Dining Awards
Salt Lake magazine Dining Award winners represent our picks for the most talented people offering hospitality and service in Utah. You're welcome.
Why is the Pleasant Grove theme park Evermore suing one of the most powerful women in music? Long story short: a playground for those who would choose lore over folklore is taking on Taylor Swift over the name of her most recent album. Both parties have their reputation on the line in a battle of undercover Swifties and novelty mug disputes. Will Evermore hit the gold rush? Or did they cross the wrong mad woman? The full story is at the link in our bio.
Even in the exploration boom of the 1800s, nobody dared to explore the terrain flowing through the Green and the Colorado Rivers.
That is, nobody until Major John W. Powell said the 19th Century equivalent of “Hey man, hold my beer while I try this.”
Read more about his dangerous expedition at the link in our bio!
Photo of Powell’s expedition courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Whose mouth is watering? 🙋♀️😋
@granarybakehouse_slc is a small, immaculate and intimate 9th and 9th bakery with some of the best laminated pastry in town. (That means golden flakes that get all over your car because you can’t wait until you get home to take a bite.)🥖🥐🧈
Read more about Granary Bakehouse at the link in our bio! ❤️
A brand new issue of Salt Lake magazine is coming your way!
We can't wait to share these stories with you. This issue includes our annual Blue Plate Awards celebrating those surviving and thriving in the restaurant biz. Plus, we take a road trip to Wyoming and ask why the only Utah passenger on the Titanic didn’t survive her journey.
A note from our editor Jeremy Pugh, including beautiful tributes to Mary Brown Malouf from our friends in the community, is online now. Read more at the link in our bio ❤️
Subscribers: Look for this issue in your mailbox soon. The magazine will be on newsstands March 1! 📬
Today, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2021 Blue Plate Awards! 🎉
These prizes honor the growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs who do more than put good food on the table—they make our community a better place to live. This year, just surviving as a local business deserves an award, but each of our Blue Plate winners did more than that. They made us grateful for every person involved in the essential act of feeding us. 🍽
At the link in our bio, we have the full list of winners, a celebration of feats of COVID creativity and a tribute to restaurants we lost this year. If you’re hungry for more, pick up a copy on newsstands March 1! Plus, check out our Instagram for spotlights on some of the Blue Plate winners.
This year’s Blue Plate Awards are the first without our beloved Executive Editor Mary Brown Malouf. We dedicate them to her, our town’s biggest food fan, critic and champion. xoxomm 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @ricobrandut for Staying in Beansness
Last summer, it seemed that Rico would be another victim of rapid gentrification in Salt Lake. 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.” 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award Winner: @spicekitchenincubator for Keeping the Spice Flowing
This year Spice Kitchen Incubator, already an essential resource for refugees, became, well, even more essential. 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @thestore_utah for 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. 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @cucinaslc for Preserving Neighborhood Connection
Cucina’s outdoor spaces became a place where the neighborhood could gather safely. Owner Dean Pierose 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. 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @oquirrhslc for 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. 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @hearth_and_hill for Opening Doors
As the pandemic ravages independent restaurants, Hearth and Hill has reaffirmed its commitment to small businesses in Park City and used its large dining room as an informal gathering space for the city. 💙
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @fisherbrewing for 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. 💙
@oquirrhslc is the kind of restaurant Salt Lake was slowly becoming famous for—chef-run, definitively local, deserving of awards and stars.
Now, a year into the pandemic, co-owners Andrew and Angelena Fuller are doing everything they can to keep Oquirrh alive. There are no days off, and they are serving all kinds of to-go orders to stay afloat, from burgers to charcuterie boards. 🍽
Independent restaurants like Oquirrh need our help! Tonight, order takeout from Oquirrh—or your favorite neighborhood spot—and support these essential members of our community. ❤️
A wind storm #tbt for your feed today. 🌬️🛹
2020 was a long, long, loooong year, so we asked local photographers to share what the new normal looked like through their eyes. The link is in our bio!
“Ballet dancers are all about achieving a continuous ‘line’ from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes,” says @balletwest1 First Soloist Katlyn Addison. “Most of my life, I didn’t even think about how the pinkish tights and shoes sort of cut me in half visually, but the first time I saw a black woman like me wearing tights that matched her skin, I thought, ‘Wow, that really works for her instead of against her.’”
Check the link in bio for full story.
Melissa Diaz, owner and baker at @sweet_vinyl_bakeshop, calls herself a “baketender.” And that’s because, in addition to the usual sugar, flour, vanilla, etc., her cupcakes are flavored with beer and liquor from local brewers and distillers. So, Imperial Stout cupcakes, champagne cupcakes, bourbon maple chocolate cupcakes… you get the point. 🧁🍺
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Check the link in bio for full story.
“We’ve had to make some very tough decisions regarding staffing and operations to get through difficult times, but we’ve leaned ontechnology to help us adapt,” Nick Gradinger, co-founder of @vesselkitchen explains. “We transformed our business to facilitate seamless online ordering and curbside pickup. It’s helped create a safer environment for our customers while still delivering the quality of food and level of service they’ve grown to expect from Vessel.”⠀
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Read the full story through the link in bio.
Mother nature gifted us with some fresh snow over the weekend! ❄️ More snow in the forecast later this week means it's time to strap into those snowboard boots. ⠀
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📸 Photos courtesy of: @snowbasinresort⠀
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Check the link in bio for @snowbasinresort lift tickets, upcoming events and more! ⠀
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Just hours after being sworn in, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for a review of the boundaries for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The monuments—designated by Barack Obama in 2016 and Bill Clinton in 1996—were reduced by roughly 2 million acres by former president Donald Trump, and the executive order is seen as move towards restoring the original boundaries.
Read the full story through the link in bio.
📸Bears Ears National Monument: Courtesy of Utah Office of Tourism
