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Heber Valley Cheese Wins Big

Heber Valley Cheese brought home three awards from this year’s American Cheese Society competition in Madison, Wisconsin.

One thing I really like about Heber Valley’s system is that they have control over the entire cheesemaking process as they raise their own milk cows, maintaining a herd of about 200 head. I had a chance to stop by their shop in Heber about a month ago and try their “Chile Verde” cheese, and was very impressed (as a sidenote, they carry Aggie ice cream as well, and if they have the lemon custard in stock, get a double scoop for me).

Heber Valley Cheese is located in Midway on Canyon View Farm. 

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Cronuts/Doussantz Coming to SLC

Update #2: After trying them, I can’t recommend you spend your money on them. Too dense, too chewy, they taste like they were made the day before, and too pricey.

Update: as you can see in the comments, someone had a hard time finding them. The truck is parked in the back of the Cityhomecollective office, so the truck’s not visible from S. Temple. Hope that helps.

First it was cupcakes, then gourmet donuts, and now, the latest sugary craze to hit the streets are known as Cronuts/Kronuts/Doussantz. These delicious morsels are basically croissant dough that is then shaped into a doughnut and fried, hence the donut/croissant name mashup. There are a bunch of different names since the “inventor" of the cronut, Chef Dominique Ansel in New York, has trademarked the name “cronut,“ leaving others to get creative with their naming.

Well, the craze is slowly making its way to Salt Lake City, via a food truck named the Little Blue Bistro. The truck will be doing a trial run on 7/30, 7/31, and 8/1, to see if demand merits being on the menu full-time. Darlene Madison, the creator of the Doussantz, claims that their product is superior to those offered in NYC as hers includes both donut dough as well as croissant dough in her recipe. The two inaugural flavors offered will be Chocolate Hazelnut and Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake.

I had a chance to try a cronut at the Angel Food Bakery in Minneapolis, and I can vouch for their deliciousness. I’m excited to try Little Blue’s version to see how it stacks up.

If you want to try them out, they’ll be stationed at 645 E South Temple at 9am on the dates listed above. The price will be $5 each.

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Bambara Now Offers Brunch

One of my favorite downtown restaurants, Bambara, is now offering brunch on Sundays beginning at 8am. The restaurants will feature classic dishes such as Bambara Benedict and their classic Caesar salad, alongside new offerings like their new Chef’s Breakfast Burrito (eggs, carnitas, avocado, cheddar, tomatillo salsa, and chipotle creme fraiche), or the Grilled Chicken Club (smoky bacon, roasted tomatoes, romaine lettuce and aged white cheddar). 

Alcohol service begins at 11:30am. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the restaurant at (801) 363-5454.

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New Downtown Hot Dog Shop

Red Hot, a new hot dog shop in downtown SLC, opened this week. It is located next to Lamb’s, and shares the same owner. Red Hot features Snake River Farms “100% American Kobe Beef” and has a varied menu including numerous dogs, banh mi, salads, creative sides, and lemonade.

New Downtown Hot Dog Shop

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Wasatch Mountain Table Series

The Wasatch Mountain Table Series at Solitude Mountain Resort is back for its second year. I was invited to check out their inaugural dinner of the season and wanted to share some photos. Before I do, let me give you some details about the series. The Mountain Table is just that–a table set up creekside at the Solitude Mountain resort. 

The Mountain Table seeks to emphasize locally grown and sustainable ingredients. For anyone who knows the chef behind the series, Michael Richey (formerly of Pago), this will come as no surprise. Local farmers, ranchers, and winemakers are present to tell you about their wonderful products. For example, we had Evan Lewandowski, proprietor of local winemaker Ruth Lewandowski, present to tell us all about the exciting (and challenging) things happening in the Utah winemaking scene.

