was a nice flavor change and not overly hot for a person who like spicy foods. The salad was a typical nothing special salad and came with what appeared to bestandard restuarant edition bottled dressing.
Onto dissappointment (dinner rather), The steaks seemed to be steeply priced, but being that they advertise as a steakhouse and are located only 3 miles or so away from a great meat market, I gave it a go and ordered a $23 dollar New York strip that included a choice of 2 sides. I was feeling silly and in need or carbs so I got mashed and baked, Alas the waitress returned with news that they were out of baked potatoes......... I find this kind of odd for a steakhouse to run out of a typical side dish at 630 Pm.
My steak arrived and I quickly cut into it to find that it was marginally orver cooked. To make things worse for me, It would seem that my strip was not a prime, I would guess they at most it was choice (which is fine, I have eaten many choice cuts of meat at restuarants, but usually in the $9-$12 range.) laden with fat and very tough. The potatoes were flavorless and I suspect made from flakes rather then real mashed potatoes.
Cocktails- I had Guinness draft and it was served at proper tempurture and appears that it was poured properly. The signature cocktails however were lack luster and a dissapointment as well according to my fellow diners.

My over all impression of the place is simple, Go for wings and beer with the guys. I dont reccomend havind much more then pub grub, and if you want a steak youd be better off to buy one and grill it at home.
Scale of 1-10 a 4-4 1/2 and Im being generous because of the firehouse theme.