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Mary Brown Malouf

Mary Brown Malouf is the late Executive Editor of Salt Lake magazine and Utah's expert on local food and dining. She still does not, however, know how to make a decent cup of coffee.

Aug 11
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Hot Tomato!

By Eat & Drink

It’s completely un-PC, ungentlemanly and unladylike to use the term “hot tomato” to refer to an attractive female, but we can all see how the metaphorical phrase originated and it has nothing to do with the mass-produced, pink and stiff fruit sold all year long in grocery stores. If you don’t remember vividly how completely a ripe, red, never-seen-a-fridge tomato engages your senses, Wasatch Community Gardens‘ Tomato Days Dine-Around will remind you.

A group of great local restaurants (3 Cups, Avenues Bistro on Third, Eva Restaurant, Even Stevens, Les Madeleines, Meditrina, Roots Cafe and Tin Angel Cafe) will be serving special, tomato-centric dishes for ten days—August 15—September 15) with a portion of the proceeds going to Wasatch Community Gardens.

Yes, finally, it’s tomato season in Utah.

WCG’s Grateful Tomato Garden (800 S. 600 East) celebrates by inviting everyone to a free feast of heirloom tomato and pesto sandwiches on Saturday, September 10, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They claim they’re saying “thanks” for community support with their Annual Tomato Sandwich Party. We’re the ones who should thank them, but our mouths are too full.

Click on any of the links for details.WGyouth-activities-036

Aug 09
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First Taste: Trestle Tavern

By Eat & Drink

TTtable I reserve the right to write about a restaurant from the day they open—if they are charging customers full price for food and wine. This has been my stance since I first started writing about restaurants 32 years ago.

I know a new restaurant has “kinks” to work out—the kitchen may still be tweaking some dishes, for instance. But actually, tweaking never stops in a good kitchen, and paying customers should not have to perform as the chef’s involuntary guinea pigs for a new menu. I know servers must be fully educated about the food they’re serving to sell it effectively to the customer. That takes time, but it shouldn’t happen on the paying customers’ dime.

Bottom line: Restaurateurs: open when you’re ready and not before—or own the consequences.

I do have a reason to restate this philosophy right now—my first visit to Trestle Tavern, Scott Evans’ new restaurant in the old Fresco space next to King’s English Bookshop—and the “rye dumplings” I was served that turned out to be “crackers.”

Evans has opened several successful restaurants in Salt Lake City: Pago, Finca, East Liberty Tap House and Hub & Spoke, the last few in a fairly short-time period. Trestle Tavern is housed in one of the prize restaurant locations in Salt Lake. The tiny restaurant and the trellised patio have the kind of organically quirky charm that can’t be planned by an architect or “concepted” by a designer. No one would make a dining room this small, inconvenient and inaccessible if they had a reasonable choice, but what ought to be drawbacks are advantages here, creating the authentic and endearing eccentricity Americans love in European restaurants but consistently fail in counterfeiting at home. Evans jumped on it when previous tenant Mikel Trapp decided to close Fresco and I don’t blame him. This is the kind of space Evans does best with.

I’m not sure why he settled on Eastern Europe as the culinary inspiration, though. I know that national food magazines, consumer and trade, have trumpeted Eastern Europe as the next big food trend. I’ve eaten at Kachka in Portland. And there are no chic Eastern European restaurants in Utah. When pierogies and cabbage rolls sweep the nation, Trestle Tavern is poised at the head of the pack.

I’m just not sure that Eastern European is a cuisine Utahns, who are still leery of eating rabbit, are hungering for yet.

Smoked trout cakes are exactly what they sound like, though—like crab cakes but made with smoked trout, and chicken paprikash made with Mary’s chicken had a delightfully light and spicy paprika sauce. Cabbage rolls made with red cabbage—pretty or uncomfortably anatomical-looking, we couldn’t quite decide—were filled with mushrooms or braised oxtail and short grain rice. Since our first visit that’s been changed to “braised beef” on the menu and I hope there’s therefore more of it and that the rolls are cooked until the cabbage ribs are tenderer.

