One of our favorite local chefs recently made a shift to a brand new restaurant in town, Stanza. We’ve followed Phelix Gardner as he’s helped open new restaurants and changed up menus over the years, always enjoying what he comes up with, so, in a way, we knew we would love Stanza.

Not too long before Stanza opened our favorite ‘special occasion’ restaurant closed, Fresco.  This cosy spot had been our place to enjoy a comforting bowl of house-made pasta for years, celebrating anniversaries, pregnancies, and birthdays.  All that to say, not only were we excited about Stanza because of Phelix but we also we’re suddenly in the need for a new special spot for pasta.

We instantly enjoyed our Italian meal at Stanza, quickly throwing back big bites of cheese filled arancini, followed by a healthful bowl of arugula salad then onto our main squeeze… pasta.  I tried the agnolotti, small pillow-like pastas filled sometimes with cheese but in this case with pureed peas and served with fresh shrimp, early summer green veggies and topped with a shellfish sauce. It was elegant and tasteful and perfectly comforting, filling my pasta void. 

My masculine date ordered the special of the day, Bolognese, also served on housemade pasta.  He ate it up as if he were in Italy for the first time (he loves Italy and eats all of the Bolognese style pastas he can possibly find while we’re there!).

Finally, we ordered dessert, whether or not we saved room for it because… cherry buckle with buttermilk gelato, who can resist that?! We also tasted a few other gelato flavors, spicy honey and thai basil, both nearly stole the show at the end of our very tasty evening.

So, did we like Stanza?  Not only like but NEED!  There was a sudden void for good pasta and gelato in our lives and Stanza came through with flying colors!

Stanza
454 East 300 South

I’m always looking for new healthy spots to dine out in town. While we definitely like to splurge on food and eat whatever we want from time to time, our main diet is pretty health conscious and light.  Mollie and Ollie is definitely a place you could dine-out to weekly or more and feel great about.

My toddler and I first tried the Strawberry Fields Salad and Green Smoothie, sharing the two and equally fighting over them both.  The strawberry salad is filled with roasted beets, strawberries, broccoli, feta and almonds, tossed in a horseradish vinaigrette.  On our second visit we also tried the Citrus Lime Roasted Garlic Stir Fry which comes with red quinoa, honey brined chicken, kale, green beans, red onions and summer squash in a savory sauce.

Both meals at Mollie and Ollie were equally satisfying and nutritious.  A few tips for eating here: while the menu is pretty awesome and easy to enjoy on its own, you can also create your own bowls and salads, which is great if you’re with a group or have anyone with dietary restrictions or picky palates in your party.  Another thing I noticed is that you can trade out meats on any of the menu items or ask for them to be lightly dressed.   Their meats are all antibiotic-free and their veggies are sourced carefully and seasonally.

Their new peach smoothie is a seasonal item and definitely worth trying but I’m guessing it will only be on the menu for a short time so grab it while you can! I could barely get a taste of it, my kiddo was pretty tight fisted with that one!

Whether your a health conscience person, like myself, or someone with a picky palate, more like my toddler, I think you’ll find something your body and mind will both enjoy at Mollie and Ollie.

Ever since we drove up the hill to Park City to dine at The Nelson Cottage, I haven’t stopped talking about the meal with encountered.  Did you know High West Distillery just opened up a new pre-fix menu restaurant??  It’s easy to miss but its stealth is part of its charm.  The cute blue bungalow is just one door down from the popular, and often times hard to get into, High West Distillery restaurant and saloon.

While most locals and visitors choose their slopes based on ski conditions, when the ski conditions are as good as they are now in Utah, you might start to weigh in some other variables… like what food can you indulge with at lunch.  I primarily ski at Solitude and Deer Valley so I’m going to give you my favorites at those two resorts.  I would love to hear what food you hunt down after a few runs at other local resorts. Please comment with Utah Ski Resort food recommendations!

Deer Valley

Bald Mountain at Deer Valley is now serving Pho!  Yes that’s right, traditional Vietnamese Pho with aromatic beef broth that’s been slowly and meticulously cooked, thinly sliced Wagyu beef, rice noodles and all of the toppings you can imagine including house-made sriracha sauce. Also, at the Silver Lake Lodge you’ll find a taco bar with a grand assortment of choices from red chile, lime, and cilantro shrimp to Niman Ranch Pork carnitas.