Bruschetta of truffled fava beans, oyster mushrooms, and promontory cheddar

Tempura squash blossoms with housemade ricotta, spearmint, and preserved lemon


Purple mizuna with toasted almonds, Slide Ridge honey, Timpanogos Peak (this cheese is incredible), white peaches, and creamy roasted garlic vinaigrette


Hand cut pasta with hen egg, english peas, beech mushrooms, pancetta, and charred onion butter


Wild sockeye with purple top turnip, new wasatch potato, sugar snap peas, heirloom tomato, white wine and sweet basil

Bing cherry tart with buttermilk ice cream and Bourye caramel

The series runs four more dinners for 2013:
July 13th
August 3rd
August 17th
September 7th

Cost is $75 per person/$110 per person with optional wine pairings. To make reservations, call (801) 536-5722 or email dstevenson@skisolitude.com

Be sure to bring a jacket. It goes from very warm to quite chilly in a matter of minutes once the sun sets.

Disclosure: I was an invited guest of Solitude Resort and did not pay for this meal

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Mountain West Burrito: A Lesson in Blandness

I’ve wanted to check out Mountain West Burrito ever since they were acquired by the Heirloom Restaurant Group, who also own Communal and Pizzeria 712. Heirloom is doing such great things in the Utah dining scene, I was excited to have a little piece of Heirloom closer to home.

I was thrilled to hear that they opened a new Mountain West location near Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, which is a short 10 minute drive from my home. Draper isn’t exactly what you call a food mecca, and choices for quality Mexican-American is limited.

So is Mountain West my new go-to for a tasty burrito? In short, no. In fact, my trip to Mountain West this week was a lesson in blandness. Everything throughout my experience was the epitome of bland.

The location is tucked in next to a Firehouse Subs. The interior space is completely unremarkable. The space is filled with long, communal tables as well as a windowside bar with stools, little to no decor, and no personality. I’m no fan of Cafe Rio’s ridiculous over-the-top decor, either, but putting a little effort into creating a more welcoming environment wouldn’t be a bad idea. 

If you’ve ever been to a Chipotle, Barbacoa, Cafe Rio, or the like you’ll be familiar with Mountain West’s menu. The restaurant offers a variety of burritos, tacos, nachos, and salads. The $14 price for a burrito shocked me, until I realized how large the “giant” size is. Stick with the $7 “regular” size and you’ll have plenty to eat. So, while it offers a solid selection, the menu is rather, well, bland.

Service was vanilla as well. While I appreciated not being constantly yelled at military-style, which is my typical experience at places like Cafe Rio, the person working the counter didn’t seem particularly happy to see us or engage us about the food. We had numerous employees walk past us as we ate, and a little check in (“How is your food?” “Can I get you anything else?”) would have gone the extra mile and would have been appreciated.

Although I certainly appreciate Mountain West’s focus on local, organic, fresh (did I miss any buzzwords?) ingredients, those things are all good as long as the food tastes good. We started with an order of chips and guacamole. The chips were fresh, crunchy, made in-house, and perfectly salted. I ate more than my fair share of these. The guacamole was a disappointment. I would have appreciated some more zip and personality. Maybe some lime juice to add some acidity and offset the creamy avocado. Or perhaps some chopped onions to add some brightness. Cilantro, cumin, cayenne…anything to add some more dimensions other than just avocado.

I tried the half and half burrito. Half steak and half carnitas. The burrito come wrapped in foil and is a bit smaller (although still plenty big) than competitors’ similarly-priced burritos. They steam their tortillas, which adds a certain gumminess to the texture. The meat was tender and perfectly cooked. I had a few crunchy bits of undercooked rice, and the unremarkable guacamole made another appearance. And that’s about it for burrito fillings. In fact, I scanned the dining room looking for a fixings bar, desperate for some onions, cilantro, lime, or even some hot sauce. Nothing was in sight. I asked a dining buddy what flavors he was picking up on with his burrito. “Salt,” was his reply. I couldn’t agree more.

So, all in all not a very good experience at Mountain West. I plan on visiting again and will update this post when I do. But at this point I don’t think I would recommend Mountain West.

What do you think? Have you been to Mountain West? Did I just catch them on a bad day? Let me know!

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Bonneville Brewery Grand Opening

Bonneville Brewery, which recently opened in Tooele, Utah, is having their Grand Opening tomorrow (April 26th) from 4pm until midnight. During this time the brew pub will be giving out free appetizers and other giveaways.

