Colder mornings and changing leaves don’t just signal the start of autumn in Park City. It also means it’s time for the Mountain Beer Festival at Deer Valley Resort.

But Director of Beverage Josh Hockman has been thinking about the festival, set for Sept. 18-20, all year long.

It’s his baby, an event he dreamed up and brought to life five years ago as a festival that not only brings beer lovers to beautiful Park City, but puts them in front of the brewers themselves.

“It was to be a two-way street for the guests or the attendees that are coming,” Hockman said. “Take the time. Like, ‘What hops did you use? Why are you proud of this? Where did the name Pie Hole come from?’” 

It was also created with an emphasis on Utah beers to reflect the resort’s values in supporting local businesses, said Hockman.

“All of our draft towers at Deer Valley have supported local Utah breweries … coming up on 30 years now,” he said. “We don’t want the Budweisers of the world and the White Claws of the world. They’ve got their place, but it’s not on our property.”

Nothing major is changing for this fifth iteration, Hockman said. The “meat and potatoes” of the festival should be familiar to returning attendees.

As in years past, festivalgoers park at Snow Park and ride the Silver Lake Express chairlift to the event at mid mountain on Silver Lake lawn. It’s family-friendly with a kids area that has face painting, balloon animals, a sand pit and the Deer Valley Creamery ice cream truck.

Guests over 21 can purchase taster tokens, the required currency to sample the breweries’ 4-ounce beer pours. So far, there are 20 confirmed breweries or cideries from across the state, and each is bringing four drink options — full-strength beers are very much included.

“I didn’t want the stigma of the festival to be like, ‘Oh, a Utah Beer Fest, and it’s only 5% beers,’” he said. “When folks … from around the world come, we need to be putting our best foot forward, or at least allowing the breweries to put their best foot forward because they’re the ones in the spotlight.”

With at least 80 different options, Hockman said there should be something for everyone. The event is beer-centric, of course, with plenty of brews ranging from pilsner to IPA. But there will also be Utah-made seltzers, a build-your-own-shandy concept from Moab Brewery, hard ciders, a mead from Etta Place and even two wines by Mountain West Cider’s winery business, MWCellars. 

“There’s definitely going to be plenty of beer, but then there’s also going to be those gluten-free options and those more fruit-forward options for folks,” Hockman said. 

New this summer is a change to the Deer Valley Pilsner, sold as the resort’s house beer. To start, it was made in partnership with Proper Brewing Co., which is based in Salt Lake City. 

This May, Hockman brought the beer even closer to home. Offset Bier, which originally opened in the Iron Horse district and now operates out of a bigger space near Quinn’s Junction, is the pilsner’s new brewer. Owner and beermaster Conor Brown will be at the festival and pouring samples for attendees to try.

“I think he is the best beer maker in the state of Utah, and he now has the capacity in his new location to make a crap load of beer,” said Hockman of the new partnership.

A few things have grown, like the number of retail vendors for people to peruse, and plans for a hammock lounge, but the biggest effort has gone into entertainment, Hockman said. Live music has always been part of the festival, but this year they’re bringing in two headliners. Rising Florida singer-songwriter Dylan Cotrone, who is currently touring with Sublime, will perform on Saturday, and Philadelphia American rock band G. Love & Special Sauce will headline Sunday.

“He was like my generation’s hipster in the late ’90s, early 2000s … brings a cool, funky vibe,” said Hockman about G. Love. “He does some stuff solo, but the big draw is when he gets with his guy Special Sauce, and they’re a duo. So we’ve got the creme de la creme of those guys on day two.”

As always, the main goal is to showcase the talent of Utah brewers, said Hockman.

“There are folks that are down to the nitty-gritty. Like, this is a passion project. I love it. There is no corner cut,” he said. 

Last year the festival grew by a day with the addition of a Brewmaster Dinner. Held the Friday evening before the weekend event, the five-course dinner pairs a beer from fan-favorite brewers with the creativity of the resort culinary team. 

This year, the dinner will be from 6-9 p.m. on Sept. 18. It features Offset Bier, Chappell Brewing, Moab Brewery, Roosters and Second Summit Cider, the five who won last year’s fan vote, said Hockman. Deer Valley’s pilsner by Offset Bier will be used as the toast beer. To welcome guests, Dendric Estate will serve its Dry Cut cider. Tickets are $180 per person.

