Just to get this out of the way from the get-go: I have no idea what their name is about. But that is just the start of the frenetic, scattered fever dream that is Nutritious Bowls, located in the Rio Grande area of SLC.
The location itself adds to the question marks that prevailed in my feeble brain throughout my visit. Upon entering there is a private dining room, equipped with a TV and the perfect hangout for The Real Mobsters of SLC. Toward the back of the dining area you will find a bar with plenty of TVs blasting out a cacophany of sportsball-related endeavors. I have to think that in a former life this thing was built to be a sportsbar.
The mezzanine provides some seating options out of the main traffic flow. I think that’s good and bad, because our poor server was so overwhelmed that we rarely saw her. It took about 45 minutes just to get us some water and take our order. I heard whispers that she was training, with no trainer in sight throughout the evening.
The menu carries on the fever-dream theme. To help paint you a picture, here are some examples of menu items that were present on a single menu:
Crispy cheese balls
Red pepper hummus
Fried deviled eggs
Farfalle pasta bowl
Cajun shrimp pasta bowl
Tikka masala pasta bowl
Royal curry
Pepperoni pizza
Chimichurri steak wrap
Chicken caprese burger
Caesar salad
Baklava
Gulab Jamun
Try to draw a line to make logical connections between these items, I dare you. You’ll run out of ink before you do.
Despite the wide range of offerings, everything we tried, including the fried deviled eggs, tikka masala pasta, and chimichurri steak wrap were all very tasty.
Babe Ruth was known for his healthy appetite. He was known for his particular love for hot dogs, reportedly downing 10-12 hot dogs before a game.
While The Bambino in Midvale doesn’t do hot dogs, I suspect Ruth would have been equally proud to have his nickname adorning the outside placard of this wood-fired pizza shop.
The Bambino is larger than I imagined, taking up the footprint of two of the historical buildings on historic Main Street (they share space with Setties, an ice cream and other sweet treats shop). Additional space is available on their large outdoor patio, lending plenty of breathing room for everyone.
We selected the cheese pizza, sausage, “The Peach” (consisting of whole milk mozzarella, fresh seasonal peaches, jalapeños, honey, and basil), and the “Garlic Smalls,” which is basically their version of a garlicky cheesy bread made from their pizza dough.
Everything was super delicious. The pizza was everything I like about a good wood-fired pizza: excellent flavor, including the dough, great texture, and the pizza is light enough that you don’t feel like you need a nap after dinner.
They’ve taken inspiration from the movie The Sandlot with their pizza names and overall vibe. Word on the street is that they have quite a robust secret pizza menu named after some of The Sandlot characters.
The Bambino is open from 11-8pm on weekdays, and “later on weekends.” I plan on swinging by for lunch to try one of their “Portafoglio” (wallet) sandwiches named the Mortazza. It’s made from their pizza dough, lemon nutmeg ricotta, mortadella, arugula, pistachios, shallots, salt and pepper. Sounds like an absolute grand slam.
It’s always fun to discover someone or something that does things a bit differently than the rest. Taking chances and experimentation creates excitement and vibrancy. And few SLC restaurants exhibit this better than SLC Eatery, located on 1017 South Main Street.
SLC Eatery remains one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake. I love the someone oddball location on Main Street around 10th South. The building is a former rock shop, sandwiched between a motel and a used car dealership. The interior decor remains current, with beautiful woodwork designed and built by Chad Parkinson at The Furniture Joint.
The wide-ranging menu is creative and daring, but keeping things within most peoples’ comfort zones. Expect to find everything from Utah scones to bulgogi to albacore tataki to swordfish.
My favorite feature of the restaurant is the dim sum cart, which is wheeled around to diners at least twice throughout the meal. The dim sum cart at State Bird in San Francisco inspired co-owner and chef Paul Chamberlain to incorporate a dim sum cart as part of SLC Eatery.