I had the chance to check out Bonneville Brewery last week, and I left impressed. Since I was an invited guest compliments of the brewery, I won’t provide a review, but would like to share some dishes that our dining group got to try.

First of all, the building is impressive. I thought it was a brand new building and was surprised to hear from the restaurant manager that the building was actually an old, sketchy run-down bar before the current owner bought it and completely gutted it and started over. The restaurant is two stories with a giant open space in the middle that gives views up to the bar balcony as well as the two large TV screens on the wall projecting various sports. Downstairs is more restaurant oriented, while the upstairs is the dedicated bar area (21 and older upstairs), but you can get food upstairs as well. I liked the casualness of the upstairs a bit better and think that I will gravitate up there in subsequent visits. 

While my dining companions tried the beer and enjoyed them, I went with one of the restaurants “mocktails.” I hate that name, but oh well. Jeffrey went with the Spicy Raspberry Lemon Cooler, which was delicious. Raspberries, simple syrup, lemon juice, and ginger beer made the perfectly sweet combination. And it is definitely sweet. I didn’t like mine as much, the Cosmo-Not, which was made with cranberry juice, lime juice, and club soda. It was a bit too tart for my liking (“It’s cranberry and lime, what were you thinking, dummy?” Yeah, I know).

We thoroughly enjoyed their appetizers. The Canadian fries (think poutine) were cheesy, salty, rich, and crunchy–everything you want in a dish like this. The friend mac and cheese balls were good, and I particularly enjoyed them with a side of house-made BBQ sauce. Bonneville also does a great job with their wings, and the favorite at the table was the green curry wings. The spicy wings definitely lived up to their name, as I couldn’t taste much for about 5 minutes after trying one. 

Burgers. This place does burgers, and they do them well. Jeffrey had the pastrami burger, and I tried a bite. We both commented on how the meat actually tasted beefy, which is a really good thing. 

I had the bizarrely-named “cheesesteak.” I saw it on the menu right next to its corresponding $18 price tag, and couldn’t figure out for the life of me how they make a cheesesteak worth $18. Well, they do it through a bit of trickery. See, it’s not a cheesesteak in traditional sense of the word. This, my friends, is a perfectly-cooked hanger steak that is rested on a pile of caramelized onions and gruyere cheese. No bread in sight. So don’t let the name fool you. It’s worth every bit of the $18.

We also tried the pot pie and fish and chips, both of which were cooked well, fresh, and tasty. 

For dessert we tried the bread pudding, apple pie pizza, and the Pavlova, which is a creamy, merengue dessert topped with various fruit and a raspberry coulis. The Pavlova was a wonderfully light way to end a heavy meal. 

The owner of the brew pub is also the owner of the nearby All Star Lanes, and while the restaurant is new, the brewery has been creating their own libations for the bowling alley for a while now. This has given their brewmaster the opportunity to really dial the brewing process in.

I don’t get out to Tooele very often, but the next time I’m passing through I’ll definitely plan a little extra time to stop by Bonneville Brewery. 

Bonneville Brewery Grand Opening
Friday, April 26th, 4pm to 12am
1641 North Main St
Tooele, Utah

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Twin brothers Rod and Roger Livingston have competed in numerous national BBQ championships such as Jack Daniels and Sam’s Club, and they have done very well. They’ve decided to open up a new BBQ shop in Salt Lake City at 600 S 300 W. I’ve been a fan of their BBQ for years now, and I highly encourage you to give them a try. They open tomorrow!

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Valrhona Chocolate Event on April 8th

We have milk, white, and dark chocolate. And now, according to Valrhona, we have a new category of chocolate: blond. The genesis of Valrhona’s latest creation, Dulcey, began about eight years ago when Valrhona’s chef, Frederic Bau, accidentally left some white couveture chocolate in a bain marie overnight. Ten hours later, he discovered his error, but before throwing the caramelized, browned chocolate out, decided to give it a try. What he tasted was a chocolate with hints of caramel and shortbread unlike anything he’s tasted before. He knew he was on to something.

