Mary Brown Malouf

Get your bitter tooth fix by enjoying locally Utah crafted bitters. Bitter is better so enjoy the taste and choose from dozens of flavors made by Bitters Lab, Crybaby Bitters and Beehive Bitters.

Americans—and especially Utahns—are famous for their sweet tooth. But we’re learning to love sweet’s opposite: bitter as in the astringent taste that comes in bitters. Maybe it started with the radicchio and arugula craze of the ’80s. That has settled into a permanent relationship but perhaps it broadened our palate to include bitterness.

The popularity of Amaro, Campari, Aperol and Fernet Branca have all increased. In San Francisco, a favorite drink is Fernet and ginger beer and I have a friend whose regular drink is a Coors Banquet with a shot of Fernet. (Yes, odd. We all think so.) This category has exploded. No longer do we have to choose between Angostura and Peychaud’s. In Utah alone there are several bitters-makers—Bitters Lab (bitterslab.com), Crybaby Bitters (crybabybitters.com) and Beehive Bitters (beehivebitters.com) that make dozens of flavored bitters.

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If there were a Between-the-Bread Olympics, some classic contenders would certainly take gold. The American Grilled Cheese. The French Dip. The Reuben. The BLT. The Hoagie. Note that most of these come from the Western half of the world. I’m just guessing, but maybe this is because the Eastern half is less bread-centric. And a sandwich without bread isn’t one.

There is however, a notable exception. (Probably more than one, but I’m spitballing here.) The Banh Mi. In Salt Lake City, get one at Oh Mai.

A banh mi is constructed on a baguette, itself a legacy of the French occupation of Southeast Asia. With much of the crumb hollowed out, leaving mostly crisp crust, the filling is a layering of Vietnamese culinary history and may include pate, pork head cheese, cilantro, fish sauce, pickled daikon, bean thread, jalapeno, ham, mayo, basil, sriracha…it’s up to you. Somehow all these disparate elements combine in the mouth to make one spicy, salty, sweet, hot, umami, crunchy, fresh flavor. Just another example of how world diplomacy could take a lesson from world cuisine.

There are several Oh Mai locations; this was the original. 850 S. State St., SLC, 801-575-8888, ohmaisandwich.com

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Okay, it’s summertime (finally) and that means it’s time for Utahns to spend as much time outside eating and drinking as we possibly can. Because summertime sipping and noshing doesn’t last that long. (Especially this year. Savor the Summit just happened and people needed their puffy coats. In June.) Every restaurant that possibly can is cramming an al fresco space next to a sidewalk and there are more opportunities for eating and drinking outside than you could fit into a three-meal-a-day schedule. Check out these three stellar Summer Food and Drink Events see all of our food and drink coverage here.

Eat Drink SLC, Tracy Aviary

July 10 —  Eat Drink SLC Tickets are going fast for this one! Nibble, nosh, sip and swirl the evening away while listening to live music and watching the birds on Tracy Aviary’s cool, green grounds. Festival-goers, aged 21 and over, will sample seasonal fare from many of Salt Lake’s leading restaurants and purveyors; sip from a selection of 80 wines from an international assortment of family-owned wineries; taste craft cocktails from small-batch distilleries, including several which are locally owned and operated; and enjoy local beers from award-winning Utah craft brewers. This year, there will be several new festival zones, each with a distinct culinary mix and entertainment feature.

Payson Salmon Supper, Payson Town Square

August 2 — The Payson Salmon Supper a decades-old event that still seems as fresh as the fish they fly in from Alaska. Side dishes served by cheerleaders, fish cooked by firefighters, long picnic tables set up in the dappled shade of the Payson town square—the whole thing is pure idyllic Americana, straight out of The Music Man and if you haven’t been, you need to go.

The Food Truck Face Off, Liberty Park

Aug. 3 — The Food Truck Face off at Liberty Park gives you a chance to sample and compare fare from Salt Lake’s mobile finest. More than 30 food trucks will gather to compete and your $4 entry ticket (purchased online; $6 at the event) goes to benefit four of Utah’s charities: 4th Street Clinic, YWCA, Volunteers of America and Utah Community Action.

