Dining Awards

Each Year, Salt Lake Magazine hosts the Blue Plate Awards, honoring the growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders, restaurateurs—basically anyone who has a hand in the essential act of feeding us and does so with grace, style, creativity and care. This past year, well, was “just awful,” as our dearly departed Executive Editor Mary Brown Malouf said often. It was especially hard on the hospitality sector. In many ways, as Mary and I discussed before her passing, this year’s awards are given for merely surviving. The 2021 Blue Plate Awards are the first-ever without our Mary bringing them across the finish line.

As Mary conceived, a Blue Plate is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond.

Mary spoke the language of the kitchen, the lingo of servers, the banter of the bar—the Esperanto of anyone who has ever waited on a table, slung a drink, cleaned a grease trap or prepped on the line. But she also knew the language of dining, being served and what a diner should expect. She was critical on both sides of that divide. Cajoling, teasing the best from the back of the house and lecturing Utah diners on not just where to eat but how to eat and to dare their palates and pocketbooks on local food.

She loved the classic Borscht Belt joke: “‘How’s the food?’ ‘Terrible but the portions are amazing!” She used it often as the punch line to what she saw wrong with the chain-heavy culinary experience in Utah. A doting aunt who urged us to sit up straight and at least try the foie gras. Mary preached constantly that food is about more than a price point—it is fun, friends, and conversation. It was about living and, also, a living for the people who deserve recognition and love. “Eat this. DON’T EAT THAT, throw off the chains that bind you,” she’d say with her typical smirk.     

These are Mary’s awards, the last that she’ll preside over. They were unearthed from a morass of scrawled notes, emails and random laptop files labeled “BLU PLAT.” And we dedicate them to her, our town’s biggest food fan, critic and champion, xoxomm. —Jeremy Pugh, Editor

The 2021 Blue Plate Awards are sponsored by Spark Solutions.

Fisher Brewing: Creative Canning

This year, Fisher found ways to utilize their beer, taproom space and canning capabilities for good. They created special lines of limited edition beers in custom cans to help raise funds for local businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. For example, their custom line of Monkey Wrench Gang Cans—utilizing the famous artwork of R. Crumb—on behalf of Ken Sanders Rare Books, raised more than $25K, helping keep Ken in business. The event saw (socially distanced) lines out the door at the Fisher Tap Room. Read more here. 

Oquirrh Restaurant: Betting the Bottom Dollar

When COVID-19 hit Salt Lake City, Oquirrh co-owners Andrew and Angelena Fullers’ dream was seriously damaged. But the Fullers keep trying to follow the rules. The restaurant staff is down to Angie and Drew, a dishwasher and a cook. There are no days off and haven’t been for months. Any slight downtime is spent planning things like takeaway Thanksgiving dinners or filling orders for food they never planned to serve, like a recently requested charcuterie platter. Read more here.

 Hive Eats SLC: Feats in Logistics

Seemingly out of thin air, the muscle behind Hive SLC—Missy Greiss, of Publik Coffee Roasters; Dean Pierose, owner of Cucina Wine Bar; Scott Evans, founder of Pago Restaurant Group along with a dash of tech wizardry from James Roberts, a founding partner of Redirect Digital—created an elaborate delivery and online ordering system. Solving this massive logistical puzzle helps out local restaurants, providing a consistent revenue source and keeping their employees working. As a bonus, Hive SLC gives us a local-first way to order directly from some of SLC’s finest establishments and reduce the heavy fees that other online ordering services demand. Read more here.

Cucina Wine Bar and Deli: Preserving Neighborhood Connection

Owner Dean Pierose responded to the COVID-19 crisis with his signature manic energy, quickly expanding his outdoor dining experience, pivoting to curbside delivery while Chef Joey Ferran created takeout boxes of his elevated ingredients that could be assembled at home. Pierose’s outdoor spaces became a place where the neighborhood could gather safely. He offered free coffee in the mornings and encouraged his regulars to linger and commiserate together, preserving a semblance of society during a socially distanced time. Read more here. 

Rico Brand: Staying in ‘Beansness’

Last summer, it seemed that Rico would be another victim of rapid gentrification in Salt Lake. After 18 years as a staple in the Granary District, new ownership threatened to evict owner Jorge Fierro from his plant, inspiring public outcry. Luckily, Rico was able to find a new home in Poplar Grove and now plans to add even more employees. It’s a last-minute happy ending for a community leader who literally wears his mission on his sleeve, courtesy a tattoo in bright red block letters: “pay it forward.” Read more here.

