Eagle Rock eatery turns up the heat with flavorful rotisserie cuisine
Turningfire Modern Rotisserie in Eagle Rock is a year-old restaurant with a fire-brand new concept that is skewering traditional rotisserie cuisine. Michael Rolibi came up with the idea of a rotisserie restaurant with a modern twist in a setting he calls premium casual, which is a tic up from the newly branded fine casual category.
Rolibi, a career changer who achieved enough success in his first professional life to pursue his passion of opening an eatery, is the author of most of the restaurant’s eclectic menu of unexpected taste combinations. Rolibi’s original recipes includes rotisseries of free-range poultry, natural pork and beef dishes that are flavored with proprietary, made-from-scratch freshly ground spice blends, marinades sauces, dressings and condiments.
Besides the rotisserie entrees, which can be ordered up a la carte or as a meal plate with a protein, side and a salad, Turningfire makes mincemeat of stodgy old-school meatballs with a modern blend of pork and beef with added crushed fresh tomatoes and a topping of ricotta salata, for the most-tastiest meatballs ever. The menu also features a short list of sandwiches, among which is the most popular chilled Cali Gold, with lemon lavender chicken, mesclun, orange shallot vinaigrette, avocado spread, lemon aioli and tomato.
Other twists on traditional fare include LA Street fries, which are thick hand-cut potatoes covered with frilled chile corn, pickled red onion, cotija cheese crumble, grilled scallions and cilantro lime creme.
Despite what the rotisserie namesake implies, many of the restaurant’s dishes are vegetarian, including flatbreads and a number of gourmet salads loaded with ingredients like purple kale, golden beets, toasted pepitas, watermelon radish, roasted white yams, spicy pickled carrots, jicama and other out-of-the-box, not out-of-the-bag bag veggies and fruits. There’s also an excellent kids’ menu with healthy versions of approachable favorites, like chicken cheese quesadilla, served on whole wheat tortilla.
Inside, the restaurant impresses with a contemporary and clean design, with textured concrete floors, light spilling through a glass brick front, and lofty wood-beam ceilings. The space is sleek but cozy with about 30 duets, foursomes and bar tables of butcher-block-style table tops surrounded by iron modern chairs, with the furnishings and trims all painted in earth tones.
The restaurant’s interior, envisioned by North Hollywood designer Janelle Wright, achieves its purpose in making food colors pop against the muted color palette, enhancing the appeal to the human palate. The chic style is a nod to the trendy tastes of the Eagle Rock neighborhood, an area that is gentrifying so fast that restaurant concepts are popping up on a nearly monthly basis on the main strip of Colorado Boulevard.
Turningfire is located at 2146 Colorado Boulevard, Los Angeles, and is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.
