Now that spring has arrived and we successfully avoided any school-closing, traffic-snarling snow, it seemed safe to try out a new outpost dedicated to America's premiere Alpine region: the Rockies. Restaurateur Dennis Thompson spends much of his time at his Colorado mountain home and decided to bring a bit of Colorado back to Charlotte. One of the four restaurant ventures he has opened in the past several months is the 214-seat Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill in the SouthCrest Shopping Center, south of I-485. In the earth-tone slate floor anteroom, an animal head stands guard over the interior door. A cord of neatly quartered hardwood rests "readied" for the roaring fire at the rear of the bar area. The 7100 square foot restaurant features a soaring ceiling of heavy timber framing; towering stripped aspen tree columns in the main dining area; a large open kitchen; natural wood tabletops; a mixture of slate and ceramic tiles, hardwood, and carpet on the floors; a rusted steel exposed column bar top; and synthetic stone walls. Outside, Firebirds shares four patio tables with sister restaurant, Joey D'Attore Old Neighborhood Italian. Firebirds was designed by architect Steve Starr of Little and Associates who says, "The design was a contemporary Colorado lodge while the challenge was to try to mix the ideas, the material and textures and colors with the architectural language of StoneCrest Shopping Center." He succeeded. A diner can almost imagine a snowy Alpine meadow outside the expansive windows rather than the boring parking lot and the synthetic stone exterior of an upscale Wendy's. However, more than a beautifully appointed interior awaits you. In fact, "wait" is the operative word. Entering patrons are pinned against the maitre d' desk only to be sent off with a vibrating pager. Friends have told me that an hour wait is fairly common here. But once you are seated, the word most descriptive of the service is rushed. Servers wearing blue jeans and black vests often double team in an effort to bring food quickly. But sometimes they bring courses too quickly, and service becomes disorganized. For example, before we had finished the appetizers, salads were brought. After four bites of salad, the entrees arrived. Bread (frozen Vie de France) arrives whenever. Firebirds is a busy place. Lots of families dine here and crayons and coloring mats abound. The Executive Chef is Steven Sturm, who graduated from the culinary program of Florida Community College in Jacksonville. He has been cooking since the age of 14 and has worked at Ragtime (Jacksonville's first microbrewery) and the Loop Pizza Bar. He also helped open another Ragtime in St. Augustine. Sturm was brought onboard before the development of the menu and worked together with a Colorado consultant to finalize it. Of the food he says, "What we want is for the customer to have a good perception of value." And food is served in portions which would bring smiles to any old school omnivore. The menu is filled with pizzas, seafood, steaks, burgers, pastas, and reveals the southwest penchant for chilies. Eighties comfort food and the marvels of wood roasting permeate the menu. Wood roasting, if the only bright spot on the menu, can be as tiresome as 10-digit dialing. We settled into a big booth and started with a half charred thin pizza crust quesadilla appetizer laden with smoky cheese, bites of rotisserie chicken, corn and black beans. The crabcake app, surrounded by a moat of duck sauce-tasting chutney, contained too much filler and the crab tasted of multiple flight delays from the coast. The bright spot on this dish, literally and figuratively, was the colorful tortilla slaw mounded in the middle, a varied assortment possessing a fiery finesse and neatly tweaked by pumpkin seeds. Salads were surprisingly good and much better than the starters. In fact, salads are where this kitchen excels. Portions are generous and even the forks are chilled. The spry Caesar salad refreshed the palate with its sharp, gutsy dressing. The fresh mozzarella (not made in house) and beefsteak tomato salad is enormous and has thick layers of cheese and tomatoes, scattered with rings of red onions and crumbled blue cheese. The BLT salad, which my server noted was a "favorite," contains bits of apple-smoked bacon, iceberg, romaine, diced tomatoes, and dredged in a heavy mix of garlicky ranch dressing. The entrees were less pleasing, although served in gargantuan portions. The baby back ribs, oozing in a molasses-based barbecue sauce, were falling-off-the-bone tender. But the accompanying ranch beans were dominated by cilantro, and the slaw, a lesser sister of the tortilla slaw, was not remarkable. The salmon entree tasted wood grilled, but was overcome by its ho-hum smoked tomato rice sidekick. As a combination, fish and rice should be left to sushi. Desserts are made in house and the servings are large enough to share. If you like peanut butter, then their Mile High Peanut Butter Pie with its mile high calorie count would be your choice. With the pervasive chilies on the menu, beer is a good beverage choice and that list includes many beers from Colorado microbreweries. The wine list is short and primarily offers California wines (with many vintages incorrectly listed) and no Colorado wines. Some wines are offered by the glass. Prices at Firebirds range from $3.95 to $8.95 for appetizers, $4.95 to $10.95 for salads, and entrees range from the "Elk medallions in a ligonberry sauce and mashed potatoes" for $21.95 and the "Cowboy Ribeye" for $24.95 to the "Cilantro grilled chicken breast" for $11.95. There are also sandwiches such as burgers and chicken club for $8.25 to $8.95. Thompson and his Red Mountain Management also own Blue Marlin restaurants in Charlotte, Cary, Columbia, and Richmond; Joey D'Attore's; Uncle Sal's; Jack Mackerel's Seafood and Barracuda Bar; licensing rights to Dean and DeLuca; and the new BD's Mongolian Barbecue. In the competitive restaurant business, Thompson has done more than survived, he has thrived by knowing his market well. Food takes a backseat to place at Firebirds. This isn't sensuous food or risky food -- or even cheekily naughty food. The dishes are simple and straightforward; the kind of food you would want after a day on the slopes or hiking a mountain, the kind of food which melts into the background as you share your day with friends and family. Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill, 7716 Rea Road, in the StoneCrest Shopping Center. 704-752-7979. Hours are 4pm until 10pm Sunday through Thursday, until 11pm on Friday and Saturday. AmEx, MC, Visa, Diner's, Discover.