What ensures a successful restaurant? “Location, location, location,” is the usual answer. But you can hardly find a better location than the space that has been Sky Lodge, Main & Sky, Coal & Lumber, etc. Who knows why none of them lasted? Now the space is occupied by Courchevel Bistro, a Talisker property. The downstairs space is for members only, but Courchevel, with its prime people-viewing patio looking right over the pedestrian traffic, is open to all. Longtime Talisker chef Clement Gelas is in the kitchen and right at home. Courchevel is the name of Park City’s sister city in the Savoie region of France. And Savoie is Chef Gelas’ home turf. He worked with Red Bicycle Bakery to make the authentic Savoyarde bread—gorgeous, crisp-crusted but with a fine crumbit comes with cultured butter. And he suggested a bottle of Schiste Domaine des Ardoisiere, a biodynamic wine from the Savoie probably never before served in Utah.

Even now, Americans seem to forget that there are lots of regional cuisines in France. The food of Savoie is distinct and Gelas is having fun showing it off with an elegant spin.

Courchevel is as ritzy as skiing gets; the Mont Blanc-Chamonix snow is world-famous. But the food of the region has deep peasant roots that can still be tasted—even with the sophisticated turn this kitchen gives them, ingredients like cheese, potatoes and buckwheat have earthiness and heft.

Take risotto de crozote. Not really a risotto at all, this dish is more like mac and cheese, only the mac role is played by crozette, traditional small, square buckwheat pasta, the cheese is Gruyere and the (actually rather unattractive) dish is flecked with thick bits of bacon and decorated with pea tendrils. This is real stick-to-your-ribs stuff, making no health claims, delivering  nothing but solid satisfaction. Likewise the bratwurst in brioche, the spicy sausage encased in a crisp crust and resting on a bed of white beans. Somehow, this all turns out to be hearty, but not heavy, food. Entrees include an unusual presentation of coq au vin served with carrot puree with potato matafan, potato pancake, crusted in grated potato. Desserts and chocolates are made by Franck Peissel. (Yes, that Franck.)

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IF YOU GO
Address: 202 S. Main St., SLC
Web: bambaraslc.com
Phone: 801-363-5454
Entrees: $$-$$$

One of the hardest things to do as a restaurant writer is to circle back. There are so many new places that it’s hard to check in with restaurants you’ve already visited. But it’s necessary, because a restaurant is always a moving target—chefs come and go, owners come and go, concepts come and go. Usually (not always; hello, George!) the name remains the same. So I was happy to be invited to taste Chef Nathan Powers’ new menu at Bambara. A decade or so ago, Bambara had a swinging door for chefs—they came and went with dizzying regularity. But Powers has been there a decade or more and now he and the restaurant seem synonymous. Remember, Powers has worked for some of the best in big markets. He’s a savvy restaurateur and an accomplished chef—a rare combination.

And our taste was a feast.

Of course, the blue cheese potato chips and the silky corn bisque with Jonah crab are still available. “Every chef learns there are some things you can never cycle off the menu,” says Powers. But a good chef’s menu changes with the seasons. And a good chef gets bored.

New items on Bambara’s winter menu include seared rare hamachi* a rich fish cooked like tuna and served over asparagus puree with lemon curd and scallion oil. Grilled quail cuddled around a blob of soft burrata. Watercress gave the dish some bite and dots of saba** syrup, a savory sweetness.

“Elk is always one of the best-sellers on the menu,” Powers says. “So I try to keep it there and change the preparation according to the season. In the version we tasted, rare rounds of loin were lent creamy-rich mouthfeel by a sweet corn “risotto,” then brightened with barely bitter baby kale while a Luxardo cherry barbecue sauce lent some sweetness. The whole plate was topped with spears of tempura-fried asparagus. So good. The halibut in a saffron-tinged tomato bath was also a new preparation. Chorizo and clams provided textural contrast.

You’re seeing a pattern here—the plates are carefully balanced, but with some separation of ingredients so how you eat it determines the flavor. Our server, Chrit, has been at Bambara for years. He steered us towards a bottle of Joseph Phelps to bridge the elk and the halibut: perfection.