Pre-COVID, the cart was chock-full of various small plates filled with tasty bites. The plates are priced low enough to encourage diners to try a bunch of different plates and see what they like. Now, in a post-COVID world, and with food waste in mind, the cart no longer has ready-made plates ready to be picked off the cart. Rather, the cart has one prepared plate of each option, allowing diners to choose which they would like. The dishes are then prepared a la minute and brought out. I’ll admit some of the charm of the cart is gone with this change, but the idea is still fantastic and sets SLC Eatery apart from other restaurants. On a recent visit, we were able to try a bunch of different small plates, instead of committing to just one entree.
I love that the cart allows co-owners and chefs Logan Crew and Paul Chamberlain a creative outlet to experiment with different flavors and techniques. On the evening we stopped by, we were lucky that one of the dim sum items was an item that’s been with them from the start: the very lovely Tokyo Turnips, with a wonderfully sweet and bright caper date purée and a sesame garlic crunch. The Utah Scone with “everything” seasoning was wonderfully light and crunchy, and the clam dip with tobiko and house-made potato chips were a hit. My favorite small plate was the fried quail with pomegranate and an SLC Eatery take on barbecue sauce. The quail was shatteringly crisp and perfectly cooked.
Buttermilk Bleu Cheese AranciniOrecchiette with Chorizo RaguFried Qual with Pomegranate and BBQ Sauce
A standout plate of the evening was the calamari “fried rice,” a gorgeous dish with crispy rice, a carrot ginger nage, jalapeños, olive, and cilantro. Logan and Paul really know how to balance flavors in a way that each dish is wonderfully tasty, but not overpowering.
Tokyo Turnips, Calamari Fried Rice, Clam Dip with Tobiko and House-Made Chips
For our main, we had the house-made orecchiette in a basque chorizo ragu and topped with buffalo mozzarella. It was outstanding.
At the end of the meal, the dim sum cart made another tempting round, this time with desserts. We chose the apple cheesecake with salted caramel and oat crumble. The crust was unique, and was more filo dough-like than a standard graham cracker crust, but it was delicious regardless.
Apple Cheesecake
I absolutely love and appreciate the niche that SLC Eatery has managed to carve out for itself in SLC. The food is elevated but approachable, and reasonably priced (expect to pay between $30 and $40 for most entrees). The chefs flirt with molecular gastronomy, but keep it on the conservative side of the spectrum in a way that doesn’t scare off their general audience and keeps prices reasonable.
One other side note: you know the old cliche that we eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths? Paul and Logan get that. And it shows with their food photography, especially on their Instagram account, which routinely posts some incredibly beautiful photos of their food. They seem to be one of the few restaurants in SLC that understand that proper food photography sets restaurants apart from the rest.
Paul and Logan (and the rest of the SLC Eatery crew): keep doing your thing, man. I love the inventiveness, the willingness to stick your necks out to try a unique location and a unique service model.
The good news/bad news world of SLC dining continues. Right on the heels of the news of the closure of two Sugarhouse restaurants, Flatbread Pizza and Habit Burger, a new pizza place opens around the corner.
Pizza Volta, created by Martin Brass and Paul Cucchiarelli of Hand Fire Pizza in Jackson, recently opened on McClelland Street. The restaurant is making community involvement a pillar of their operations, by offering non-profits one night per week to fundraise based on a portion of that night’s sales. More info on the “Pizza With A Purpose” nights can be found here.
The menu appears to have some interesting options. I’m particularly intrigued by their take on a “funeral potatoes” pizza, which features cheddar cream sauce, mozzarella, roasted potato, prosciutto, red onion, and yes, corn flakes. I’m not sure how any true Utahn could resist that!
Full press release below
Pizza Volta announced today the opening of their newest location in Sugar House with a menu featuring a variety of artisan pizzas made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. From classic cheese to more creative options like beet, goat cheese and dill or the bacon and caramelized onion combo, there’s something for every pizza lover at Pizza Volta.