Like a lot of TT’s food, this would have been better appreciated with a nip in the air, which is why I ordered the grilled Utah trout which leads me back to the rye dumpling/crackers. In an email, Evans explained that the Tavern’s chef makes rye dumplings sort of like you make matzoh balls, only using rye bread instead of matzoh. The crisp, dry crackers I was served with my trout were slices of dumpling that had been toasted and looked similar to pita chips. The menu now calls these, properly, crackers.

TTtrout

So, things are evolving. Another bafflement for us was the impressive list of spirits which our server told us were only available as a shot or over ice or with a little water—there was no menu of mixed drinks. Again, Evans says this will change in the near future.

In the meantime, we were happy to start with a glass of Gruet sparkling in lieu of a cocktail, and go on to Schloss Gobelberg, one of the two Gruner Veltliners on the list.

We finished with the only dessert offered—some kind of chocolate pudding—which our waiter strongly advised us against. He told us the kitchen was still “working” on it.

Clearly, although Trestle Tavern is open, it’s not finished. We left feeling like we’d only half-finished reading a book. But we’ll be back for the next chapter.

`1513 S. 1500 East, SLC, 801-532-3372

Aug 05
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This year, Taste of the Wasatch is all about the sips

By Eat & Drink

sm-TasteOfTheWasatchTravisJPhoto-458

This year, Taste of the Wasatch, the annual fundraiser for ending hunger in Utah, will be better than ever. Francis Fecteau, owner of Libation, Inc., has gathered a stellar group of wineries to share their wine at the Sunday event at Solitude. Reserved ticket holders are invited to gather early—at 11 a.m.—for a one hour meet and greet with some of California’s top wine makers and wine reps.

This event focuses on small wineries, not just the big Napa tourist attractions (although Caymus will be there): Zotovich, Honig, Inizi, Donkey & Goat, Carol Shelton, Caymus, Colter’s Creek, Ransom, Jeff Cohn Cellars, Orrin Swift, Sean Miner and other boutique operations will be there.

So eat great food, enjoy the sun, sip some great wine and feel good about helping to end hunger in Utah. It’s a win for everyone.

Buy tickets for Taste of the Wasatch here.

Aug 05
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First Taste: Sicilia Mia

By Eat & Drink

Everyone’s talking about it. Sicilia Mia (no website) is, apparently, the Italian restaurant most of Salt Lake has been waiting for and I’m late to the party.

Distinctly unspectacular from the outside—Sicilia Mia is a bland storefront in an unattractive strip shopping mall—the small restaurant is always crowded. We made dinner reservations and still had to wait 40 minutes for a table, which means standing on the sidewalk next to the al fresco diners. Every ten minutes or so, a server or the owner would pop their heads out the door to apologize and there is a “Now Hiring” sign propped in the window.

At a big, professionally designed restaurant from a well-financed owner, this would have annoyed me, but Sicilia Mia is small, family-owned, unpretentious and inexpensive, so my expectations were not the same. Actually, because Sicilia Mia has gotten so much hype, including being called the “best Italian food in Salt Lake,” my expectations were low. I expected the usual one-note red sauce, overcooked pasta and powdered garlic flavor you’re served at many Salt Lake Italian restaurants.

Color me biased. Color me snobby. Color me surprised.

miaaranciniArancinette—the crisp, deep-fried orbs breaking open to a gooey rice, sauce and cheese interior—were good, better than more expensive ones I’ve eaten at upscale Italian restaurants. That shouldn’t really be a surprise, this is truly a family-owned restaurant, and fried rice balls are not a sophisticated food. Surely they originated with an Italian mamma faced with leftovers and a hungry family. They are an essential Sicilian food and there are other authentic Sicilian dishes on the menu, in addition to the familiar Italian dishes (Caesar salad, bruschetta, carpaccio) that are must-haves for any middle America Italian restaurant.