It took Valrhona eight long years of recipe development to be able to produce this chocolate on a large enough scale to offer it worldwide to confectioners as well as the public. But now the time has come. And Valrhona, together with Caputo’s, is hosting a fantastic event to introduce this chocolate to Utah.

Representatives will be at Caputo’s the evening of April 8th, and they are putting on a friendly competition to showcase the Dulcey chocolate. Three of Salt Lake’s top pastry chefs, Amber Billingsley (Vinto), Alexa Norlin (The Rose Est.), and Courtney McDowell (Pago, Finca) will go up against each other to see who can make the most over-the-top decadent dessert. Viet Pham (Forage), Ryan Lowder (The Copper Onion, Plum Alley), and Takashi Gibo (Takashi) will be the judges. 

Caputo’s Butcher shop will be dishing out free bites of charcuterie, new kids on the block Charming Beard Coffee will be satiating your caffeine needs, and Uinta Brewing will be sampling their Spring and Summer session style beers, along with a chocolate pairing.

And to top it all off, Valrhona USA corporate pastry chef Alex Espiritu from will be on hand to sample the newest chocolate.

The event is Monday, April 8th at 7pm at Caputo’s Downtown. Admission is $20 and an additional $10 for the beverage pairing. Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling (801) 531-8669 or going to http://www.caputosdeli.com/products/special-event-battle-blond.html I wouldn’t wait too long–these Caputo’s events typically sell out quickly.

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My Very Own “Best Dishes” List

In the spirit of the slew of other “Best Of” dining awards lately, I’ve decided to create my own SLCeats Best Of. Some of the items on the list are world famous, and others are what I would classify as undiscovered gems.

So, without further ado, here’s my completely arbitrary list, in no particular order.

Sandwiches
Sandwiches get prime-time coverage in my book. I love each and every one of these as if they were my own deliciously edible children.

Pho Brisket Sandwich, Oh Mai. Also known as the S12, this puppy usually isn’t on their menu, but they’ll make it for you if you ask nicely. Tender, juicy bits of brisket that are slowly simmered in Pho broth are accompanied by lightly pickled onions and carrots, all surrounded by the most perfectly crispy yet soft buns imaginable. And my favorite secret weapon at Oh Mai? Ask them to put an egg on your sandwich for an extra decadent touch. I usually get mine without jalapeños.

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Reuben, Penny Ann’s. A bit off the beaten path, Penny Ann’s has been dishing out some of Salt Lake’s best comfort food for the past year or two. Family-owned and family-run, this is one of my favorite hangouts in the valley. Although they are best known for their breakfast offerings (get the hotcakes!), their Reuben is one of my favorite dishes in Salt Lake. Flavorful corned beef, thousand island dressing, tart sauerkraut are accompanied by perfectly griddled pieces of Rye bread. And don’t forget to add onion rings on the side.

The Caputo, Caputo’s Market. Yeah, yeah. I know. This sandwich is a bit worn out with publicity. But I tend to find that it’s for good reason. There’s something about just the right amount of bread, meats, and cheeses, slathered with a generous helping of wonderfully fruity balsamic, that make this an instant classic. Also, be on the lookout for Caputo’s Prime Rib Sandwich, which the offer as a special from time to time. It’ll clog your arteries, but you’ll hit the deck smiling.

Appetizers

Pork Belly Buns, Plum Alley. Do you like bacon? How about bacon steak? Because that’s my new name for pork belly. Now, imagine bacon steak gently hugged by the lightest little asian buns you’ve ever felt. No joke, it’s incredible.

Ricotta Dumplings, The Copper Onion. Delicious. If I could only eat one thing the rest of my life, it would be these. Moist, light, and seared off with brown butter and topped with lemon zest, this dish is the epitome of balance. 

Bacon Wrapped Scallops, Pallet. Pallet does seafood, and they do it well. Take a large diver scallop, wrap it in deliciously thick, house-cured bacon, and sear the whole thing off and you have a deliciously decadent appetizer.