Pizza Volta offers an extensive beer selection and specialty cocktail menu to compliment every aroma and flavor. For kombucha lovers, try the Bad and Boochie or celebrate a special occasion with a glittery swig of Strawberry Fields. The current cocktail menu features local favorites Jack Rabbit Gin and Five Wives Vodka arranged with convivial mixers of mint, lavender and more.
Pizza Volta’s Paul Cucchiarelli and Martin Brass said, “We are thrilled to open the doors in Salt Lake City and look forward to sharing their passion for great pizza with the community. We are also excited to give back to the community through our weekly fundraisers with local nonprofits. It’s important for us to be able to make a positive and lasting impact in our new neighborhood. Supporting the community that supports us has always been one of our fundamental principles.” Pizza Volta believes in serving more than just delicious pizza to the Salt Lake City community. On Tuesday nights proceeds from local nonprofits are given a platform at Pizza Volta to promote their cause. Portions of every pizza sold in-house or for take out go directly to that participating organization. Nonprofit organizers interested in being featured can check out the Pizza Volta ‘Pizza With a Purpose’ page for application information.
Cucchiarelli and Brass are no strangers to creating successful pizza restaurants in beautiful locales. They launched Hand Fire Pizza in Jackson, Wyoming in 2017 in a landmark, historical theater building. Pizza Volta is now open 11:30 am – 10 pm and offers dine-in and takeout options. Parking is available along McClelland Street, in addition to street parking all around Sugar House and in the parking garage below the Pizza Volta building. For promotions, menu changes and other delectable news, follow the Pizza Volta blog or follow Pizza Volta on Instagram and Facebook.
Tons of action happening over the next few weeks at Flanker. Check out the info below.
Flanker Kitchen + Sporting Club is celebrating its first anniversary with a new high-energy concert series, delicious brunch, and a Super Bowl watch-party for the ages. Reservations for the Super Bowl Watch Party and Anniversary Brunch are highly recommended and can be made at www.flankerslc.com.
Grammy Award-Winning Artist Anderson Paak who is DJing under his alter ego DJ PeeWee, said, “I’m super excited and honored to be spinning at Flanker for their 1 year anniversary! It’s gonna be the best way to start the year off right! Can’t wait to get the people moving and grooving! Salt Lake, here Wee come, baby! ”
“It’s been an exciting first year and we look forward to building on our success,” said Bryan Bass, Chief Marketing Officer of Carver Road Hospitality. “In addition to our anniversary festivities, Super Bowl Sunday was our most popular event last year and we’re going to make this year even bigger and better. As the best place in town to watch the big game, we expect this party will sell-out so sports fans should secure their reservations right away.”
While no excuse is needed to come enjoy the food, drinks and atmosphere, the Flanker Anniversary event line up is not to be missed:
Friday, January 27 – ‘PARTY GOERS’ CONCERT
In the first installment of the new Salt Sessions concert series, the Party Goers will deliver an electric performance. Salt Sessions are modeled after the popular NPR Tiny Desk series where artists play original work made for the big stage but performed in an intimate setting. New artists will be announced each month.
PARTY GOERS is known for high energy live performances and their swaggerous investigation of hip hop, house and electronic music. The three members reside in various locations strewn through the Rocky Mountain West, and in many ways their music reflects this geographic. Sampled sounds from the forest creating tech-house soundscapes, high-elevation hip hop beats, side-chained kicks gasping for oxygen, gritty MPC laden tracks scratched by countless turntables…a sonic collage that strikes original. It’s a party.
The pre-show entertainment will be DJ Gabba from 6:30PM to 8:30PM and DJ Karma will close out the evening.
Saturday, January 28 – DJ SOXXI and DJ PEE WEE aka ANDERSON PAAK
DJ Soxxi hails from Las Vegas and mixes buoyant sounds with screaming dance music. She illustrates a raw, unrestrained style of hard house while maintaining an approachable opening to club-goers. She symbolizes in life and music that anything is possible and there are no boundaries.