“This is the one event where I get to actually choose what I want to offer. So I selfishly pick (beers) from the breweries,” Hockman said. “We want to up the decor in that room so it feels like when you walk in, it feels like a German pavilion at Oktoberfest.”

On Saturday and Sunday, when festivities will run from noon to 5 p.m., Hockman can be spotted in his Tyrolean or Bavarian hat, a felt hat decorated with beer festival pins he’s collected from around the world.

The confirmed participating breweries:

• Epic Brewing Company
• Etta Place Cidery & Taproom
• Uinta Brewing Company
• SaltFire Brewing Co.
• Offset Bier Co.
• Chappell Brewing
• Bohemian Brewery
• Heber Valley Brewing Company
• Rabbit’s Foot Brewing
• Bewilder Brewing Co.
• Talisman Brewing Co.
• Moab Brewery
• Mountain West Cider
• UTOG Brewing
• Templin Family Brewing
• Second Summit Cider Co.
• Salt Flats Brewing Co.
• Roosters Brewing Co.
• RoHa Brewing Project

Festival pricing is tiered so people can customize their experience: a $20 non-drinker package gets access to the event, but no drink tokens can be purchased. General admission alone is $45. The $70 Session Package includes admission and three taster tokens, while the $90 Reserve Package has five tokens and a commemorative mug. The $155 Imperial Package includes eight tokens, a mug, a festival T-shirt and VIP barbecue access.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit deervalley.com/things-to-do/activities/mountain-beer-festival.

The post Fifth annual festival celebrates Utah beer in the mountains of Deer Valley appeared first on Park Record.

A blue and white Chomp Donuts & Coffee logo on a digital billboard near the State Street exit in Salt Lake City teases a “coming soon” message to Interstate 80 travelers.

And now that wait is almost over.

The popular Park City-based doughnut shop, which opened its doors to the Kimball Junction flagship store in November, will soon be available to doughnut and coffee lovers in the Wasatch Front with two new locations slated to open this year.

It was always the plan to grow Chomp, said co-owners Jeff Mahin, Rick Nemeroff and Leah Erickson, who reside in Park City.

But the second location — a permanent spot in the newly expanded Delta Center — was a bit of a surprise.

Last year the group sold a fixed menu of doughnuts to individual boxes at the Delta Center, so a permanent spot, not just a temporary kiosk, is a big step up, said Nemeroff.  

There, they’ll make cake doughnuts in plain, cinnamon sugar or colored sugar — blue for the Utah Mammoths’ hockey games and purple for Utah Jazz basketball games — sold fresh from the fryer. Two dipping sauces will also be available: chocolate fudge and brown butter salted caramel. It’ll all be served in a custom box designed to bring back to seats.

“The invitation to be in the Delta Center, that was a big thing for us … to get that opportunity to get ourselves into an arena setting, which was not part of the original plan,” said Nemeroff. “The things that we’re offering at Delta Center are not going to be the same things we offer in the store, and vice versa.”

It’s also proof that the breakfast pastry isn’t just for breakfast, he said. Through the business’ catering arm, Nemeroff said Chomp has seen plenty of demand regardless of the time of day.

“People want hot, fresh donuts anytime they can get them,” he joked.

The Delta Center location will open in time for the Sept. 26 Utah Mammoths home opener, but the work won’t slow down for the Chomp team. 

Another location expected to open before the end of the year is also planned for Downtown Salt Lake City at the Seraph apartment building off South Temple and State Street.

When choosing another full-service doughnut and coffee shop, chef Manin said it was important to be near a residential area, similar to the existing Kimball Junction spot.  

“It’s just a really cool epicenter,” Manin said. “The college is right down the street. The church is there. The mall is there. You have a ton of residential. I think there’s going to be more office parties with donuts, and so it’s a perfect location to showcase our hospitality.”

There, it’ll be the same dialed-in strategy in Park City: a core menu of doughnuts made fresh daily with limited releases of seasonal flavors, plus the same high-quality, custom roasted coffee.

“Opening in Salt Lake is going to be really exciting because we kind of know what works. We know what our ethos is. We have a year under our belts,” Manin said.

Included in that ethos is a commitment to first responders and educators, who receive 20% off in stores, said Erickson.

Erickson oversees the catering and events side of the business and said the expansion to Salt Lake City should bring more of those opportunities, too.

“I think we’re going to be in more homes, be at more school events, be in more graduation parties, birthday parties, weddings, baby showers,” she said. “I’m really excited to bring this down to Salt Lake. I think that will just be a great addition.”

