Fire & Stone Trattoria and Pizza Bar
If you build it. They will come. And Chef Christopher Jeffcote did just.
"I did my time as a stonemason for better part of 15 years. And I was commissioned to over a dozen times to build these in people's backyard. And as an avid home cook, I began to have to teach people how to use them."
And he took all of that know how, traded his trowel for a pizza peel, and created a restaurant of his own using lots of fire and stone.
Set in this tiny spot in Duxbury, Massachusetts, Fire & Stone is a take out spot specializing in three things: Seafood, burgers and of course pizza. But the quality here goes way beyond your average to-go spots.
"So if if you don't have time to cook, and you don't want to end up at a fast food type of place, you can come here and get the same meal that you're going to get in a fine dining restaurant in a box."
Christopher and Kaitlyn Jeffcote are the couple behind it all, making most of the menu out of those wood burning ovens.
"So these ovens I built by hand, everything was custom. It's all brick from from the ground up.
"I love the ovens First of all, because my husband built them and I just think it's the coolest thing.
"We make the dough here. We use San Marzano sauce. We use a buffalo mozzarella. All the toppings are fresh. It's a spun pizza. When it goes in the oven. There's no dial on this oven. There's no temperature setting, we have to do it all with wood. Being only wood fired with no gas assist, or anything like that. It's going to impart a little bit of the smoky flavor from the wood into the pizza, it cooks the pizza, almost convection from the bottom. And from the top of the same time, the toppings are going to crisp up, the pepperoni is going to curl, it's going to make that leoparding all around the edge of the pizza that you look for in an in a Neapolitan pizza."
And the toppings are downright tasty.
There's Sven & Kristoff's Creation topped with caramelized onion, slices of chroizo and wood grilled asparagas.
And since we're in Duxbury, there's one layered with beautiful Island Creek oysters.
"I grew up in town here. I have a real love for the ocean. It's less than a mile away. It's made with compound butter. Extra Virgin Olive oil base. Fresh cut shallots, fresh parsley, little neck clams. That's the key component. We shuck them over the pizza. We fresh slice lemon. We put the lemon slices in the pizza it goes in the oven and it comes out and I'm told and I agree myself that the best slices the one with the lemon on."
If you ask Caitlyn, her fave is the Spinaci- topped with a cheesy spinach dip.
"So that's spread on the pizza instead of red sauce and then we top it with pancetta topped with Parmigiano Reggiano and it's just absolutely amazing. It's filling It's creamy. It's a little salty with the pancetta. It's just an all around really unique, really great pizza. You can't find anything like it anywhere."
If you're craving a burger, they've got you covered
"Our burger is a flat top burger. It's a half pound burger. It borders on offensively big and we sell just as many burgers and pizza here."
There's the Mushroom BBQ Burger smothered with an Asian style bbq sauce and topped with tempura fried red onions and the Big Koa Burger topped with pineapple, crispy pancetta and cilantro lime aioli.
"This one's got the sweetness from the pineapple. The cilantro lime aioli has a little back end heat which ties it all together. This burgers is awesome."
And for something over the top, try the Fried Pickle Burger piled up with proscuitto, tempura fried pickles and a Cajun lemon pepper sauce.
"You're going to get the crispiness from the tempura pickles for sure. But it's that Cajun lemon pepper sauce that is the perfect accompaniment to the pickles again, not too much over the beef but enough difference and textures that makes your unique burger."
Other sandwiches include the Little Koa, a flatbread sandwich stuffed with chicken, pineapple and cilantro lime aioli or this one called the Noisy Rooster.
"Noisy rooster is a housemade fried chicken sandwich that is a monstrosity. It's a it's a chicken thigh. It's the best piece of chicken. It's deep fried. We have a house slaw that's a cabbage pickle and jalapeno slaw that we make in house that goes over this with some provolone cheese on that local bun. It's an awesome sandwich."
And if you prefer your chicken on the bone, order some wings.
"We pan sautee them the brick ovens. It's really going to get a crispy exterior on the wing. They got some good heat. We don't even give you a sauce to go with it. You don't need it."
Since they're located but blocks from the Atlantic, you can be sure the seafood is always fresh. And rather than typical beer batter, they do a tempura fry that's vodka based.
"You're you're getting a real crispy exterior. Light golden brown as you would expect from the tempura. The inside of the fishes is flaky, soft, decadent."
And at dessert, that fresh dough makes for a nostalgic dessert.
"We take our pizza dough...We get it going in the fryer crisp it up and just like you would at a fair something like that or Fair Food we put confectioner sugar and cinnamon over the top of it with a little butter. It is an awesome comfort food."
And while everything is tasty, you can be sure that at Fire & Stone everything is always fresh, something you don't always find take out spots.
"We take a stance on food. Farm to farm to table as an expectation at a sit down restaurant whereas the take on industry is so far left behind. There is no standards there is no expectations that you're going to have all fresh food. We do that here."