The Store (Holladay and SLC): Special Deliveries

As grocery delivery becomes the new norm, The Store offers a personal touch that only an independent grocer can provide. Last March, high-risk and elderly customers began calling in their grocery lists over the phone, and The Store’s general managers personally delivered food to their homes. In a year when grocery store employees were rightly called essential workers, places like The Store proved why these businesses are so necessary for our communities. Read more here.

Clearwater Distilling: Proof of a High-Proof Concept

A distillery in Utah County? Is that even legal? Actually, yes. Just that no one had ever tried before. Owners Matt and Stephanie Eau Claire waded into the morass of city and county regulations, public meetings, zoning laws and skeptical Utah County officialdom to prove that yes, distilling is a legal venture, even in Utah County. Welcomed by the City of Pleasant Grove, Clearwater Distilling became the first-ever legal distilling operation in Happy Valley. Read more here.

Hearth and Hill: Opening Doors

As the pandemic ravages independent restaurants, Hearth and Hill has reaffirmed its commitment to small businesses in Park City. Using its large dining room as an informal gathering space for the city, Hearth and Hill has donated to and hosted fundraisers for community organizations. They provided flu shots for their own staff and other neighboring businesses. And their generosity extends to their own employees, who received extra groceries and free Thanksgiving turkeys. Read more here.

 

Spice-to-Go: Keeping the Spice Flowing

This year Spice Kitchen Incubator, already an essential resource for refugees, became, well, even more essential. When coming to this country, refugees often have nothing but a few clothes and their cooking skills; Spice helps these displaced people find their financial feet again by sharing their culture and food. With COVID restrictions limiting dine-in service and the incubator’s event catering program, Spice-to-Go became the focus, allowing the kitchen to keep sharing international food experiences serving Utah’s vulnerable refugee community. Read more here.

 The Demitasse Spoon Awards for COVID Creativity 

Anyone who ever looked for a corkscrew in Mary’s overflowing drawer of silver utensils has commented, “Why do you have two dozen demitasse spoons?” Her reply? “One can never have too many demitasse spoons, my dear.” In that spirit, we offer this year’s Demitasse Spoon Awards for COVID Creativity. Hopefully, these nods will one day go the way of the Coronavirus. But this year we call out what, we know, is an incomplete list of hospitable creativity and problem-solving in response to chaos. 

• The Downtown Alliance — Helped to create an open streets program to support bars and restaurants on lower Main Street.
• Harbor Seafood & Steak — Built lovely heated greenhouses to accommodate small groups for year-round outdoor dining.
• Butcher’s Chop House & Bar — Taking outdoor dining to the next level, Butchers installed three private “Alpenglobes,” gorgeous little bubbles with a view.
• The Charleston — Created beautifully lit, heated tents and warming spaces on its outdoor patio.
• Harmons Cooking School Took its popular cooking classes online, giving homebound cooks a chance to sharpen their skills.
• Amour Cafe — To stay afloat they focused efforts on selling Amour Spreads a line of locally sourced jams and jellies.

Raise a Glass To…

This year’s awards are laced with plenty of sorrow. The toll the pandemic has taken on our restaurant community has caused casualties. Here, we honor the lost and underscore how important it is for us all to recognize the importance of supporting the places that continue to survive.

• Howdy Ice Cream
• Alamexo
• Cannella’s
• Pallet
• Mazza (locations at 9th and 9th and in Sandy)
• Creek Tea
• George
• Bar George
• Porcupine Pub & Grille (location on 1300 East)
• Red Butte Cafe
• Koko Kitchen
• The Olive Bistro
• Zucca Trattoria
• Tinwell
• Shogun

Note: We have surely missed more than a few closures at our press time and invite you to reach out and share any that we didn’t list here.

Silver Lining

The Rio Grande Cafe, forced from their location in the Rio Grande Depot following the 2020 earthquake was able to move in and occupy one of the city’s historic restaurant spaces on 1300 East.

All photos by Adam Finkle 

Since 1968, The Store has been the platonic ideal of a neighborhood market—locally focused, community-based and appealingly small scale. The Store sells food and drinks from hundreds of local vendors, providing new companies with a platform outside of chain stores. (In pre-pandemic times, sellers manned the aisles with samples of their own products.) This is the kind of place where the staff knows regular customers on a first-name basis and someone is always there to give hints about the best produce to buy.