Manin said they always wanted to open in Park City, where they could serve a smaller community and there were fewer doughnut options. But Salt Lake City is the next step in their goal of becoming “the Utah doughnut.”

“I think from a culinary perspective, Salt Lake City seems to be growing. You have the Michelin guide that’s come here. You have some James Beard finalists coming here. You have Chef’s Table picking Park City for its annual Chef’s Table (Festival),” Manin said. “We can be a part of that.”

Operations will continue as usual at the Park City location, with a few fall special flavors soon to be announced, the three said. Chomp is still taking flavor suggestions from visitors, which is how the cookies and cream doughnut was born, and continues to train its staff for fine-dining level hospitality. 

“We’re still so involved in Park City,” said Erickson. “We’re still present there and always will be. But I’m just so excited and really proud of us to have built this brand and to be expanding it down into Salt Lake. I think it’s just such a huge milestone for our team.”

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On the third floor of the Deer Valley Club, a restaurant is taking a different approach to Alpine cuisine. 

The Alpinist was created by the alpinist himself, chef James Dumas, and his son, Andre, who spent most of their careers working in Park City restaurants.

But the space at Deer Valley Club is especially nostalgic for the pair.

In 1993, James opened Sai Sommet in the same space. He ran that business until 2006. Andre started in the dish pit there at 8.

James later opened another restaurant in 1998 at the Stag Lodge, where Andre worked his way into more front-of-house roles.

“From dish pit, pearl diver, I graduated to getting to do some expo, some bussing, running,” Andre said. 

After Sai Sommet, James worked at a few other restaurants in Park City: the then-Goldener Hirsch Restaurant and the Silver Star Cafe before he became the executive chef for High West Distillery. Then, James left the state for a position with Kuleana Rumworks in Hawaii.

Andre had moved on to working on mortgages when James eventually moved back to Park City. When the low interest rate craze during the pandemic slowed, Andre agreed to help James with his father’s catering business.

According to James, the decision to transition from catering to restaurant ownership was Andre’s “one regret,” but his son tells a different story.

“We were in 186 homes a winter out of his home kitchen,” said Andre. “I was like, ‘Look, we’re going to kill each other. We need a real kitchen. Why aren’t we doing a restaurant?’”

When the father-and-son team agreed to start something in late 2022, James drove up to his old home at Deer Valley Club. He said the moment was “kismet.”

“(I) get up here, get this wild hug when I first pulled up here, and then I hear myself say, ‘Go inside. The place is vacant,’” James recalled. “I walk through those doors. The (general manager) looks at me like he’s seen a ghost.”

Sure enough, the restaurant was empty. The same gates James designed for Sai Sommet were still hanging at the entrance.

“I sat in here for like three hours and went downstairs. I said, ‘I’m going to take it for the winter. Temporarily, I’ll take it right now, and then let me work on a plan,’” James said.

The decoration was the same as it was in 1993, so it needed a refresh. For the first year, Andre and James continued the catering work from the restaurant’s kitchen while taking the dining room down to the studs. As the inside came together, they opened for patio service over Fourth of July weekend in 2024 before opening later that year in December.

For the design, James said he wanted a contemporary spin on “retro Swiss alpine,” but he also wanted details of himself, like his love of skiing and travel. 

The logo outlines mountains that James has explored, from Utah’s Mount Superior and the Matterhorn to Mount Rishiri in Japan. The “s” in “Alpinist” is shaped like a carving ski run, an Easter egg for those who recognize the old Sai Sommet gates. 

Black-and-white vintage posters of lady skiers from the James Bond film “Vieux to a Kill,” reindeer pelts on leather couches and napkins folded like mountain peaks bring the details of the surrounding resort. A black bookshelf is stocked with a collection of James’ personal cookbooks, maps and even miniature puzzles he picked up in Japan.

The menu is also “contemporary Alpine,” changing weekly with James’ interest and seasonal ingredients. His approach draws from what he read in “The Inventions of Nature” by Andrea Wulf, a biography about German explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

“His theory was, at elevation around the world, flora and fauna are the same,” James said. “What changes is the pantry of the nation.”

So while elk, mushrooms, juniper and sage are core ingredients at the Alpinist, the chef experiments with spices and techniques from around the world.

He also found a loophole to add his favorite, Hawaiian fish, on the menu.