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The best trend in grocery stores is not a coffee bar, or a kombucha bar or mochi. The best trend in grocery stores is small. The Store at Gateway is 9,000 square feet. The typical Smith’s store is 170,000 square feet.  Evidently, you can fit everything I need in in 9,000 square feet.

IF YOU GO
Address: 90 S. Rio Grande St., SLC,
Web: thestoreutah.com
Phone: 385-213-7900 Entrees: $-$$

The Store has a kombucha and coffee bar. It has a chef-prepared hot buffet and a whole menu of chef-prepared meals to go. It sells artisanal bread. And square American white bread. The Store sells a nice selection of local cheeses. And The Store sells Velveeta.

The first Store opened in 1968 in Holladay. Owner Paul Niederhauser honed its selection and purpose for The Store to become what had become nearly extinct: a neighborhood, all-purpose, family-owned grocery store. Turns out that is what everyone had been longing for, because supermarkets, what? Aren’t that super after all. Now Niederhauser’s son Scotty has opened The Store at Gateway, an area that’s been without a good grocery store forever until now.

About the eclectic selection, Scotty says, “We don’t want to tell people what they should want. We just try to have what they want.”

It turns out that a store this size and this open-minded is perfect for launching new foods from smaller companies: Laurie’s Chips started at The Store. Salsa del Diablo and Rico’s have always had a strong presence. Cakes de Fleur sells retail cakes at The Store. And local companies like V Chocolates, June Pie, Cutler’s Cookies and Publik Coffee are on the shelves.

“The food will evolve according to our customers,” says The Store Chef Paul Morello. Morello’s past is in fine dining and the food at the store shows that panache. Four-cheese mac and cheese, Payard’s recipe for apple rum cake, braised beef in merlot, as well as fried chicken, meatballs, sauces and pulled pork are some of Morello’s customer favorites now. “We have a hot soup bar and a sushi bar planned,” he says. And I’ll be baking breads in French wood pans.”

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The line on the floor says, “The Bull starts here.” “That’s where you put your foot,” Devin Callaway tells me.

“No, not your toe. Line up your right foot parallel to the line.”

Then a twist to face the board, aim, point and…thud. My dart didn’t even hit the board.

There’s more to throwing darts than fancy footwork.

Dartspeak

Even if you don’t cork during a leg, you can
say it correctly.
Cork: The bullseye
Leg: A game in a match
Pie: Any wedge on the board
Mugs Away: The loser of a match gets to start the next game.
Ton: A score of 100 points—and hence, the second pun in the Mighty Mighty Mash Tons’ name

Darts, the quintessential pub game, is making a comeback in SLC. The Wasatch Darts has four divisions. The C Division consists of six teams, including The Mighty Mighty Mash Tons, sponsored by TF Brewing. And these are the guys who are tolerating my feeble flings at their practice night. They are throwing darts at another board which is hooked up to an electronic scoreboard.

It’s been 700 years, give or take, since darts was invented as a military pastime where soldiers took turns throwing spearheads at upturned wine casks. (Remember that saying, war is hours of boredom and minutes of terror? Darts was invented during the boredom part.)

Supposedly, wine casks gave way to slabs of tree trunks, tree trunks have growth rings and radial cracks—inspiration for the modern dart board.

In Great Britain, darts is one of the national games—there’s a board in most every pub—and though it’s not yet an Olympic sport, lots of people say it should be. It takes skill, practice and concentration—just look at the expressions on the throwers’ faces.

It also takes beer. After drinking part of one to assuage the humiliation of my early rounds, I threw a bullseye, a double bull, in dartspeak.

Which called for another beer.

TF Brewing (936 S. 900 West, SLC, 385-270-5972) is just one place Wasatch Dart Association plays in the area. Others include Ice Haus, Shades of Pale, Redwood Lounge, The Republican and more. More info at Wasatchdarts.com

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Issues with a landlord closed a door and the city sort of opened a window for Kestrel and Jerry Liedtke, owners of beloved restaurant Tin Angel.“People used to walk in our old location, across the street from Pioneer Park, and say “This doesn’t feel like Salt Lake,” and Jerry and I would look at each other and say, “We nailed it!” says Kestrel Liedtke.

