John Courtney has lived many lives when it comes to cuisine. He’s a revered chef, having overseen numerous cuisine concepts simultaneously at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas and worked alongside legendary figures like Rick Moonen and Mario Batali. His latest venture, The Fish Market Park City, is bringing a new level of seafood quality to Park City, providing both unique, fresh ingredients for home chefs and a dine-in restaurant in Kimball Junction. It mirrors his other local business, Park City Chop Shop, which is located just across the street. If you’re looking for fresh, fine food in Park City, you’ve found your spot.
“The shrimp is poached in white wine with star anise and cloves to give flavor back to the shrimp. The cocktail sauce is house made with simple ingredients, but we burn off some gin so the juniper flavor matches the character of the poaching liquid. It’s just a shrimp cocktail, you know? But it’s not.” Talking with John Courtney is frequently like this, animated and tinged with education. He combines a philosophical simplicity about cuisine with a technical complexity earned through years of experience. Frankly, it makes me hungry to listen.
Courtney opened The Fish Market Park City in the summer 2022, a combination fresh seafood market and dine-in restaurant. It’s not his first foray into the Park City food scene. He and his wife, Paige, started a business with a similar business model, Chop Shop Park City, directly across the street. Both businesses shared an impetus: to provide high quality ingredients to the community that weren’t readily available.
“We’re the unique fish monger. We know exactly where our proteins came out of the ocean, who took them out and who shipped them directly to us,” Courtney explains. “It’s a different process that costs a little more, but part of what we do is provide education to our customers about why we do things differently.”
It’s hardly a secret that all this wonderful fish doesn’t come out of the Great Salt Lake. Despite the distance from the coast, The Fish Market Park City serves the freshest fish you can find. “We bring Park City as close to the beach as possible. We get fresh fish delivered every single day, not just two days a week like is common in a lot of places. We import some fish directly from the Toyosu Market in Japan. The fish goes straight from the deck to a cargo box, to a plane to SLC and we pick it up at the airport. It’s straight from the water to you,” Courtney says.
The comprehensive import process also allows Courtney to provide truly unique offerings. From high grade belly portions of bluefin tuna, to ocean trout to calamansi (a type of citrus), the fridges and shelves in The Fish Market house all sorts of things you won’t find anywhere else.
If any of those sound intimidating to the home chef, don’t worry. Courtney is happy to provide some direction to help you get the most out of your meal. Of course, there are also in-house dining offerings, including the aforementioned shrimp cocktail, a raw bar, a lobster grilled cheese, a churashi bowl and more. You would be hard pressed to find better fish in the Mountain West, or anywhere else for that matter.
IF YOU GO: 1154 Center Dr., Park City, 435-776-6984.
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