Just in time for summer, Urban Hill has come out with tableside s’mores as a DIY nostalgia dessert to cap a great meal. I grew up camping most weekends during the summer, and s’mores evoke every childhood intuition I have: running around in the woods, getting sugar buzzed, ending up with a chocolate face, and playing with some sanctioned fire. But, let’s be honest… s’mores in the wild are never as good as you remember them from childhood. The graham crackers always break in weird places or fall apart when you take a bite, landing your marshmallow in the dirt. The chocolate doesn’t actually melt, meaning you have a hard bar of waxy chocolate in the middle. The marshmallow is cloyingly sweet, meaning you can’t manage more than one (at least, I can’t as an adult). And the marshmallow may or may not be in cinders by the time you assemble it.
Urban Hill has solved for all these problems. The graham crackers are perfectly square and baked by the in-house bakery team. You are missing out if you haven’t had freshly baked graham crackers. They aren’t overly dry or crumbly, and they retain the nutty flavor of the graham flour. Better yet, the bottom of the cracker is coated in a thick layer of chocolate, which is a genius hack for making sure that the chocolate melts. I will be liberally copying this method at home this summer. And finally, the house-made vanilla marshmallows are perfectly square and designed to fit just so on the graham cracker. The real bonus: while they are still sweet, they are less so than store-bought marshmallows, so this girl could manage two. The hint of vanilla in the marshmallows added a lovely extra layer of flavor to the tableside s’mores. The house-made mallows are also fluffier and cook faster without the stale exterior of the bagged variety.
The entire tableside s’mores set up arrived at the table on a wooden board with a Solo Stove, which I could only describe as a mini cement fire pit. We took turns cooking our marshmallows and devoured two each. Though you could share with a table of four. The scent of caramelizing sugar and the sight of the flame drew attention from the entire dining room. It was a playful communal activity after a beautiful meal with beautiful service. An excellent way to linger a little longer with the conversation and shared memories of summer cookouts. In keeping with the theme, pair your tableside s’mores with Graham’s Fine Tawny Port for a sip that compliments the chocolate and vanilla and the warmth of the evening. Urban Hill Tableside S’mores are $22 and serve up to four.
If you go:
Urban Hill
510 South 300 West | SLC
urban-hill.com
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