Phantom Gourmet: Red Heat Tavern In Wilmington

WILMINGTON - Fire is in the heart of every passionate chef, and it's at the core of creating great food. Nowhere does the fire burn hotter than at Red Heat Tavern. New to Wilmington Massachusetts, Red Heat Tavern is big and bustling, with high ceilings, a wrap-around bar, and an open kitchen.

Chef Martha Leahy helped create the restaurant's concept, and the soul satisfying menu.

"Good ole stick to your ribs kind of food," she said, describing the menu. "Home style food, but we try to elevate it a little bit. We make everything scratch in our kitchen, and it's a great place to have a beer with your friends and bring your family in. It's lively and a lot of fun."

Red Heat gets its name from the fire-kissed food coming out of the kitchen, because much of it is cooked in a wood burning Josper Oven.

"The oven comes from Spain. There's no electricity to it. We put coals in the bottom and that fires up. It's in a box, so you're containing the heat and the smoke in that box and it allows us to cook at a very high heat and infuse the flavor into the food. It's a really fantastic way to cook and we're one of the only ones here to have it in Massachusetts," Leahy explained.

The kitchen crew, including Executive Chef Alan Frati, relishes the opportunity to work with this unique oven.

"It's a great piece of equipment that we're really lucky to have,' he said. " It provides the food with great flavors. It gives our chefs a great opportunity to use something that you don't have in a regular restaurant."

Since this oven can get up to more than 800 degrees, if you can't stand the heat, this definitely ain't your kind of kitchen.

"It's really hot back here," Frati said. "So you kind of have to have, as a chef, a certain type of stamina to work this station. It's very difficult, much more difficult than working your traditional grill."

Every meal at the Red Heat Tavern starts with a free basket of fresh baked Corn Bread with Cinnamon Honey Butter. Affordable appetizers include slow cooked Ribs with a Korean Barbeque Glaze; thick and crunchy Creole Potato Chips with addictive Caramelized Onion and Bacon Dip; loaded Fries smothered in cheese sauce, bacon, and gravy; and two types of wings that are baked, not fried.

"The wings we slow cook in the Josper oven, and so it's infused with the mesquite. Then we toss them with our very special Buffalo sauce. It's not like any other Buffalo sauce you'll ever taste. We also have a sweet Thai chili sauce that we toss in it," Leahy explained. " It's a great way to start a meal."

Another great choice is the Latin inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob, slathered with Ancho Mayo and Cotija Cheese. Every bite is full of flavor.

"You're going to get the sweet corn first and then you're going to move into the smoky flavor from the Josper and the mesquite, and then you go into the richness of the ancho mayo with a little spice, and then you finish with some saltiness from the cheese. It's fabulous; it's so good."

There's plenty of comfort food coming out of the kitchen, like a crock of creamy Mac and Cheese topped with a crispy Onion String Crust and big chunks of Pork Belly; a Fire Roasted Meatloaf finished with homemade Ketchup; and the tongue-tingling Red Heat Burger.

"It's a great burger if you like a little fire," Leahy said. "It has hot cherry peppers; it has a hot Sriracha sauce. Then we have a sweet sauce to balance a little bit. So there's a lot of heat in that and it really balances off that great Angus burger that we put on the bun."

For a deliciously different burger experience, try the Farmhouse Burger, featuring thick cut toast smeared with Bacon Horseradish Mayo, a half-pound Angus cheeseburger with two slices of Applewood Smoked Bacon, and a gooey fried egg.

"When you bite into that burger, you have that sunny side up egg and it just spills all over the burger, and that blends with the horseradish mayo and the burger and the bacon, and it's just an explosion in your mouth," she described.

Much of the menu features meats you might grill in your own backyard, like juicy Turkey Tip Kabobs and Baby Back Memphis style Ribs. But when it comes to bang for your buck, there's no better value than the Grilled 14-ounce Ribeye with Herb Parmesan Fries.

"We believe in a value and all our entrees are under $18. This is one entree that just kind of tops that, and for $25 you get a certified Angus Ribeye that's 14 ounces, and we top it with a horseradish butter. You can't get a better Ribeye within 50 miles," Leahy declared.

From steaks, to burgers, to all kinds of shareable snacks, Red Heat Tavern is the kind of place that serves great food at an exceptional value, with a team that strives to make every meal great, every step of the way.

"When you first come into the parking lot, the first thing you react to is the smell and the mesquite from the Josper oven and that gets you hungry. And when the food comes out you see all the effort that we put into your dishes. So when you get your check, you're going to be amazed by the value and blown away by the experience you had."

Red Heat Tavern is at 300 Lowell Street in Wilmington, just off I-93, or online at redheattavern.com.

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