If you’re dining at Deer Valley at night you won’t want to miss the Seared Scallop served on a pink Himalayan salt block (served at Seafood Buffet), The Harissa Rubbed Cornish Game Hen paired with a cornmeal sweet potato waffle (served at The Brass Tag), or the Bourbon Praline Ice Cream (served at the Mariposa).

Solitude

Solitude has really revamped their food selection this year!  At the Roundhouse Lodge you can find Indian curries and flatbread, at the Inn – a full breakfast buffet including homemade individual portioned quiche , and at Honeycomb Grill – a variety of fresh made soups and salads including seafood chowder.

If you want a special night out at Solitude, you absolutely must have dinner at the Yurt. The menu changes all the time there but I promise an adventurous evening of delicious food.  The yurt is located less than a mile from the village of Solitude and snowshoes and headlamps are provided for your jaunt up to the fun locale. Make reservations and bring all of your best friends for a truly magical night.

If there’s one single meal I recommend you splurge on it’s Omakase at Naked Fish. Omakase simply means “I’ll leave it to you.”  And when the chef is this good you’re better off if you do. When I go to Japanese restaurants (or any really high end restaurant for that matter) I’m probably in better hands leaving my menu decisions to the one cooking. They know what’s fresh and when given the creative freedom they are excited to thrill you with new flavors throughout the tasting journey of an evening out.

We recently took the omakase challenge and it paid off.  Every bite was new.  Fresh flavors overtook all my senses. This was the best meal we’ve had in a long time and I think it will be a hard one to trump.  Here’s just a sample of what was on our menu that night. (Keep in mind that the menu changes daily for omakasee because, as I said, it’s all up to the chef!).

Hot tea with sage thyme lemongrass orange peel
Sea urchin with salmon roe
Silky seaweed
Oyster with yuzu and radish
Yellow tail belly, tuna, salmon belly, Japanese makarel
Crispy Skin of smoked trout with powdered nori and yuzu creme friache
Custard grilled fish bone with dashi gelatin, Utah trout roe and sweet pikled diakon
Yam gnocchi in miso and orange sauce with shaved walnuts
Toasted grains with roasted greens and a smoked poached quail egg in fish bone broth
Scallop with shishito peppers and chicken wings
Mushrooms with sous vide elk and a nori disk

I’m probably missing a course or too because the meal was just too good to think too hard about or record. The way best meals are!  But I hope this gives you a glimpse of what a fantastic omakase experience is like!
Also, Naked Fish serves a house made soy sauce blend that is less in sodium and for a real treat ask for their table-side, freshly ground wasabi grated on a shark skin grater!

A city can never have enough breakfast and brunch spots. At least in my opinion they can’t!  Hub & Spoke Diner just opened in a cosy Salt Lake City neighborhood, and their menu is just as cosy as their food. Chef Phelix Gardner brings a modern spin on Southern Diner foods like Shrimp and Grits, Kentucky Brown and Sweet Potato Pancakes (or flapjacks if your from the South).

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to stray from their breakfast menu (and lucky for me it’s served all day) but if you’re not the breakfast type, there are lots of other great options.  Try their Fried Chicken Salad made with house-made buttermilk ranch, or the Patty Melt with Russian Dressing.  Also, you don’t have to eat like a Southerner here, they also offer plenty of lighter options like their Kale Tabbouleh Salad or the Tuna Melt.

While I’ve already given many reasons to make a visit to Hub & Spoke I’ll leave you with just a few more… pie, boozy milk shakes, and great coffee!  Pastry Chef Courtney McDowell has mastered the Southern classic pies like Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, French Silk, and Banana Cream Pie. Also, who does’t want to try a boozy milk shake, especially when they have flavors like Grasshopper and Irish Coffee.  Speaking of coffee, they serve our very biased favorite La Barba. No need to say more

Hub & Spoke Diner
MONDAY — SUNDAY:  7AM — 9PM
1291 South 1100 East

Though we’ve still been eating well and enjoying our great city to the fullest, our little blog here hasn’t had much attention.  We’ve been spending more time photographing some of the lovely establishments than writing about them.  Our latest project was photographing Pago for their website.  Visit PagoSLC.com to see more of our work, or better yet, go have a meal there!