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A century ago, the beautiful Caffe Giacosa on Florence’s famed Via Tornabuoni was a regular stop for Count Camillo Negroni who enjoyed his regular afternoon aperitif—an Americano cocktail—there. One day (maybe he had an especially bad day? Or an especially good one?) he asked the bartender Fosco Scarselli to amp up the usual by adding gin instead of soda water to the Campari. Scarselli added an orange garnish and the Negroni became a thing.

Tracy Gomez, bartender at AC Hotel and winner of Salt Lake magazine’s 2017 Cocktail Contest, will make her classic version using Tanqueray gin, Campari and Lustau Vermut rojo. “We’re calling our variation the Cascadian Negroni and making it with Big Gin bourbon barrel aged gin (Washington), Ransom sweet vermouth (Oregon) and Tempus Fugit Gran Classico bitter (California).” 

Well, we aren’t positive that’s a true story or that the gin-craving Negroni was really a count (his grandfather was) and the caffe has gone the way of most things old and beautiful, but the drink survives. Really, it thrives in today’s cocktail scene, a beautiful garnet-colored flash of elegant bitterness among all the sweet sips usually preferred by Americans. Like all recipes, the one for a classic Negroni (1 oz. Campari, 1 oz. gin, 1 oz. sweet vermouth, stirred and served over rocks) has been tinkered with. The Negroni spagliato (meaning “wrong”) calls for prosecco; the Negroski uses vodka instead of gin.

In 2013, the magazine Imbibe and Campari, presented the first Negroni Week and raise funds for charities. Since, 10,000 bars participate and $2 million has been raised. Every June, bars and restaurants mix Negronis and Negroni variations for the cause.

This year Negroni Week runs through June 30. Bartenders across town will be slinging their takes on the classic summer drink.

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I‘m one of the last among my food-friend community to eat at Oquirrh. I’ve been reading posts with lots of exclamation marks ever since the restaurant opened in February. I’m officially six months late to this party.

(Note: Often, I’m the first to speak up about a new place—people have complained that a restaurant may not be “ready” to be critiqued until it’s been open six weeks. My answer is always the same, whenever I review: As soon as a restaurant charges full-price for its food and service, the food and service should be worth the price. The point is, it doesn’t matter, in Mary’s world, when a first write-up comes in a restaurant’s timeline.)

On slightly whiny note, I’ve been muttering about the recent “plateau-ing” of the Salt Lake food scene. With a California chain (Curry Up) replacing locally owned long-time Middle Eastern restaurant Cedars of Lebanon, the clone creep in Sugar House and local group Sicilia Mia taking the place of Paris Bistro and Aristo’s, it seemed like our local options were being bought up, that uniqueness was being replaced by imports and proven formulas.

But, like SLC Eatery, Oquirrh encouraged me on all fronts. Just from the outset, I like the name—where else are you going to find a restaurant called Oquirrh? It’s strictly, geographically local and even the locals can’t spell it or say it aloud.

I like the location—right in the middle of downtown (368 E. 100 South) where Vertical Diner used to be.

I like the owners’ resumes—Chef Drew Fuller did stints at Copper Onion, HSL and Pago; where met his wife, Angelena, who works the front of the house.

I—well, I don’t like, but I appreciate—the abbreviated hours (open 5 pm-10 pm, Wednesday through Saturday.) They show a respect for sanity and the owners’ time. I’ve known too many coke-addled, over-driven chefs in the centuriesImeaandecades I’ve been writing about food.

And I loved my food. The imagination behind it, the presentation and the taste. I liked the carrots, a riff on the popular perpendicular presentation at Pago. Carrots of several colors were roasted, cured in miso or braised, then planted vertically in a ground of carrot-top pesto with a brown rice chip to add back in some crispness.

Many of the presentations were equally whimsical, and it was a nice change to smile as we were being served. So many plates look pretentiously serious these days. Isn’t food supposed to be fun?

The chicken confit pot pie arrived with one leg sticking out through the golden-brown crust—it looked like the bird had taken a dive. The pastry covered the filling—a lovely, just-thickened broth with lots of seasonal mushrooms—and and lined the ramekin.