As grocery delivery becomes the new norm, The Store offers a personal touch that only an independent grocer can provide. Last March, high-risk and elderly customers began calling in their grocery lists over the phone, and The Store’s general managers personally delivered food to their homes. While supply shortages and health risks made the grocery business more challenging than ever this year, The Store thrived by continuing its commitment to local companies. They partnered with Utah restaurants like Pago and Hub & Spoke Diner to sell pre-made dinners, supporting restaurants while the industry fights to survive. In a year when grocery store employees were rightly called essential workers, places like The Store proved why these businesses are so necessary for our communities.

2050 E. 6200 South, Holladay
801-272-1212

90 S. Rio Grande, SLC
385-213-7900

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

Working with Chef Joey Ferran, owner Dean Pierose has spent years turning what was a casual Avenues deli into a bistro and wine bar where Avenue residents gather to enjoy a place where everybody knows your name while the cuisine excites your taste buds. At Cucina Wine Bar and Deli, Chef Ferran pulls together a small world of flavors, from seasoning cauliflower with red mole to sweetening a duck breast with saba to finishing a fried avocado with tamarind-coconut curry.

Pierose responded to the COVID-19 crisis with his signature manic energy, quickly expanding his outdoor dining experience, pivoting to curbside delivery while Chef Ferran created takeout boxes of his elevated ingredients that could be assembled at home. But more than that, Pierose’s outdoor spaces became a place where the neighborhood could gather safely. He offered free coffee in the mornings and encouraged his regulars to linger and commiserate together, preserving a semblance of society during a socially distanced time. 

1026 2nd Ave., SLC
801-322-3055

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

Spice Kitchen Incubator helps refugees turn their cooking skills into a viable, sustainable enterprise by offering affordable kitchen space, training, access to financing, and advice about business practices and marketing. Founded by Natalie El-Deiry and the International Rescue Committee in partnership with Salt Lake County, the kitchen has nurtured the seeds of many Salt Lake food trucks, farmers market stands and restaurants. Its box meal service, Spice-to-Go, offers an ever-changing menu of exotic meals cooked by incubator kitchen’s refugee chefs. Sign up for the weekly menu, order on Tuesday, pick up on Thursday and liven up the “what’s for dinner?” question with surprise! It’s African-Caribbean fusion night.

This year the organization, already an essential resource for refugees, became, well, even more essential. When coming to this country, refugees often have nothing but a few clothes and their cooking skills; Spice helps these displaced people find their financial feet again by sharing their culture and food. With COVID restrictions limiting dine-in service and the incubator’s event catering program, Spice-to-Go became the focus, allowing the kitchen to keep sharing international food experiences serving Utah’s vulnerable refugee community. 

751 W. 800 South, SLC
385-229-4484

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

Rico Brand, owned by Jorge Fierro, is the quintessential immigrant success story. Originally from Mexico, Fierro arrived in Salt Lake City penniless in 1985. Thoroughly unimpressed with the Mexican food offerings at his local grocery store, Fierro began selling pinto beans at the Salt Lake Farmers Market in the late ’90s. Since then, Rico has expanded into a warehouse with more than 30 employees, selling everything from tamales to salsa at local supermarkets. Fierro has also been a tireless community advocate—he raises money for charitable causes, caters community events for free and serves on small business advisory boards including the Burrito Project, which provides burritos for people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake.

Last summer, it seemed that Rico would be another victim of rapid gentrification in Salt Lake. After 18 years as a staple in the Granary District, new ownership threatened to evict Fierro from his plant, inspiring public outcry and media attention. (On our website, Mary wrote, “Salt Lake City is selling its soul.”) Luckily, Rico was able to find a new home in Poplar Grove, and, thanks to pandemic-led grocery sales, Fierro now plans to add even more employees. It’s a last-minute happy ending for a community leader who literally wears his mission on his sleeve, courtesy a tattoo in bright red block letters: “pay it forward.”