Anderson Paak is fresh off a New Year’s Eve collaboration with Bruno Mars and ready to party in Salt Lake City! At the 64th Grammy Awards he won Song of the Year for Leave the Door Open. In addition to his solo career, Anderson Paak formed the duo NxWorries, regularly plays with the band Free Nationals, and collaborates with Bruno Mars in Silk Sonic. This Grammy award winning rapper not only dazzles with his high-energy sets, he also gives back to under-served communities through his Paak House initiative.
Sunday, January 29 – ANNIVERSARY BRUNCH WITH MYSTIC MUSE
Help celebrate 365 days of food, cocktails, sports, karaoke, concerts, dance parties, and so much more at Flanker + Kitchen and Sporting Club. Toast with a spicy mimosa, chai mule, a bloody maria, any artisan cocktail you crave or sip from the well-rounded beer selection. Enjoy eggs benedict four ways, steak and eggs, shrimp and grits, and the famous hot fried chicken sandwich.
Eat, drink and converse while Sea Jay, known as DJ Mystic Muse, spins intoxicating tunes. Mystic Muse is a multidisciplinary artist who creates meditative and striking environments for people to dance and live in the present moment. She often paints live during her sets adding an ethereal nature to her work. The more the merrier at the Anniversary Brunch so book your group reservation now.
Sunday, February 12 – SUPER BOWL AT FLANKER KITCHEN + SPORTING CLUB
No matter who is playing, the Super Bowl is always one of the most watched events around the world. Come for the atmosphere, more than 60 TV, large LED screens and stay for the unbeatable food and drink offerings. Sports fans wanting the best seats at Utah’s premier Sporting Club & Kitchen should book your reservation now, before Flanker is sold out for the biggest game of the season.
Congrats to the Todd and Kristin Gardner, who recently sold Taqueria 27 to restauranteur Laxman Paudyal.
From the press release:
Taqueria 27, a local favorite, is delighted to announce new ownership. The restaurant will continue to serve up its unique signature tacos and delicious margaritas under the direction of the new owners, who are committed to preserving the quality and character of the restaurant.
Miles Clark, the new operations manager for Taqueria 27, is a Salt Lake City local through and through. He loves the food culture of the city and surrounding areas. He has also been in the restaurant business since he was 15 years old, holding jobs from dishwasher to manager to everything in between.
“I am looking forward to taking such an amazing company to new heights,” said Miles. “We plan to expand Taqueria 27 with the same high standards that have already been in place. We are very proud of the previous owners’ dedication to very fresh food and cocktails! We would like to continue with their high dedication to our food and drink menus. We are bringing in new liquor options for our guests.”
Laxman Paudyal, Taqueria 27’s new president, is a successful businessman that has grown from the ground up. He is a military vet that worked with the US military in several countries as a translator. He was born and raised in Nepal. He has been in the United States since 2002, where he put himself through college at BYU. He has successfully run multiple restaurants, including Big Daddy’s Pizza and Carlos And Harleys.
“Our goals are to continue high-quality service and food standards,” Miles continued. “Our mission is to take care of our guests as though they were at our own dinner tables. Our drive is to provide guests with timely service, great food, and a high-quality work environment for our staff. Our key to success will be our fresh-to-order food and drinks and our knowledge of the restaurant industry.”
I think it’s safe to say that the Kirchheimer family is all-in on Salt Lake City. Brooks Kirchheimer has been saying for years that they would love to one day open a restaurant in SLC after two successful ventures in Park City, Heath & Hill and Hill’s Kitchen.
And now they’re putting their money where their mouths are, opening the gorgeous new Urban Hill restaurant in the exciting new Post District. Brooks’ dad, the other co-founder of their restaurant group, said “we’re all betting on SLC’s future.” And this restaurant proves that statement completely.
I will disclose that I am an unabashed fanboy of what the developers of Post District are doing. They are taking old buildings on the block (between 5th South and 6th South and 3rd West and 5th West) and are not only preserving the character of the area, but are amplifying it.
So naturally I was ecstatic to hear that Urban Hill was going to be Post District’s first commercial tenant, anchoring the rest of the retail development and setting a very high bar for future retail neighbors.
