SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City
A food blog about restaurants in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Ryan Kendrick's words and photos.
From my friends over at Building Salt Lake comes the news that the Hotel Monaco, as well as the hotels restaurant Bambara and bar The Vault will be closing temporarily for renovations.
The restaurant and bar will be closed for renovations beginning April 17th, with Bambara planning to re-open mid-June.
Additional details, including photos of the redesigned rooms, can be found over at Building Salt Lake.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you didn’t get a chance to check out Seattle’s famous Piroshky Piroshky pop-up the last time they were in town, you get a chance at redemption. PP just announced they are returning to Salt Lake on March 3rd, and they are accepting pre-orders right now. More info from their press release below.
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Piroshky Piroshky is heading back to Utah by popular demand. This time around, we’re visiting Provo and Salt Lake City.
Starting today, you can order a taste of Seattle’s internationally renowned bakery Piroshky Piroshky for Pre-Order Pickup on the selected date.
Founded in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market, Piroshky Piroshky has offered hand-crafted Eastern European pastries to loyal fans since 1992.
Famous for its long lines out the door, Piroshky Piroshky Bakery has received widespread acclaim over the years, including a feature on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” and voted one of “The 20 Most Iconic Food Destinations Across America” by the Smithsonian.
With free delivery from Seattle’s favorite bakery to your city, our hand-held pies are not to be missed!
If it’s your first time, we invite you to visit our website to check out our unique and delicious options, including seasonal items available for a limited time.
How it works:
1. Select our best-selling pies online at piroshkybakery.com ahead of our visit.
2. Relax, knowing your piroshky is hand-made and made to order. (Items are flash frozen delivery.)
3. Pick up your piroshky on the event day, and say “Hi”; we love making new friends! 🙂
It’s that simple, delicious & fun. Thank you for your continued support!
Salt Lake City, UT – SaltFire Brewing Company
Event Date: 03/03/23
Pick Up Time: 04:00 PM – 06:00 PM
Location: 2199 S W Temple St, South Salt Lake, UT, 84115
Order Deadline: 03/01/23 – 2:00 PM
Minimum Order: $50.00
Here’s the link to order. Orders are due by 3/1.
Great news on the heels of Forty-Three Bakery’s recent announcement that they are moving from their current shared commissary location on 1700 South to new digs on Genesee Ave, Salt Lake City recently announced that the loan fund approved a $100,000 Economic Development Loan for Forty-Three, which will enable them to make the move a reality.
As an added bonus, the move will further promote the redevelopment of the The West End project, which is an RDA-driven initiative designed to bring more businesses to the west side and to the Nine Line area in particular.
The move to the bigger space will allow owner Andrew Corrao to not only continue offering his wonderful pastries, but to also expand his product offerings to include coffee, cakes, and made-to-order sandwiches. According to Andrew, he expects that construction will take around 3 months, and is hoping for a spring opening.
In the meantime, you can continue buying his treats at his current location at 67 W 1700 S.
Big kudos to the following restaurant chefs and owners for making the semi finalist list for 2023!
Sometimes restaurant awards miss the mark, but in this case, each one of these nominations is so very well deserved. Each of these restaurants has had an outsized influence on the Salt Lake dining scene in their own unique ways.
Congratulations to each of the nominees! The full list of nominees can be found here.
I’m way late on getting this one out, but felt it was important to share due to the sheer size of the commitment and the impact to our community. See below.
High West, the Park City-based distillery known for its meticulously sourced and innovatively blended whiskeys, announces today its Protect the West initiative, a $1 million commitment over the next three years to protect the land and its inhabitants. The announcement coincides with the national release of High West’s seasonal bottle Campfire, one of the brand’s most unique and iconic expressions. In honor of Campfire, the first donation will benefit the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the brave few who run towards the fire, including the wildfires increasingly plaguing the West.
Since opening its doors in 2007, High West has witnessed firsthand how the West has been impacted by a rapidly changing climate, resulting in higher temperatures, severe droughts, drier forests and reduced snowpack. Immediately taking note, the brand has donated more than $1M to nonprofits to date, with the majority of those funds going toward organizations protecting the West and its inhabitants. Now, High West is reaffirming and strengthening this commitment to its own backyard. As part of the Protect the West initiative, High West will partner with organizations that share High West’s passion for the West and whose conservation efforts fall into three focus areas: the fight against wildfires, protecting winters and wildland preservation.
“Now is not the time for us to sit on the sidelines. Our home in the West and everything we love about it is in more and more danger every year,” said Daniel Schear, General Manager of High West. “We’re building on our past work with this $1 million commitment to protect the West, and we are excited to work with those who are also passionate about saving this beautiful part of the world we call home.”
The $150,000 inaugural donation will be split between three organizations to support them in their crucial missions. Future donations will be announced over the course of the next three years as High West continues to identify and support organizations striving to Protect the West.
● Wildland Firefighter Foundation, dedicated to helping the families of firefighters killed in the line of duty and to assisting injured firefighters and their families.
● Protect Our Winters, a community of athletes, scientists, creatives, and business leaders advancing non-partisan policies to protect our outdoor playgrounds from climate change.
● American Prairie, creating the largest nature reserve in the contiguous United States by purchasing critical habitat that connects a vast network of existing public lands for wildlife conservation and public access.
In recognition of the Campfire release and to continue supporting the brave protectors who defend us from fires each and every day, High West is donating $50,000 to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation and matching consumer donations up to an additional $50,000. The American West is burning more quickly than it has in a decade, and over three million acres of U.S. land – almost the size of Connecticut – have burned so far this year. The donation to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation will directly benefit the families of fallen and injured firefighters, honoring those who tirelessly work to protect our lands.
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
SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City 