An entire leg of lamb was crusted with a curry mixture (marinated in yogurt?) and deep-fried, apparently after being braised, because the meat fell from the bone in tender chunks. The giant thing (Does anyone remember what “Brobdingnagian” means?) was accompanied by house made naan, vegetables roasted in garam masala and eggplant relish. I can’t see one person finishing this plate, but it made great leftovers. Better than cold pizza!

Maybe it was just us, but the meal was becoming fatter and fatter and our choice of pasta, thick tubes (with some tooth) mixed with chunks of butter-poached lobster and plenty of Pecorino didn’t change the trend. The celery leaves were almost a punch line, but the celery flavor did what it always does to lighten the load. Milk-braised potatoes were the meal’s Cinderella; few things could sound so humble and taste so spectacular. I’ve only encountered this technique—cooking in milk—once before. Marcella Hazan has a recipe for milk-braised pork, and the same thing happens” The milk cooks into beautiful curds as the food cooks.) These dreamy potatoes are quintessential comfort food, sweet and tender with the umami from the cooked milk lending the richness of cheese.

Oquirrh isn’t perfect—the space is almost too small and when it’s full (as it often is, because of all the lauding) it’s loud. I know this is a trend (again, remember the eighties?) and those who think conversation is an essential part of a good meal complain about it regularly, but evidently it’s better to be chic than heard. And if you and your dining companions are going to spend the meal taking pictures of it, texting them and checking email on your cellphones, you don’t need to hear anything anyway. (In the 80s, I figured all the slick, uncovered table surfaces were popular because you could cut your lines on them—no cellphones back then.)

In any case, minimalism=hard surfaces and minimalism seems to be sticking around. (It’s been a year since The Atlantic ran a piece called “How Restaurants Got So Loud” and I don’t hear things getting any quieter,

Dining conversation seems to have disappeared, I hope not forever.
I’d like to see some velvet drapes somewhere.

Or a rug?

In your dreams Mary. Along with those milk-braised potatoes.

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It wasn’t long after I started working for Salt Lake magazine. I had moved to Salt Lake from Sonoma, California and Dallas, Texas, both places where my writing focus was food and wine. My friends thought I was joking when I said I was moving to Utah. The wine.com guys said, “You can’t even FLY wine over Utah!! How are you going to write about food and wine there? There isn’t any!”

They were a little bit right. It was hard to find anything exciting to say about food in Utah in those days. Log Haven, Mazza, Aristo’s, The Paris were excellent—but there was a lot of talk about places people used to love but their affection seemed generated by sentiment, not great food.

And then, all of a sudden, things started to happen.

Scott Evans opened Pago.

Pago was an instant hit and amazed everyone, including my cynical self. Beets and Greek yogurt!! Delectable fried potato pillows, topped with crème fraiche and American caviar! A Cruvinet system, so interesting wines could be ordered by the glass!

It was all new, charming and exciting. And it set a new standard for good food in Salt Lake City and more importantly, it raised diners’ expectations of what good food should be. And where it should come from—Evans has always depended on local producers.

Those faithful diners were out in full force on Sunday night to celebrate Pago’s 10th anniversary—so many of them they almost overwhelmed the tiny restaurant. Former employees and chefs were there, many at the courtesy of owner Scott Evans. Pago served as a launch pad for so many chefs in the early days—they’d make their name with Evans, get noticed and be seduced to bigger, better-paying positions. But Sunday night it was all family.

The menu was a greatest hits list from those chefs—Mike Richey’s caviar pillows, Phelix Gardner’s incredible carrot tasting
—as well as introductions to items soon to be on the season’s menu, like a version of saag paneer made with local greens and Heber Valley Cheese’s juustoleipa instead of traditional spinach and paneer. And one of Gardner’s famous gnocchi creations, this one with green curry and elk.

Wines, of course, were mostly from Ruth Lewandowski, which is to say Evan Lewandowski who pretty much launched his line of natural wines at Pago, the first place in town to really understand and sell these oddities. And cocktails, from a crystal-clear rum punch to start to a cold Irish coffee atr the finish, were created by one of Pago’s former bartenders, Scott Gardner.

Small things can make a big difference.