No expense was spared with the restaurant design. The Hill group hired Denver-based restaurant design firm Semple Brown Design. The best way I can describe the design is modern, elegant, and warm. Fireplaces, warm tones, and elegant woodwork abound.
The Hill restaurant group is officially named Leave Room For Dessert Eateries, but I’m way too lazy to type all of that out. So it’s called Hill restaurant group around these parts. The Kirchheimers take a unique and refreshing approach to staffing their restaurants. They are big believers in community, and believe that community starts with their employees, whom they call “associates.”
Hill associates are given health insurance benefits on day one of employment. They participate in profit-sharing and other benefits that you typically don’t associate with restaurant staff benefits. Brooks believes that if they have inspired associates, then they will create inspired experiences for their guests. Given their prior successes, it seems like they’re proving that the model works.
I wasn’t able to try too much of the menu at the grand opening event, but I think it’s safe to say that their high standards regarding staffing and restaurant design also transfer over to the food. To start, they hired Executive Chef Nick Zocco, formerly of Mesa Grill, SW Steakhouse, and most recently at Tupelo in Park City.
The menu is robust but not overwhelming. The same can’t be said of the alcohol menu, which I believe has more pages than the Bible. While we were there, they were putting the final bottles of wine in their wine cellar, which is smack dab in the middle of the dining area, and very impressive.
The food menu features oysters, mussels, the largest shrimp I’ve ever seen, striped bass, black angus filet, and bison ribeye. The prices reflect the quality of the ingredients, with entrees ranging from $29 to $110. Urban Hill seems to be the Hill group’s final leg of their three-legged stool of affordability, with Hill’s Kitchen at the lower price range, Hearth & Hill in the middle, and Urban Hill at the top. Seems like a smart strategy to me.
I wish them the very best. They’ll have a feather in their cap as the first business to take a risk at Post District, anchoring the future development of the area. And if this is the level of quality that will fill out the rest of Post, then SLC is in for a treat.
Urban Hill 550 South 300 West, Salt Lake City (385) 295-4200 urban-hill.com Open daily from 4pm to 9:30pm
I’m not usually one to rag on local restaurants. I like to think of myself as more of a hype man regarding SLC’s dining scene than anything else. I truly feel that anyone that’s willing to stick their neck out and run a restaurant deserves our applause and support. Generally speaking, if a restaurant is out there trying their best, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt when things fall short.
However, there’s a point in which certain restaurants don’t even try anymore, and when they get to that point, they deserve to be called out. I feel it’s disrespectful to customers when the service and the food is so egregiously bad that it’s obvious the restaurant has given up on having any sort of standards.
Sadly, such is the case with Pat’s BBQ. I don’t know what happened to Pat’s over the past little while, but whatever it is, it hasn’t been for the better. I will say I noticed a similar pattern with another once-great BBQ restaurant: R&R BBQ. Both have seemed to followed the same path: original owner/pitmaster sells out, transitions away from the business, and the quality control falls apart.
At the Commonwealth location off 21st South, it’s a full-service restaurant, unlike their State St location, which is quick-serve style. I feel the quick-serve setup is better for most BBQ restaurants, and given that 90% of the BBQ restaurants I’ve been to over the years is the “order at the counter and sit down” style, I think it’s evident that that’s the way to go.
Walking into Pat’s was a sleepy affair, with us waiting several minutes be be acknowledged by the lone server working that day. The first red flag was that the place smelled absolutely nothing like a BBQ place. I want to walk in and smell like there’s a raging campfire in the room next door (or at least somewhere in the vicinity.) Staged or not, I want some smell of burning wood to tell me there’s some serious smoking work going on behind the scenes. Pat’s smelled more like a Costco or a library than a BBQ restaurant.
Once seated, no drink order was taken, and what seemed like ten minutes passed before our food order was taken. It was not busy.
