The Blue Plate Award for Outstanding Community Service: Scion Cider Bar
There’s barely a week that goes by when we don’t have an email in our inbox from Scion Cider, sharing the news about an event for the community: trivia and game nights, fundraisers, cider classes, live music, dinner series, tastings, and seemingly endless collaborations with other shops, bars, organizations and groups in the neighborhood. How Scion manages to host so many happening parties while being so active in the community is nothing short of impressive. If there’s something cool going down in the Central 9th, Scion Cider is probably involved. It’s that tenacity and initiative that earns them the Blue Plate Award for Outstanding Community Service. And we have not even mentioned that it is a friendly place to meet interesting people, get a tasty cider (on a rotating menu of dozens available from funky to sweet with everything in between), and learn a little bit while you’re there,
scionciderbar.com.
The #Randompink Award (Just Because): Harbor Seafood & Steak
Parley’s Way is a desert for good food, awash in fast-food and fast-casual spots amid the offices suited to the Park City commuter. That’s why Harbor Seafood + Steak stands out as, well, a Harbor of dining in that part of town. Randall Curtis, the chef-owner of Harbor is a big part of why. He is there in the kitchen on the floor, mixing cocktails for nearly every service, the chief cook and bottlewasher if you will. In 2016, Randall joined the efforts at Stone Soup, a program that provides regular restaurant quality meals to The Road Home. But something you may not know about Randall. He is Utah’s biggest sports fan. His restaurant serves as a haven for University of Utah football athletes, Utah Jazz and Hockey club players who seek some anonymity and a good meal served by a friendly face. harborslc.com.
The Spirit Award: Alpine Distilling
Alpine Distilling is not in want of praise and for good reason. In 2024, Master Distiller Sara Sergent received admission to the prestigious London Gin Guild, accepted an award for the distillery’s innovative sustainability efforts and won Gold in the Fifty Best Awards’ Best American Blended Whiskey competition for their Alpine American Whiskey. Our readers at Salt Lake magazine voted Alpine Distilling as the No. 1 distiller in the state. Putting them over the top, at Alpine Distilling’s Park City Social Aid & Pleasure Club, visitors can now make their own gin. Sergent and her team guide amateur distillers through the botanical selection process to make a bespoke spirit, so they walk away with both a bottle of gin and an understanding of what makes a spirit special, alpinedistilling.com.
The Green Thumb Award for an Outstanding Grower: Frog Bench Farms
If you’ve ever been served a cocktail with a compelling sugar pea shrub or a rainbow-hued salad graced with edible flowers, there’s a very good chance that the building blocks for those superlative moments were sourced at Frog Bench Farms. With an extensive solar array, rainwater harvesting system, on-site seed banking operation, and integrated composting cycle, the almost zero-waste business supplies local restaurant chefs and lucky farmers’ market customers alike and does so year-round. Since 2012, this 1.5-acre model of sustainable urban farming has been a passion project for owners Paula Swaner Sargetakis and Joe Sargetakis. Frog Bench Farms is example that quality and even exotic produce doesn’t need to come at the expense of responsible land stewardship,
frogbenchfarms.com.
The Golden Spoon For Hospitality: Ali Sabbeh and the Team at Mazza
Decades of attention from Ali have created a community of diners, staff and his purveyors. A dinner out at Mazza is what dining should be, civilized and welcoming. It truly defines hospitality and is worthy of recognition. Mazza had everything that a dining experience should have—community, conversation, food that couldn’t be recreated in any other setting, and consistency in quality that has survived and thrived under Ali’s passion for hospitality. It is a humble place, not flashy or trendy. The best is often merely reliable and, yes, comforting. Thus you’ll find Ali in his soothing, simple cafe, behind the stove fussing over each dish, mazzacafe.com.
Each year, Salt Lake magazine presents its choices for the best restaurants in Utah. This year, we zoomed in on the individual neighborhoods and fast-growing parts of our state that are emerging as dining destinations. But no matter where they are located—be it a busy downtown block or a charming perch in Southern Utah—by our reckoning, these are the best restaurants in Utah.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