Does anyone actually read my posts? Because if you did, do, you’d know that I issued dire warning about impending threats to some of Salt Lake’s beloved restaurants. Well. Now look what has happened. Two of Salt Lake’s best restaurant spaces—Aristo’s and the Paris Bistro—are about to be occupied.

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The Paris Bistro in its prime.

Yet another version of Giuseppe Mirenda’s Sicilian-esque restaurants—yes, the one with the carbonara made in the giant wheel of parmesan—is opening in the beloved Paris Bistro space. The Paris was a restaurant that was one of the city’s finest for years and consistently brought us authentic and modified versions of French food. Somehow, French cuisine has been kicked to the wayside and cheesy (I mean that literally) Italian is everywhere.

Farewell Aristo!

Not only that, but one of Mirenda’s managers has taken off on his own and his opening his version of an Italian joint in Aristo’s old space, which shuttered last month. Aristo’s was also one of Salt Lake’s great restaurants, like The Paris, unique in the city of salt and which is now becoming a city of pizza.

Honestly, truly, I am not a snob. I love pizza. I love pasta. But it saddens me—disheartens me, really, that we’re losing two jewels and replacing them with a cubic zirconia of food.

Bottom line: Restaurants rely on regulars, but restaurant-goers fall into ruts and the foodscape in Salt Lake City has lost many gems because people who “loved” these restaurants didn’t support them. Food-lovers: Be aware of the out-of-the-way places. Don’t visit a place just because the parking is easy or free or just because you know how to get there. Blaze some new trails for yourself. Salt Lake’s dining scene needs you.

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In Salt Lake City we have dozens of Thai food restaurants. But most of their dishes taste like they came out of a single commissary. I always envision a warehouse space in South Salt Lake churning out the full spectrum of curries with Thai restaurant people stopping by with their big pickle buckets to pick up their share. Restaurateur Anny Sooksri wants to share a very different idea of Thai.

Growing up in Thailand, Sooksri learned to love all kinds of Thai food and her Salt Lake restaurant group including Tea Rose Diner, FAV Bistro, Chabaan and Siam Noodle Bar reflect different facets of Thai cooking. Visit each one for some of the best Thai food in Salt Lake City to understand the breadth of this crave-worthy cuisine.

1. Tea Rose Diner, 65 E. 5th Ave, Murray, 801-685-6111 Formerly a hot dog joint, Tea Rose’s interior reflects its humble all-American origins and there are still American dishes on the menu. The usual red, green, yellow, Panang and Massaman curries are excellent. But we chose the more unusual dishes and we loved the Jungle Curry—your choice of meat with krachai—a tuber sometimes called, inaccurately, little ginger and a bunch of different vegetables: bamboo shoots, bell pepper, carrot, bell pepper, baby corn, zucchini and mushrooms. (This veg load gives you permission to eat beef tomorrow.) And we’d never seen anything like the pad Thai loosely rolled into a thin egg omelette. Which was great—we love surprises.
2. Fav Bistro, 1984 E Murray Holladay Rd, Holladay, 801- 676-9300 Thai breakfast. Not the first thing we think of in the morning, but a great alternative to the usual ham & eggs repast. Several of Sooksri’s restaurants serve breakfast—Thai fried eggs, for instance, eggs mixed with vegetables and served over rice. Or an omelet made with coconut milk and turmeric. You can also order vegan versions of these and, yes, for the timid, American breakfasts are also on the menu. But why?
3. Chabaar Beyond Thai, 87 W. 7200 South, Midvale, 801-566-5100 Curry Pot Pie is a genius cross-cuisine hybrid that’s becoming a fixture on Thai menus in California but I’ve never seen it here: the idea is obvious, so why doesn’t every place do it? Just choose your favorite red, yellow, green or massaman curry with pork or tofu. It comes baked under a pastry crust over the top.
4. Siam Noodle Bar, 5171 Cottonwood St. #160, SLC, 801-262-1888 (Intermountain Medical Center) Many think chicken soup is the panacea for all ills. Clearly they haven’t tried the gluten-free broth and noodle soups at Siam Noodle Bar—the best hospital food ever because it would be delicious in any setting.

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