And then the food arrived. First, the positives: the french fries were very good. Breaded, crispy, and warm. Same goes for the baked beans, which were rich and flavorful. And then there was the brisket, which was a room-temperature nightmare, and the slices had some obvious oxidation that told me these slices had been sitting out for a while. The room-temperature meat made me nervous. A comment was made to the server about this, and the reply was “I’ll let her know” (assuming the “her” was the cook). No efforts were made to rectify the situation by either replacing the meat with another option, or taking it off the bill. If I’m running a restaurant and a customer tells me something’s not up to snuff, they’re going to get more than just an “I’m sorry.” “I’m sorry” doesn’t fix the problem. It just makes the server feel better while leaving the diner with a bad experience.
For the cornbread, I might as well have eaten drywall spackle. It would have been more moist and would have had more flavor than what we were given. And maybe the drywall would have come with a side of butter, which is more than the cornbread came with.
My kid had the mac and cheese, which looked sadder than the empty band stage behind us. He didn’t even touch it. It was barely warm, with terrible presentation, and lacking in flavor. For my four-year-old to not completely house a cup of mac-and-cheese told me everything I needed to know about it.
If a shoulder shrug and an eye roll could be personified in food and service format, it was perfected in this meal at Pat’s.
Enjoy the $25, Pat’s. It’s going to be the last money you ever see from me.
Wildwood Restaurant sits nestled amongst historic homes on 3rd Avenue in the city’s Avenues neighborhood, and is located in the former Avenues Bistro location.
“American Comfort Food” is the name of the game here. Their website describes themselves as a “product driven restaurant which features an evolving and continuously changing menu with craft cocktails, beer, and wine.”
It’s no surprise the menu is approachable yet innovative, given that Wildwood is owned by Chef Michael Richey. Richey is a mainstay of the Salt Lake culinary scene, having opened Pago and working previously as the chef at Solitude as well as Grand Targhee Resort. Those familiar with Pago’s culinary approach will feel right at home at Wildwood.
The menu is innovative yet not intimidating. Diners will spot recognizable offerings such as shishitos, salmon pillows, croquettes, chicken wings, fish and chips, and fried chicken. But each of these dishes buck tradition in their own unique (and good) way.
For example, the chicken wings were cooked to a perfect crisp. That much is to be expected from any competent kitchen. But the spicy sambal sauce that the wings were doused in added a unique, spicy tangent that presented wings in an entirely different light and paired with the blue cheese dip made an irresistible combination. I couldn’t stop eating them. I will admit that I wasn’t sure at the time (and I’m still not sure now) if the bright orange oil that covered the plate was a feature or a bug of the dish. But that question certainly didn’t slow me down.
The braised pork dish had some familiar aspects, featuring crispy pork belly and tender short ribs, accompanied by shishitos, some greens, and a deliciously light and tart cara cara orange and pear gastrique. The citrus was a perfect foil for the rich and fatty pork.
The “Desert Mountain Burger” features caramelized onions, Beehive Cheese cheddar, bourbon bacon, and an aioli. The burger was really nice, and pretty much what you’d expect from a restaurant of this caliber. Although I must admit I continue to hold out hope that the fancy burger trend will shift away from these giant, gloppy, unmanageable creations, and shift back to something that I’m able to eat at my leisure without having to wolf it down before either a) the bun disintegrates and it turns into a big, sloppy mess or b) everything slides off the burger because there’s simply too much “stuff” on it. I’m of the opinion that burgers shouldn’t be taller than what I can fit in my mouth. Make Burgers Approachable Again.
Other items such as the mushroom risotto, cast iron bavette, and roasted steelhead trout left me anxious to stop by again to try them out. With their quickly-rotating menu, I hope that I’ll be able to catch them before they’re gone, although I’m sure that when they are replaced, they’ll be replaced with items that are equally delicious.
The layout of the restaurant is, shall we say, unique. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise to those familiar with the eclectic architectural designs of Avenues residences and businesses. Our reservation was at 6, and so the dinner service was just getting into full swing, with the main-level dining room completely packed.
