If you’re new here, I want to introduce you to another series of posts that I’ve been writing for a while now: Long Distance Dinners. Basically, a group of friends and I hop in a car together, or caravan if there’s a larger group, and we drive for an hour or so to a restaurant. Occasionally, Josh and I go for a long distance dinner, just the two of us, as is the case with the Park City restaurant, Al Dente.
Have you ever been to a restaurant where the people serving you take your experience from good to great? That’s Al Dente for me. Each and every server, bar tender or owner that we met while we were there seemed to be especially kind and hospitable. We could have sat and talked with any of them for a long conversation. Our waiter, Lennox, was from Jamaica and had the biggest smile you’ve ever seen. The bartender, John Kornilakis, made Josh an Old-Fashioned and put Blantons bourbon instead of the lesser usual whiskey. And the owner, a amiable guy who cared enough to come introduce himself to the strangers taking photos of his restaurant’s food.
The food matched the good service. We had succulent wild mushroom crostini with generous amounts of truffle oil for an appetizer. Then I chose the Linguini alla Diavola, a dish full of Littleneck clams, PEI mussels, Black Tiger Prawns in a spicy tomato sauce.
When I ordered Lennox asked me, ‘Now tell me girl, do you like spicy?’ Yes, YES I do!! And when he brought me the dish he brought some extra red pepper flakes on the side, just in case the pasta wasn’t spicy enough. I paired it with a glass Chianti, which was a perfect combo. I absolutely love having shelled seafood over a long meal. I enjoy the experience of taking apart each shell to get all of the meat inside and dipping the juicy meat into the chef’s special sauce for the seafood bite.
Josh was feeling extra manly, and ordered the ribeye special. And we found out later that this was the same dish the owner chose to eat that evening. When chatting with the owner we also learned what Al Dente means, ‘to the tooth.’ It describes a way pasta is prepared in Italy – firm and sometimes crunchy. At Al Dente in Park City, pasta is served a bit more cooked because the majority of Americans aren’t quite interested in true al dente.
We topped off our evening with a dessert recommended by our waiter, the sampler of Gelato. The vanilla with sea salt and olive oil was my favorite.
What we didn’t expect from our little jaunt to a Park City Itlaian restaurant was the relationship that we would start with the bar tender there. Since meeting John that night, we’ve talked whiskey with him on multiple occasions, then we had him come out for our last SLC Mixer to introduce and discuss the whiskeys we tasted over the evening. John even shared his whiskey sour recipe with us, which is posted over at TheVintageMixer.com today. Its the unexpected things about a meal that I especially enjoy and for this evening it was the people we met.
Overall, Al Dente had exceptional service and high quality Italian food, making for a very special night out in Park City.
136 Heber Avenue
for reservations:(435) 200-0260