945 W. Folsom Ave, SLC
801-433-9923

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

After working in some of the best restaurants in town (The Copper Onion, HSL, Pago) Chef Andrew Fuller and front-of-house standout Angelena Fuller opened their dream restaurant, Oquirrh, in downtown Salt Lake City in February 2019. Oquirrh intended from the start to be an artisanal community experience: an expression of love, not a quest for cash. Everything was familiar but original, served with grace and gusto and even humor—the asparagus spears were standing at attention on the plate, little soldiers with their feet stuck in a sheep’s milk fondue. Local art could be purchased right off the wall. This is the kind of restaurant Salt Lake was slowly becoming famous for—chef-dreamed, chef-run, definitively local, deserving of awards and stars.

But even a labor of love has to have some cash. And when COVID-19 hit Salt Lake City, the Fullers’ dream was seriously damaged. But the Fullers keep trying to follow the rules. The restaurant staff is down to Angie and Drew, a dishwasher and a cook. There are no days off and haven’t been for months. Any slight downtime is spent planning things like take-away Thanksgiving dinners or filling orders for food they never planned to serve, like a recently requested charcuterie platter.

368 E. 100 South, SLC
801-359-0426

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

In just a few years, Hearth and Hill has earned its reputation as a good neighbor. The restaurant proudly states that the majority of diners are Park City locals, who keep returning to try Executive Chef Jordan Harvey’s elevated, contemporary takes on modern American classics, from poke bowls to bison patty melts. Even before the pandemic hit, Hearth and Hill was dedicated to running a community-driven, eco-friendly business. The restaurant serves produce from local farms, composts leftover food scraps and donates meals to children facing food insecurity in Park City.

As the pandemic ravages independent restaurants, Hearth and Hill has reaffirmed its commitment to small businesses in Park City. Using its large dining room as an informal gathering space for the city, Hearth and Hill has donated to and hosted fundraisers for community organizations. They provided flu shots for their own staff and other neighboring businesses. And their generosity extends to their own employees, who received extra groceries and free Thanksgiving turkeys. All the while, they have continued to serve seasonal cuisine with creative solutions for curbside delivery, including special holiday menus, Christmas curbside caroling and frozen family-size dishes. It’s these little (and not-so-little) things that make Hearth and Hill an important neighborhood leader.

1153 Center Dr., Park City
435-200-8840

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

Hive Eats is a subscription meal delivery service featuring 10 of Salt Lake City’s favorite restaurants. Locally produced, locally sourced meals prepared by small independent restaurants are delivered each week. Meals are delivered on Sundays and Thursdays, pre-prepared and ready to eat after a few minutes in the oven. Participating restaurants include Arlo, Avenues Proper, The Copper Onion, Cucina, Finca, Mazza, Osteria Amore, Pago, Publik and Trio.

Seemingly out of thin air, the muscle behind Hive SLC—Missy Greiss, of Publik Coffee Roasters; Dean Pierose, owner of Cucina Wine Bar; Scott Evans, founder of Pago Restaurant Group along with a dash of tech wizardry from James Roberts, a founding partner of Redirect Digital—created an elaborate delivery and online ordering system. Solving this massive logistical puzzle helps out local restaurants, providing a consistent revenue source and keeping their employees working. As a bonus, Hive Eats SLC gives us a local-first way to order directly from some of SLC’s finest establishments and reduce the heavy fees that other online ordering services demand.

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.

As ill-timed as a venture could possibly be, Matt and Stephanie Eau Claire’s Clearwater Distilling opened in March­—yes, that March—complete with a tasting room and package store in Pleasant Grove. Matt makes what we’d call deep-shelf spirits that should be front-shelf stars. Take the Josephine. Named after the cabaret star and WWII French resistance spy Josephine Baker, this eau de vie is a mashup of a clear, un-aged brandy and a rum. Their Lorenz (a nod to Danish Arctic explorer Lorenz Peter Freuchen) is a clear rum with heady notes of cinnamon.

A distillery in Utah County? Is that even legal? Actually, yes. Just that no one had ever tried before. Matt and Stephanie waded into the morass of city and county regulations, public meetings, zoning laws, and skeptical Utah County officialdom to prove that yes, distilling is a legal venture, even in Utah County. Welcomed by the City of Pleasant Grove, Clearwater Distilling became the first, ever legal distilling operation in Happy Valley.   

564 W. 700 South, Ste. 401, Pleasant Grove
801-997-8667

Each year, Salt Lake Magazine editors honor growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs with the Blue Plate Awards. A Blue Plate Award is given to an establishment or an individual who has done more than put good food on the table. They’ve created culture, made acts of kindness and education and are paragons of service that goes beyond. To see the full list of winners, click here.