The hostess beckoned us to follow her, and indeed we did, past all of the diners, past the galley-style kitchen, being careful to avoid the dish rinsing station, kitchen racks, and other various “back of the house” objects. We made it past the kitchen, to the back of the building, and then down a narrow staircase into what can best be described as a downstairs bar/speakeasy. The speakeasy was plenty dark, and we were the only ones down there. The tables were rounded glass perched atop High West whiskey barrels, so leg-stretching was not an option. The chairs were backless mid-height barstools.
On one hand, it was a cool, unique experience. On the other had, it was somewhat uncomfortable, and lacked the typical conviviality that is usually experienced in a busy, bustling restaurant. I felt like we were sitting at the otherwise empty kids’ table at Aunt Mildred’s house.
But the awkwardness abated after a half hour or so, as other diners found themselves seated in our intimate dining dungeon. It was actually sort of fun as we laughed about the situation and found some humor in all of it.
The separation also made me wonder if the attentiveness of service would suffer as a result of our being cast into outer darkness. But those concerns were unfounded as our server was extremely attentive and did everything he could to make sure we had a special experience at Wildwood.
My advice is as follows: if you want a busy, loud dining experience with a bunch of hub-bub, ask to be seated in the main dining room. If you’re looking for something more intimate and secluded, and are fine sitting on stools and dining on whiskey barrels, then by all means ask for downstairs. It was a fun experience. My suggestion to WildWood would be that if you’re going to seat someone down there, make sure you ask them ahead of time when they make the reservation, if it’s ok. Explain the situation. Don’t put your diners in the uncomfortable situation of either requesting a seating change and disrupting the dining plans for the evening, or just dealing with the surprise of the seating situation.
Either way, no matter what you decide, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the food, or the experience. As an Avenues resident, I’m glad that we have these small neighborhood spots to enjoy, and hope that Wildwood will be around for many years to come.
Wildwood is currently open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner service only, from 5pm to close.
WildWood 564 E 3rd Ave Salt Lake City (801) 831-5409
Right before the pandemic began, Jeff and Lisa Ward (owners of Silverstar Café in Park City signed a lease on the small restaurant space formerly occupied by Fireside on Regent, just next to the Eccles Theater and a stone’s throw from Prettybird Salt Lake.
To be honest, I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to even think about opening a restaurant right as talk of remote work and quarantining started to infiltrate our daily conversations. But for the Wards, it gave them a bit of a breather; a chance to reset and really think things through and consider how (and what) they wanted their first venture into Salt Lake dining to be.
Ant their thoughtful approach shows in every detail at Fenice Mediterranean Bistro (126 S Regent Street). The layout and design of the space keeps things intimate and warm (no doubt helped by the piping hot pizza oven located in the corner of the open kitchen). I was invited by the restaurant to stop by and check out some dishes.
The menu reflect the Mediterranean vibes well, with various small plates such as roasted olives with burrata, polenta with balsamic-roasted potatoes (really tasty), and patatas bravos.
For pasta, I tried the bolognese bianca, which was absolutely rich, creamy, and delicious. Exactly what you would expect from a well-executed bolognese. Other dishes that caught my eye that I didn’t get a chance to try were the mushroom risotto, the osso bucco, whole roasted branzino, and a New York steak au poivre. Inquiries to other diners who had those dishes were met with strong, favorable reviews. The pizzas also looked delicious.
Prices are reasonable considering the level of execution of the dishes as well as the downtown location, with the mains ranging from around $25-$30, pizzas $18, and pasta dishes $17-$22.
For the adult beverage side of things, I will as always graciously bow out of offering any opinions other than saying that the restaurant features a full cocktail menu and what appears to me to be a quite substantial selection of wines and beers. I will note that due to their current liquor license, you must be 21 or older to dine at Fenice.
The restaurant is currently open for dinnerTuesday through Saturday from 5pm-9:30pm, and their websites states they are closed Mondays and Tuesdays. No mention of Sundays so be sure to check with them prior to hoofing it down there. Dinner only for now, but they anticipate they will expand into brunch and lunch soon.
SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City 