Breakfast and Sweets

Banbury Cross. I’ll put these donuts against any others in the country. Seriously. New York, I’ve had your fancy $5 dulce de leche/sea salt concoctions. Portland, I’ve had your grocery store donuts that are topped with Cap’n Crunch that people think are gourmet. But in my book, Banbury makes the best donuts around. Light and fluffy, with the perfect amount of crispy outside. My favorite is the white cake, white frosting, with rainbow sprinkles (HAS to be rainbow). Banbury’s best-kept secret? Get one of their cinnamon rolls. Completely ridiculous.

Liege Waffle, Bruges. Imitated, but yet to be duplicated, Pierre Vandamme has developed what might be the best liege waffle in the state. Pierre began by selling his waffles at the farmers’ market, and eventually moved into a cute, small space that is adjacent to the Caputo’s parking lot. Pierre has recently expanded to a second shop on Highland Drive in Sugarhouse. Waffle. Creme fraiche. Strawberries. Happiness.

Chilaquiles, Red Iguana. Yes, Red Iguana doesn’t open until 11am. However, chilaquiles is traditionally a breakfast item, so I’m putting it here. Chilaquiles was initially developed as a type of casserole that used up excess tortillas from the day before. Red Iguana’s version is serious. Thick chips are doused in a perfect mole poblano sauce, house made chorizo, egg, and salsa. Oh, it also has Mexican crema and avocado, and it’s served with a side of refried beans. I think I ate about ¼ of this dish once. And I was hungry.

French Toast, Bohemian. I know many Salt Lake elites won’t venture south of 33rd, and it can stay that way for all I care. Because that means more French toast for me. Bohemian does theirs differently. The toast is breaded in some secret concoction that gives this French toast the perfect amount of crunch.

The Double Header, Penny Ann’s. That’s my name for my favorite breakfast dish at Penny Ann’s. A corned beef omelette alongside their heavenly hotcakes makes this one of my favorite morning indulgences. Count yourself lucky if you go in when they’re offering the corned beef omelette, since it’s only done from time to time as a special.

Kouing Aman, Les Madeleines. Yeah, I know. You’ve heard of this before. It’s been on the Food Network on the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. You’ve probably even tried it. And if you have, you know exactly why this is on my list. A perfectly crisp, flaky pastry balances sweet and salty in a marvelous way. It ain’t cheap–around $5. But it’s worth every single penny. 

Gelato, Capo Gelateria. Smooth, creamy, wonderful. Get some.

Some Randoms

BBQ, R&R BBQ. Twins Rod and Roger Livingston have been serious competitors in the BBQ contest world, and I guess they’ve had it with people begging and pleading for them to open their own restaurant, because they’re doing it. R&R is opening up at 600 South 300 West, in the old drive-through sushi place. Their ribs are amazing. They should be opening later this month or April.

Taco Cart, El Toro. Park on 8th South and State. Proceed directly to the cart on the south side of the Sears parking lot. Do not be lured by the imitators on the other corners. El Toro is where it’s at. Get a $3 burrito that’s bigger than the $7 burritos you’ll find at the chains. And they’re happy to mix and match their meats in case you’re indecisive. Load up with fixins from the Igloo cooler at the side, then (this is important) hand your burrito back to the cook for them to wrap up. Don’t try and attempt this on your own because you suck at it and it’ll fall apart all over your lap. The quesadillas are also worthy competitors. 

Duck Tacos, Taqueria 27. Todd Gardiner, formerly of Z’Tejas, has started his own restaurant on Foothill Drive. They do tacos, and they do them well. My favorite is the duck taco, which is duck confit, topped with delicious sauces and salsas, and wrapped up in homemade tortillas. My advice: go with a large group so you can order all of the varieties of tacos and get a taste of each.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m realizing that this is going to require multiple posts because I didn’t really cover anything that would be considered an entree. But there you have it. Part 1 of Oprah’s my favorite things in SLC. If you haven’t tried some of these, I highly recommend putting it on your to-do list.

Agree? Disagree? Have anything to add? Put them in the comments!