Pollo involtini, for instance, chicken pounded thin and rolled around a filling studded with pine nuts and raisins, shows the Eastern Mediterranean’s influence on Sicilian cooking. miaOut there in the middle of the Mediterranean, Sicily was a natural crossroads between North Africa, Europe and the Near East and those cultures influenced the island’s seafood cuisine. Pasta Palermitana is dressed with anchovies, red chili and tomatoes (Sicilians were early adopters of the North American oddity introduced by the Spaniards), Spaghetti Trapanesi is typically Sicilian, with garlic, capers, olives and tomatoes (I did wish for better olives; these were Lindsay-style) and Fettucine Sicilia Mia is packed with chunks of fish, clams and mussels (I think.) It came to the table flaming.IMG_2306

The menu is full of such dramatic presentations—the famous pasta carbonara is made in a hollowed wheel of Parmigiana Reggiano softened by flaming with alcohol. The pasta, egg and pancetta are tossed into the wheel and mixed quickly, the server scraping the sides of the cheese to incorporate as much as possible. The tableside drama is a little corny, like fifties Continental food, but it’s also a lot of fun—the place is so small that the spectacle entertains all the guests. The result on the plate was a much stiffer dish than you would make at home, and incredibly rich. It’s a version that makes you support Calvin Trillin’s campaign to make pasta carbonara the national dish for Thanksgiving. IMG_2311

Sicilia Mia isn’t perfect. I was disappointed in lasagne—the flavors were good, but I thought it was over-sauced so the layers slid around instead of being a laminated stack. I probably should have let it set for ten minutes or so. And I was surprised at the absence of caponata on the menu. On the other hand, some dishes, like the simple spinaci all burro, are stellar. Spinach was another Saracen introduction to Sicily and at Sicilia Mia it is served in a timbale shape, bright green and tender, garnished with zigzags of balsamic and shards of Parmigiana.miaspinach

At lunch, sandwiches come on crusty bread made from the house pizza dough. Canoli and other pastries are made in-house; the wine list is brief but focused on Italian wines, including some Sicilian selections.

miasand

In the end, what makes Sicilia Mia irresistible is the genuine warmth of the chef Franco Mirenda and his entire—and mostly Sicilian—staff. (Here’s a nod to our Norwegian server, who was as personable and knowledgeable about the food as the Sicilians.) You can’t fake friendly.

4536 Highland Rd., Millcreek, 801-274-0223

Apr 29
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First Taste: Stanza

By Eat & Drink
For the issue of Salt Lake magazine that will hit newstands May 1, I wrote a piece about the business thinking at Main Street Management, the partnership between Joel LaSalle and Mikel Trapp, owners of Current and Undercurrent and of the just-opened Stanza.

I heard a lot about the vision for Stanza, but I missed both “soft” opening nights, a kind of dress rehearsal when press and locals try the food free of charge while the restaurant works to get the kinks out of the kitchen line and the service staff.

I heard—from guests and restaurant staff—that there were, indeed, a lot of kinks on those nights.

But last night, when I dined there, the bumps were gone.

Yes, they spotted me, so service was over-the-top gracious, undoubtedly friendlier and more solicitous than received by other diners.

But restaurant critics are seldom successfully anonymous these days and most of them (Jonathon Gold of the LATimes, Leslie Brenner of the Dallas Morning News, John Mariani of everywhere) no longer even try to be. That’s the result of a combination of factors: The Internet that has made celebrities of ordinary people, shrinking budgets at publications that prohibit paying dedicated restaurant critics, and, maybe, the ultimate silliness of it all. All those wigs and hats.

At any rate, after 35 years of reviewing, I’ve learned a few things: Chefs either can or cannot produce superior food. If they can, they try to do it for every customer, not just the celebs and writers. It’s surprising even to me how often I am served cold pasta or even rancid food when the restaurant knows I am a food writer. Yes, it actually happens.

Stanza was built around its bar—by leaving the bar at Faustina nearly intact, the structure qualified as a remodel instead of new construction—and anyone who was familiar with that bar will feel at home here, although the menu has been utterly changed by beverage manager Jim Santangelo and cocktail designer Amy Eldredge. The wine list is friendly, with lots of by the glass and flight options and a broad range of prices. Naturally, it focuses on Italian wines and varietals. Prosecco and negronis for all!

At the table, we ate house-made burrata with a beautiful fava bean relish, mussels cooked with prosecco and calabrese sausage with grilled lemons, a round loaf of house-made bread (to be used for sandwiches when Stanza opens for lunch)

and a version of Caesar salad. I’ve almost given up on the anchovy battle, but it does seem odd to me when they are listed as “optional” on a Caesar salad—I feel they’re definitive. Then again, so are eggs, and the dressing on this putative Caesar was called a mustard vinaigrette. In other words, this wasn’t a Caesar salad at all. But it is a good salad of romaine hearts when you order it with anchovies; even garnished with a few whole fish so the umami was loud and clear.

