“If you would have told me when we were about to open that we were going to have a newspaper want to talk about our food, I would have thought you were crazy,” said WAREHOUSE Motorclub CEO and co-founder Jake Wolf.
It’s funny, he said, because food was never part of his original concept for the car club.
“Originally I just wanted a bar. That’s all I wanted. But that’s really hard to get a license for in Utah, and I wanted to open with being able to serve alcohol, so it was just the easiest path forward to do the restaurant,” he explained.
So he and his investors built out a tiny, 227-square-foot kitchen and a simple food menu — just pizzas and sandwiches born from a partnership with Chop House — to be open one day a week. That’s how it started when WAREHOUSE launched in December 2023, but just a few months later, Wolf said the demand for more led to further evolution.
Now, the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner on Wednesdays through Sundays, with brunch added on weekends. It’s got weekly specials, like rotating tacos and sandwiches, as well as steak nights on Fridays.
“I truly thought people would just want to come have a cocktail, walk around and leave,” Wolf said. “I was like, nobody’s ever going to want to come and eat steak here, and now it’s our biggest day of the week.”
Wolf said much of the restaurant’s success is because of two powerhouse employees: Mixologist Alan Garduño and Chef Alejandra Adame, a husband-and-wife team whose creativity and talent have brought each idea and dream to life.
Garduño got connected to WAREHOUSE by request of the members, Wolf said.
“I kept on hearing Alan’s name from multiple different people, different members — he was at Promontory, and then up on Main Street at the time — ‘Oh, there’s this bartender in town. He’s awesome, and he loves cars. You’ve got to talk to him,’” Wolf said.
While interviewing for the job running the club’s bar, Garduño was asked if he knew anyone who could cook.
“I said, ‘Oh yeah, I know someone who can cook,’” Garduño said with a laugh. That same morning, Adame had jokingly said, “‘I wish I could go with you. If they ask for a position, let them know about me,’” he recalled.
Adame soon joined the staff, too, quickly surpassing the other rotation of chefs and was given the head chef position. While Wolf was hesitant about making sweeping changes to their pre-made menu, Adame said she was persistent in asking for a chance to create her own dishes incorporating her Mexican heritage and flavors.
One day she decided to take initiative, introducing an al pastor pizza as an off-menu item to the members as an experiment — and they loved it. Soon requests for the pizza became a regular occurrence, which was a catalyst in Adame getting a chance to take ownership of the menu.
“One day (Wolf) called me and said, ‘OK, make your own menu.’ But he told me the day before — he said, ‘Tomorrow you’re doing the whole menu.’ It was a challenge to see if I could do it, but I prepared everything, and they really liked it,” she remembered.
For Adame, the freedom she has now to create her own dishes is one of the most rewarding parts of her work. In past jobs, menus were often fixed and creativity was limited, but here she’s trusted to experiment, introduce new ideas and shape offerings that reflect her own taste and intuition.
More Mexican flavors are now woven through the menu, but careful to not feel like a Mexican restaurant, something Wolf appreciates about Adame’s work.
“Alejandra is super coachable to where — I can’t coach her through cooking anything, but I know what good tastes like. So if she comes up with something, I’ll taste it and if it’s good, but it just needs that much more, I don’t know what that means, but she’ll just figure it out,” said Wolf.
That “umph” or “je ne sais quoi” to her cooking comes naturally to Adame, who learned to cook with important Mexican ingredients like lime and salt, which help a dish pop.
“My mom taught me how to cook from the time I was 8 years old, so I’ve always cooked,” Adame said. “I didn’t know my dad but later, when I met him, I found out that he was a chef, so I think I carry it in my blood.”
Now the menu includes more obvious dishes like a birria pizza, esquites and scallops in a black aguachile, but she also works her style into other options like a salmon entree, a Nashville chicken sandwich and a deconstructed caesar salad.
Adame and Garduño said they take pride in their work, explaining that the chance to create something that wows and satisfies the members is super rewarding. For Garduño, over 50% of the cocktails he makes for members are custom-made, interpreting their general ask into a polished drink that becomes a new favorite.
“I get to know the members a lot, like what they want, what they need, what they like,” he said.
Garduño’s cocktails are simple — often named after car knowledge like a green cucumber-influenced cocktail called BRG, for British Racing Green — but there’s also DF, a tequila-based drink named after Mexico City’s old name Distrito Federal, which is where he grew up. He said his secret to a great drink is to always measure the ingredients, even during the busiest moments.
“I don’t like to put a lot of garnish as well. If you go to the best bars in the world, they don’t use garnish. A lot of guys like to do a lot of things, that’s not my style,” he said.
Having studied restaurant management in Europe, and as an avid traveler, Garduño is also knowledgeable about all-things restaurant. At WAREHOUSE, he experiments with the restaurant’s seating and style based on different events, and also curates their wine and beer lists, prioritizing creativity in all aspects.
“What I’ve seen here in Park City is … everywhere you go, they sell the same thing. So you go for food, and everybody has the same menu. Beers, they sell the same beers,” he said. “We don’t like that.”
Adame and Garduño’s impact on the restaurant reflects the development of WAREHOUSE since its opening: evolving with the passions of its members, said Wolf. Since it’s a private club, they have the freedom to come up with new projects, whether by the request of members or their own creativity.
For example, during the club’s F-1 watch parties, Adame makes a special featuring the host country’s cuisine, which allows her a chance to learn new dishes, she said. Some are familiar, like Mexico and Italy, but others are more unique, like Azerbaijan, Amsterdam and Singapore.
Wolf said the restaurant and bar have become the glue for the car club’s other events, a reason to gather at the space among like-minded enthusiasts.
So yes, WAREHOUSE is a place to store cars, and there are racing simulators, episodes of “Top Gear” playing in the lounge, and group Sunday drives, but now Warehouse isn’t just for car people, Wolf said.
“Cars are our anchor, but all these other arts and watches and food and dining and travel, all these other things that we’re doing have been so powerful,” he said. “I’d say it’s not really a car club anymore. It’s more of an enthusiast club. So if you’re passionate about something, we’re going to provide programming, and a community that can nerd out on something together.”
To showcase the full extent of what WAREHOUSE can be, and with 50 memberships left available, the club is hosting a Park City locals night on Nov. 11 when the public can sample the restaurant, have a private tour of the facilities and even try the racing simulators with the guidance of onsite racing coaches.
“We wanted to do something just for Park City and the locals here, regardless if you’re interested in becoming a member or not, we thought it’d be cool thing to do for our community because we love where we are,” Wolf said.
To make a reservation request for a dinner slot between 5-9 p.m. during locals night, visit eventbrite.com/e/park-city-locals-night-a-dining-experience-at-warehouse-tickets-1859450339019?aff=oddtdtcreator.
