Salt Lake Magazine

It’s a match made in food and drink heaven: Water Witch—Salt Lake’s it bar for cocktails—and Caputo’s—Salt Lake’s it market for, well, everything edible, together. In addition to straight-up cooking classes, Caputos hosts educational classes on cheese, chocolate and wine—and now they’re teaming up with Water Witch for a spirits education series.

Finally learn the difference between Irish whiskey and Scotch, tequila and mezcal and  more, from people who know what they’re talking about. Think of it as spiritual education. Or spirits education.

Whiskey 101, mezcals and tequilas, and barrel-aged spirit classes are on tap with more to come. Learn more at caputos.com/classes

See all our food and drink coverage here.

Evans opened his first restaurant, Pago, to great acclaim. He may have been the first in town to serve beets with Greek yogurt, now a staple on many menus. Then he opened Finca, an homage to his abiding love of Spain, its food, wine and culture. In quick succession, he opened Hub&Spoke, East Liberty Tap House and Trestle. He has more projects in the works, including a chicken restaurant next to the Tap House, but recently, his focus has been on the transformation of Finca (which he moved into a cavernous downtown space in 2012) into its new George configuration. Named, in case you’re wondering, after Scott’s dad.  Alongside the sibling space, Bar George (see Barfly, p. 138) George is a re-visioning of the over-large single room that was Finca.

Above: Owner Scott Evans in his redo restaurant, George (named after his father). From his first success with tiny Pago, Evans has built a group of eclectic restaurants.

Some things are the same—Chef Phelix Gardner is still head of the kitchen, so you know the gnocchi is always going to be a good bet—he just has a way with those little dumplings, here served with mushrooms. But the restaurant is all over the map: The raw bar is impressive. The grill section features burgers, sliders with tallow added to the beef for a taste as rich as wagyu; a Cuban sandwich, a fish sandwich, a cauliflower poboy. Small plates include vestiges of the Spanish-American detente, like the mussels with chorizo, the stuffed piquillo peppers, garlic shrimp. But there’s also poutine and Americana too:  gorgeously rare cold-smoked beef (slightly oversalted—is this an equal and opposite reaction to the no-salt ’90s?)—even fried chicken. Because—evidently—you can’t run a restaurant anymore without fried chicken on the menu. There were some misses—the “cheeseburger egg rolls” ended up a little too reminiscent of a  7-Eleven hot snack—but most of what I tried was good, and certainly the eclectic selection has something on it to please everyone, anytime.

IF YOU GO

• Address:  327 W. 200 South, SLC
• Web: georgeslc.com
• Phone: 801-487-0699
• Entrees: $-$$