Carrot torchio (torch-shaped pasta) with shaved purple carrot and rabbit braised in milk and shredded in a light sauce. Of course, there’s a tongue in cheek joke here about bunny rabbits and carrots (what’s up, doc?) but there’s sound culinary sense too—the gentleness of the milk braise and the sweetness of the carrot puree in the pasta dough melded to make this a soothing dish, just barely spiked with pickled fennel.

If you order it, note that the stew-like rabbit is at the bottom, so be sure to stir it up. When chef Phelix Gardner was at Pago, he served a lamb and pasta dish I will never forget—mint leaves encased in pasta served with a lamb ragu. To my delight, he has revamped this dish for Stanza. Instead of whole leaves, he makes pappardelle with a mint puree and tops the broad noodles with lamb sugo—and if there’s a definitive difference between ragu and sugo, someone please enlighten me. Castelvetrano olives provided tart contrast and grated pecorino underscored the sheepy (sheepish?) sweetness. The sauce, unfortunately, verged on too salty.

Our third dish was agnolotti, the little pillows stuffed with pea puree and ricotta and served with Gulf shrimp and asparagus tips. The whole flavor was a bright spring green.

 

All the pastas are made in-house, and Gardner takes creative advantage of that, meaning that the pasta dishes are totally Italian in spirit but not classically Italian. You can tell there’s a real palate in the kitchen.

In fact, there are two—to my surprise, David Bible, whose cooking I have always admired, is Gardner’s chef de cuisine.

Gardner delivered one dish that’s on the menu but is still being tweaked. (This is where a food writer has an advantage over a lay diner.) Big elbows of seaweed pasta nested clams bathed in a white wine broth with tiny dice of pancetta and pickled fresno chilies. The three of us drank the broth with our spoons when the clams and pasta were gone. On the printed menu, this dish is listed as being made with bucatini, but the hollow curves of the elbows served as little cups for the savory broth—much better.

We didn’t eat a classical Italian meal, either. We stopped with pasta as our main course moscato and grappa for dessert. We’ll have to go back to see if Stanza’s bistecca fiorentina ($85) is as good as the one we had in Florence.

Apr 21
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Restaurant News

By Eat & Drink
Stanza just opened, Fresco was sold to Scott Evans, today Luna Blanca Taqueria is closed. What’s going on?? A few weeks ago I spoke with Joel Lasalle and Mikel Trapp (the partners in the new company, Main Course Management, that is behind all these changes) to get a glimpse of their vision:

The question was, why start completely over? Why not just remodel with tony shades of paint? Faustina was hardly a fail—the restaurant and its staff had won numerous awards. But when the principals of newly-named Main Course Management restaurant group turned their attention to this little downtown bistro, they opted to tear it down (all except, mysteriously, the bar) and start over. Before the restaurant was open, I sat down to find out the reason for such a radical approach.

Joel LaSalle and Mikel Trapp

“We learned a lot from opening Current and we want to build on that success,” says co-owner Joel LaSalle. He and his partner Mikel Trapp joined their separate restaurant companies to open Current Seafood & Oyster two years ago and the place has exceeded expectations and projections.

LaSalle and Trapp think they know why and are using that knowledge to approach their future projects in their new company, Main Course Management. There will be many projects to come, but the first thing they tackled was a remake of Faustina, their little cafe that almost could.

Faustina was a mild mainstay on the downtown dining scene for years. A modern bistro with a regular clientele who loved the patio, the people and the mid-priced modern American food, it was rarely disappointing. But it seldom made news. Applying the lessons they’d learned from Current, LaSalle and Trapp started over at Faustina, beginning by renaming it Stanza.

Wow Factor

“Current is a whole experience,” says LaSalle. “The minute people step in the door, they look up at that vaulted ceiling and the whole room and they say, ‘Wow.’” For most guests, a dinner at Current is the evening’s entertainment—they come in, have a drink and some oysters, chat and leisurely eat their way through dinner and dessert.