Kestrel and Jerry Liedtke in front of the new Tin Angel at the Eccles.

IF YOU GO
Address:  131 Main St., SLC
Web: thetinangel.com
Phone: 801-328-4155
Entrees: $$-$$$

When the couple opened Tin Angel, Salt Lakers had not seen anything like it before: Upscale, inventive food served in a thoroughly bohemian setting—the Angel was a total push back against the conventional style and vibe of most restaurants. But disputes with the building’s owner and aspirations piled up—as happens in downtown restaurants. So when the city sent out an RFP for restaurants interested in replacing the former bistro in the lobby of the Eccles Theater, the Liedtke’s jumped. Cautiously. Because there were (are) lots of challenges with this location. Food service was surely an afterthought for the Eccles designers because the cafe space is at the front of the building and the kitchen is at the back. Tricky, because diners are always on a deadline—either the show is starting or the intermission bell is ringing.

Basically, says Kestrel: “Service and speed is essential.” Another catch: The Eccles is a flame-free building: Food has to be cooked in an oven or panini-maker or other appliance. Kestrel was undaunted. Her reaction? “I thought it sounded fun!”

In a 30-page proposal, she outlined plans for everything from décor to hours of operation. (Tin Angel at The Eccles is open for both lunch and dinner—remember that when you’re shopping or looking at holiday lights.) Meanwhile, everything had to be approved by the Eccles’ design committee. That’s a big change from the former free-wheeling Tin Angel. The architects are hugely committed to the big, open, starkly white lobby space—a shock for anyone who ever dined at the original Angel.

Soft green banquettes and warm wood soften the space and, more importantly, the food and drink menu and the staff (some of whom have worked at the Angel for seven or nine years) have moved to the new space too.

And they’ve brought with them the familiar sense of coziness and welcome.

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It’s early in the morning; stores in City Creek mall aren’t even open yet. The food court, usually a noisy bustling maelstrom of shoppers and kids, is silent. Most of the restaurants don’t open until 10 when employees show up, roll up the doors and start heating up the food. But over in Bocata, a unique restaurant in Salt Lake City (there are no other locations), cooks are at work, baking bread, roasting chicken and lamb, and seasoning pork for their version of porchetta: a pork shoulder rubbed with toasted fennel seeds, coriander seeds, white pepper and sea salt, roasted with carrots, celery, chopped fennel and garlic. Sliced thin and served with a salsa verde made of garlic, Italian parsley, capers and anchovy—you end up with a sandwich that is definitely not fast food. “We call it slow food, fast,” says Brooks.

Bocata, City Creek, 28 State St., SLC, 801-355-3538

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Every cuisine has its meatball. They are just such an obvious solution to leftover and second-hand cuts of meat, to stretching a scant quantity of meat into enough. We think of Italian red sauce first, but most of us have a Swedish meatball recipe our mother gave us and chicken, turkey, lamb and vegetarian meatballs are delicious and as easy to make.

Still—don’t want to roll your own? Here are some of Salt Lake’s top meatballs.

TRIO: The classic Italian-American meatball, braised in tomato sauce. 680 S. 900 East, SLC, 801-533-8746

CAFFE MOLISE: Polpette di melanzane: Vegetarian eggplant “meatballs” in a shallot and tomato cream with grilled fresh asparagus and polenta. 404 S. West Temple, SLC, 801-364-8833

PULP: Cacci with turkey meatballs, spaghetti squash. 439 E. 900 South, SLC, 385-267-1092

MANOLI’S: Keftethes: pork and beef meatballs, cinnamon tomato sauce, kefalograviera. 402 E. Harvey Milk Blvd., 801-532-3760

MOOCHIES MEATBALLS & MORE: They say “and more” but it’s pretty much meatballs on and in everything. 232 E.800 South, SLC, 801-596-1350

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