Turningfire Rotisserie in Eagle Rock is not your traditional fast, casual dining restaurant – it’s a gourmet, chef-driven rotisserie restaurant.

The street corn fries combine two favorites – grilled corn and French fries topped with scallions, cilantro lime crema and crubled cotija cheese. (photo by Jill Weinlein)

Owners Mike Riboli and Chef Chris Stagliano take Turningfire rotisserie to a new level with their creative dry and wet rubs. If the Riboli name sounds familiar, it’s because Mike is the grandson of the founders of San Antonio Winery, the oldest winery in Los Angeles. This year the family winery celebrated 100 years.

Raised in the tasting room and his grandmother’s onsite restaurant at the winery, Riboli utilized his knowledge of hospitality, wine and food to open his own restaurant.

I met with Riboli last Friday night to taste a variety of his Turningfire dishes and enjoy a beverage tasting. He makes a pink lemonade Arnold Palmer and a refreshing cucumber mint agua fresca. There are six beers on tap, including a local Eagle Rock Populist IPA, Boomtown Pilsner, Allagash White, Track 7 Panic IPA and Baba Organic Black Lager. These beers pair nicely with the elevated flatbreads that are large enough to share. We liked the spiciness of the rotisserie Italian pork flatbread, layered with slow braised tomatoes, a sprinkling of ricotta salata and herbs with crisp edges, infusing the flatbread with wood-fired flavor.

The lemon lavender rotisserie chicken is a house speicalty at Turningfire Rotisserie. (photo courtesy of Turningfire Rotisserie)

Riboli, a Level two sommelier, offers an appealing variety of wines including wines from his family winery. Guests can order a glass or bottle of Maddalena chardonnay and San Simeon viognier. His red wine selection includes a Black Granite cabernet, San Simeon pinot noir and Bodegas Bula blend made with granache, syrah and mazuelo. He also offers a bubbly Fornarina prosecco and makes his own red sangria. I enjoyed the lighter and fruitier notes of the sangria and that it wasn’t overly sweet.

We also enjoyed a couple of his farmers market inspired side dishes. My favorites included the cold carrot salad topped with a sprinkling of goat cheese, toasted pistachios and chopped mint – a quintessential summer salad.

Another winning side is the roasted white yams. Riboli has been making these at home for years. “Yams are persnickety to cook, and shallots are crucial,” he said. These cubed yams are are heightened with toasted spices, cracked herbs and a pinch of his secret herbs. The yams are a popular side for his most popular rotisserie dish – the lemon lavender chicken. This chicken is putting Turningfire on the LA culinary map. What makes this chicken so flavorful is the jus. The free range, non GMO chicken is massaged with Riboli’s special lemon and lavender spice rub, then put on the rotisserie for about an hour. A few sprinkles of Riboli’s handmade Herbes de Provence give it pizzazz. While this chicken is cooking, it makes a delightful jus that is basted on the chicken to keep it moist. When the chicken breast and wing arrived to our table, the delectable lemon lavender chicken jus gathered on the bottom of the plate. Cutting into the breast, I dipped the white meat in the jus to glaze it. It’s a perfect a marriage of sweet, savory and tanginess. Those who like a spicier sauce will like the Scorpion Fire which offers some heat. Seeking a more mellow profile, there is a yogurt creme with roasted red peppers, dried fruit mostarda, housemade harissa chile paste, tomato garlic confit and apple pepper jam. All of the meats spinning on the fire are naturally-raised.

Tasting the Turningfire meatballs, I told Riboli that once while dining in his grandmother’s trattoria style restaurant Maddalena inside the downtown LA winery, I fondly remember the authentic and delicious homemade meatballs covered with her marinara sauce. Riboli’s meatballs at Turning fire are as good or even a little better, because he makes them with beef and his rotisserie vertical pork. Chef Chris grinds the pork, adds a few secret ingredients and bathes the meatballs in a traditional tomato sauce. “It’s simple, yet traditional,” Riboli said. This is another dish to soak up the sauce with a piece grilled ciabatta. It’s just too good to leave on the bottom of the bowl.

Riboli told us he wanted to open his own restaurant in a nice, family friendly neighborhood in LA. When a friend showed him a historic spot in Eagle Rock on Colorado Blvd., he liked the location of the 1920s building. The space was once a McMahon’s furniture store and a pharmacy. Riboli worked with designer Janel Wright Designs and partner Nancy to create a premium casual dining room with muted neutral colors to highlight the colors of the food.

It took two and a half years to open the restaurant with a large viewing kitchen where guests can watch chef Chris and the staff customize rotisserie plates. Diners choose from chicken, pork or salmon, then select one of three salads and a side. In addition to the roasted white yams as a side, the roasted potatoes are a good choice, coated with rotisserie au jus, lemon and thyme.

Another option is to have the rotisserie meat served in a toasted lavash wrap or as a sandwich on a rustic roll. The Roman spiced pork is ideal as a sandwich, made with wet and dry rubs. A meat purveyor cuts the meat specifically to a desired width to stack it on the vertical rotisserie.

To appeal to the bowl craze right now, the staff offers an international tasting experience with different multi-cultural bowls. The Tea House bowl offers Japanese flavors, and the L.A. Caesar offers a Latin spin, while the Marrakesh bowl is layered with Moroccan inspired seasonings.

Turningfire offers a Happy Hour from 4 to 7 p.m., on Tuesdays through Fridays. Since we were there on Friday, we ordered a few dishes on the value menu that include the LA Street Fries – grilled street corn hand-cut off the cob and sprinkled on thick hand-cut potatoes. Grilled scallions, cilantro lime creme, crumbled cotija cheese and pink pickled red onions top this vegetarian dish. Also on the menu is a mushroom flatbread, ciabatta crostino and Riboli’s meatballs.

Next time you are planning a catered party or picnic at the nearby Descanso Gardens, Rose Bowl or hike in Griffith Park, stop into Turningfire for pleasing gourmet fare. $ 2146 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles (323)274-3008.