Extra attractions like the shooters paired to the oysters and the dramatic presentations make each course its own floor show. “We’re trying to change the landscape of the Salt Lake City dining scene,” says LaSalle.

Flexibility

Key to Stanza’s concept is flexibility—the space holds 140 seats downstairs and 100 seats upstairs, meaning two separate dining rooms with two different atmospheres. There’s a patio, upstairs and down, and a bar area. The

goal is to balance a large area with intimate spaces, a dining room with plenty of buzz but amenable to conversation as well. “Diners today don’t like to be locked into a format,” says Chef Logen Crew. They might want drinks and some small plates, or they might want a whole dinner, soup to nuts. They might be looking for a tete a tete or they might be celebrating with the whole family. A restaurant needs to be usable in several ways at once.

Authenticity

Authenticity is the most powerful buzzword in today’s restaurants. But it is applied on a sliding scale. “First we looked at the culinary landscape in Salt Lake and saw a void where the most popular cuisine in U.S. should be—Italian food,” says La Salle.

So how do you square the public’s taste for Italian cuisine with its current zeal for authenticity? “It’s all in the sourcing,” says Executive Chef Crew, who is working with Stanza chef Phelix Gardner (formerly with Pago.) All dry and fresh pasta is made in-house;  A Priori and Nicholas & Co. help to procure imported goods and to source best possible local ingredients. Authenticity, in this case, doesn’t extend to regionality. “We cherry-picked the menu items from regions all over Italy,” Crew says.

Likewise, the beverage menu, designed by Jimmy Santangelo, focuses on the feel of Italian food, which he calls “the world’s comfort food.” Basically, he says, the wine list at Stanza is designed to be approachable, affordable, and easy to explore with little to no risk. There are approximately 48 wines on the list, most are served by the glass, and most are Italian.

The Stakeholders

In the restaurant business, there’s a never-ending tension between the quality of a chef-run restaurant and the economic feasibility of a chain. Chef-run restaurants generally rank higher in terms of inventiveness and quality because they’re fueled by passion. But margins can be razor-thin, making the business precarious. Chains, or even restaurant groups, lose some soul because they are usually run more like assembly lines and have less personal attention invested in them.

Main Course, LaSalle and Trapp’s restaurant group, is trying to find the balance via an unusual business model: “We hire on chefs with the intent for them to own a piece,” says LaSalle. “We want our restaurants to be totally chef-driven, so we’re looking for chef-partners, putting our money where your mouth is.”

Stanza, 454 E. 300 South, SLC, 801-746-4441

Mar 30
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Here comes Handly! Briar Handly’s HSL to open in April.

By Eat & Drink
hslopen

Okay—Except for the brackets, I totally copied this from Panic Button Media’s website. (Thanks, Katie!)

“After years of award-winning success with Handle restaurant in Park City, Chef Briar Handly and his team are excited to open a new concept in Salt Lake City called HSL. <They’re thinking HSL will open in April and I believe them because I’ve been invited to a tasting.>

 “We want our customers to know that HSL will embrace the same level of service and creativity of Handle, but HSL will be an entirely new experience,” says Chef Briar Handly. “We are thrilled and humbled to be a part of Salt Lake’s thriving culinary atmosphere.”

HSL’s commitment to fresh sourcing, <Remember how he used to keep a garden on top of the building next to Talisker?> frequent foraging, and local loyalty will be a sustained theme at the Salt Lake City location, which will seat nearly 100 patrons.

Chef Handly has been leaving his mark in the restaurant industry for 15 years. Most recently he opened Handle in Park City along with his partners Meagan Nash & Melissa Gray. Handle was named one of Salt Lake Magazine’s Best Restaurants, and has also received mentions in The New York Times, Forbes, Food & Wine, The James Beard Foundation and City Weekly’s Reader’s Choice for top Park City dining.

Joining Handly at HSL will be Craig Gerome as the chef de cuisine, Tim Smith as executive sous chef, and Alexa Nolin as pastry chef. The cocktail program is being developed by Scott Gardner and Ryan Wenger serves as HSL’s wine director.

