Fire Fly Cafe and Lounge

Photo Credit: Nick Perez

After much harassing from my fellow Swaggy contributors of my penchant for Umbros at home, and my lack of blog contributions, I hereby present you with my first blog post for Northern Swag. Through my role as the Digital Janitor, I mostly keep out of view and make sure things run smoothly around here, while also contributing photos when I can.

Admittingly, this would have likely been a review of another downtown establishment, except for the fact that there was an hour plus wait to get into most of the main downtown restaurants. I thought Cherry Festival and Film Festival were over? Guess us locals have to wait until after Labor Day to reclaim our town. So for now, indulge away Mr. and Mrs. Tourist, we do appreciate your added economic contributions.

One place that seems, at least for me, to be off the radar a bit is Fire Fly Cafe and Lounge, situated along the beautiful banks of the Boardman River. Though they”ll probably forever be known as 310 to me. (Anyone actually know why they changed their name?) They’re mostly known for their small plates, or tapas, as well as their sushi and steaks. I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything there other than the tapas, because there are so many to choose from. Currently, they range anywhere from $8 to $14, or you can get three for $30. For the record, Fire Fly was also busy, they just have more seating I believe, and we were able to sit outside without too much issue.

Part of the TC Food group of restaurants, and much like their other downtown establishment Bubba’s, Fire Fly also offers a daily special. Tonight happened to be “Half Off Martinis and Mojitos” night which went perfectly with our assortment of calamari, tuna tartare, crab cakes, roasted pork tacos, coconut curry and filet mignon skewers. Remember, these are small plates folks. There were four people there, I swear it wasn’t all for me.

Happy Hour is everyday until 7 PM and includes a pretty good selection of Michigan craft beer, which is always a plus for me.

If the weather is nice, I highly recommend sitting on the sidewalk patio along the Boardman River as we did tonight, and take in the surroundings of downtown.

So thank you busy downtown Traverse City restaurants, I’m glad your hour wait got me back to a great dining spot of Traverse City.