Full disclosure, we are co-owners of Charming Beard Coffee and Josh is the CEO.  We are big fans of the place, but we’re extremely biased.

Charming Beard Coffee’s concept of co-habitating with Finca (and calling it La Barba) was conceived long before Scott Evans owned the first floor of 327 West 200 South.  When Finca was across the street from Liberty Heights Fresh, Josh and Scott we’re going to rearrange Finca’s dining room and make a place for Charming Beard to have a shop.  Scott put the project on hold and brought it back up after the purchase of the new location was final.Opening a coffee shop in SLC is a fairly unsettling endeavor with the lack of per capita coffee drinkers and presence of other great local shops (we’re looking at you No Brow, D’Bolla and the Rose Establishment).  From the beginning Charming Beard had designs on opening retail space in the heart of downtown but they knew for it to work, a strong synergy was necessary to create buzz and get coffee drinkers in the door.

Along with serving Charming Beard Coffee, they serve pastries and churros from Finca, Mezzo Drinking Chocolate and Tikal Chocolate Teas, The Queens’ Tea, and custom ceramics from Basin Goods.  The place was designed by architect Jared Wright (one of Charming Beard’s 9 investors) and the equipment is serviced by the one and only Gabe Jessop of Keep it Brewing.  Iron work was done by Blackridge Metal with furniture from CG Sparks, flowers from Native Flowers and a few accoutrements from European Treasures.

Charming Beard is always looking for ways to collaborate with other local businesses.  La Barba embodies elements of the ideals, but much more is to come.

327 West 200 South / M – F : 7a – midnight, Sa – Su 8a – midnight / inside Finca

One of my favorite breakfasts spots is now open for dinner.  Desserts, drinks, and a full on dinner are all now available in the evening hours at Eva’s Bakery and now through November they are offering 20% off when you mention #EvasBakery4Dinner. I’m imagining the perfect downtown experience, perhaps tickets to a ballet or a musical, an early dinner at Eva’s Bakery or post performance dessert and drinks.  Their menu changes but a few things you can count on – decadent desserts, reliable wines and the salads and soups that we all enjoy there at lunch time. The entrees I’ve tried were both ones worth returning for, but instead I’ll go back in hopes for new flavors coming from the Eva’s Bakery kitchen.

Pecan Crusted Chicken with Currant Tomato Relish, seasonal veggies and a dijon cream sauce.

Braised Local Pork Roast with Potato Gnocchi.

Chocolate Molten Cake

It was a nice surprise to hear that a restaurant had moved into the old Rino’s building in Sugarhouse but it was an even nicer surprise when we walked into a nicely remodeled dining room with a vine covered patio then had an exquisite surf and turf meal.

A long time Utah resident, Randall Curtis, loves the Sugarhouse neighborhood and had a desire to be a part of change in the city. He along with his partner Taylor Jacobsen, reinvented a long standing fixture of East Bench Sugarhouse, Rino’s Italian Restaurant. They transformed this favorited date night spot into a family friendly place to enjoy steak and seafood. And while Harbor is a place where kids are welcome, its definitely a place you’ll want to book for a special date night.

While Sugarhouse is moving more towards restaurant chains, this new establishment is sourcing locally and sometimes as local as the garden right behind their parking lot.  The quality in flavor could be tasted in many of our dishes.

And for the dishes with seafood we quickly tasted the care of their seafood sources as well. The crab cakes were filled with generous whole pieces of crab so you could really see and taste the crab and the ahi tuna was so fresh it didn’t need much seasoning.

The clam chowder was soothing without being too rich and the entrees were perfectly balanced and portioned. My ahi tuna steak came with garlic mashed potatoes and spicy green beans and I must say that I enjoyed the crispy and flavorful beans as much as the tuna. And I love ahi tuna! Also, the Beef Short Ribs were accompanied by peas with bacon and mint, which almost stole the show, luckily the beef was amazing!

Desserts at Harbor are made by Frank Peissel of Frank’s. His cheesecake was so light and not overly sweet that if you would have told me it was a soufflé I would have believed you and after a perfectly filling meal it was an absolute delight!

Those in the Sugarhouse neighborhood have already found out about Harbor, as it was packed the night we visited but for those of us more close to the city, Harbor Steak and Seafood is definitely worth making a date for. We think you’ll enjoy the nice surprise of good steak and seafood in Sugarhouse as much as we did!