To further elevate the dining experience at HSL, great attention has been paid to the interior design. The concept is the result of a collaboration between HSL co-owner Melissa Gray and Cody Derrick of City Home Collective <Really? Another CHC restaurant? But I heard Briar and Melissa got lots of equipment from the now-closed Talisker on Main where Briar was chef. Wonder if he used it.> The thoughtful, creative approach has brought unexpected combinations and textures together for a refreshing, whimsical and animated vibe.

Look for HSL to open at 200 South 418 East in Salt Lake City in early April. HSL will be open 7 days a week for dinner only, with weekend brunch beginning later in the summer.”

Can. Not Wait.

Mar 24
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Yes, It’s True. Say Farewell to Fresco. And Other Restaurant News.

By Eat & Drink
The cutest restaurant in town is closing. Today, Main Course Management (owners of Current, etc.) announced that the beloved Fresco, everyone’s secret Italian (esque) restaurant for nearly 30 years, will be closing April 2. The company has not announced plans for the space, but if you want to eat one last time in the charmingly cramped dining room, make your reservation now for Monday-Saturday, 5-9 p.m.

Main Course has lots of other plans—read the upcoming May/June issue of Salt Lake magazine to learn about what partners Joel LaSalle and Mikel Trapp have in mind for the Salt Lake dining scene.

 

In happier news, Amour Spreads will soon be opening a cafe to showcase their hand-crafted jams and marmalades and the star of the show will be Amber Billingsley, one of the most talented pastry chefs in town. When you add Amber’s way with sweets to her pleasant personality and the utter niceness of Amour owners John and Casee Francis, this new place may be too sweet to bear. Go to amourspreads.com for more information.

Other good stuff is brewing: Proper Burger and Proper Brewing just opened on Main Street, Alamexo is introducing a new menu and some other things soon; new doughnuts are coming to town; on Friday, April 1, Utah Brewers Coop (Squatters and Wasatch) will introduce the next in its UT-X series, Squasatch Hoppy Pils.

Feb 28
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Matt’s Cheesy Bits: This Week—Comte vs. Gruyere

By Eat & Drink
Certified Cheese Expert and Caputo’s owner Matt Caputo tells us what cheese to buy this week and why:

 From time to time we get customers who bemoan the fact that we don’t regularly carry Comte, which is France’s most popular cheese in France. Gruyere is from just over the border in Switzerland and at one time they were considered the same cheese as they are extremely similar and some would argue identical except for the name. We carry Gruyere year round instead of Comte. The reasons are many.

For one, it is easier to find a great Gruyere at a reasonable price than Comte and even cheese geeks would be hard pressed to tell them apart in a blind taste test. Additionally, the best of these cheeses come in full 80 pound wheels. As a retailer, buying them pre-cut is a sin. It is also simply easier to sell Gruyere in the US as more people come in looking for it.

After these monstrous 80 pound wheels are cut into you only have a couple weeks until their most complex aromas dissipate. If you buy it pre-cut and they do so before it even leaves the factory, obviously the window has passed. This is unfortunately how most Gruyere and Comte is sold in America.

This quick dissipation of flavor combined with how long it can take even the busiest cheese retailers to sell a whole 80/lb wheel forces most cheese retailers to choose either Gruyere or Comte. These cheeses are so similar and carrying both is basically like splitting your sales in half.

This month at Caputo’s we are lucky enough to have dedicated and flexible restaurant customers. Evan Lewandowski, sommelier and fromager atPago (ed. note: Salt Lake magazine named Pago this year’s Best Restaurant at the recent 2014 Dining Awards) promised that if we brought in Comte that he would jump on board and even change his by the glass wine menu to match.

Well I could not resist too long. Finally, Caputo’s now has not one but two full wheels of Comte. The first is a young 6 month from Rivoire Jacquemin and will retail for $16.99/lb. The second is produced by the elite Saint Antoine and is aged for 30 months by the legendary affineur Jean d’ Alos. It retails for $29.99/lb. Both bear the green label which means they are both in the top 2% of Comte production. As always Caputo’s still has a wonderful full wheel Gruyere for $15.99/lb.

Come taste all three at Caputo’s. As usual, samples are always free. See which one you think reigns supreme, Gruyere or Comte. Of course to make this a fair comparison I would have to also bring in a fourth 80 lb wheel of Rolf Beeler Gruyere. Hmm.