“The fish is caught between the first- and the third-highest mountains in the world. When you measure Mauna Kea from the ocean floor, and Haleakalā, they’re higher than Everest and K2, so (the fish) are swimming through those channels,” James said.

A chef’s table experience is another way James gets creative. Built into the kitchen is a booth that seats six to eight people, and each dinner is created on the spot, James said.

“You bring in four bottles of wine, try to get some whites and reds, but you bring them in. I don’t want to know about them,” he said. “No corkage. I’ll look at the bottle. We’ll open it up. I’ll nose it, and I’ll pair the menus based on dietary restrictions.” 

Andre said the chef’s table is a tradition they’re continuing from Sai Sommet, and unlike other chefs’ counters around town, it puts diners directly in with the chef.

“There is no barrier between the guests and the kitchen,” Andre said. “If families come in and they’ve got kids with them, we’ll grab the kids and have them come help us plate up dessert at the end of the meal.”

The chef’s table is also how Alpinist gives back to “the nonprofits that make Park City the kind of place worth cooking for.”

Each year, 15 chef’s table experiences, valued at $3,000, are donated to auction for Kimball Art Center, the Literacy Foundation, Park City Foundation, Live Like Sam, Peace House, Nuzzles & Co, Egyptian Theatre and the National Ability Center. Already 13 have raised $65,000 for those organizations this year.

When it comes to creating menus, James said he’s often inspired by the weather, not just in Park City, but around the world. 

“We’re always looking at snow and the weather, so if somebody’s really getting pounded, we’ll go to that influence, just to talk about what’s going on in other spots,” James said.

Not only is the menu designed for mountain lovers, but almost everything they do keeps skiers in mind. In the winter, when they’re open for lunch seven days a week, Andre said diners with a reservation can show up anytime during the lunch block from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“If it’s a powder day, you’re not like, ‘Oh, we got a reservation at 12:15, we got to stop.’ Ski until 1:59 and come in,” he said.

The lunch menu is a $45 three-course skier special, with either a soup or salad, a rotating entree and a dessert.

“That skier special is built with, if you eat at a relatively reasonable pace, you can get through and be ready to go back to snow in 20 minutes from sitting down,” said Andre. “It all comes from when you’re skiing in the Alps, you’re going from chalet to chalet, and each one has its own characteristic and feel. Some you only stay for 20 minutes because that’s all your time allows for, and others you stay until it’s dark.”

Andre said Alpinist is open “when the Deer Valley lifts are spinning,” and plans to open for the winter on the first Saturday of December. 

The last day of summer dining — which is 5:30-9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays — is Sept. 27, but Andre said they run catering and private events during the shoulder season. They’ll also host some special events, Andre said, such as a multicourse pop-up dinner with Mack’s Finest Gelato planned for Oct. 3.

The pair will also spend closure time traveling to mountains across the world, like a recent trip to Russia. It’s another way to gain inspiration to bring home to Park City.

“In town there are, I believe, 120 restaurants from the top of Deer Valley up by the Montage all the way out to Pinebrook. Of those 120, as a local, you’ve got 10, maybe 20 places that you’ll go back to on any sort of regular basis,” said Andre. “We want the feeling when you leave to be like, ‘Oh wow, yeah, that was great. I’m definitely coming back.’”

For more, visit alpinistdvc.com.

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This summer Midway locals and visitors may have noticed a slight change to the farm on River Road next to Heber Valley Artisan Cheeses. 

For seven seasons, Francis Family Farms ran the 7 acres as a U-Pick farm, known especially for its raspberries. Now, the land is in new hands.

Well, not exactly. 

Velvet Acre Farms is now operating the market farm near Memorial Hill, but the owner and farm manager certainly aren’t new to the property. 

Erin Jensen decided to take over when farmers Steve and Kala Francis retired earlier this year. Jensen, whose relatives have owned the plot for decades, said she wanted to bring the operations into the family fold.

As an interior designer who started her own firm in 2014, Jensen said she was looking for a change of pace and is eager to try her hand at farming.

“We really fell in love with what the Francis’ had started and the idea of what it could become,” she said. “I had been feeling like I wanted something different — something slower, and something I could do with my family while still having a creative outlet.”

Jensen currently lives in Riverton with her family and runs a hobby farm with mini highland cows, chickens, mini donkeys, and beef cattle she raised herself. The hope is to eventually move up everything up to the Midway farm full time, she said.

“Keeping the farm in the family is really important to me. I love that our kids get to be part of it and learn what it means to care for the land, grow food and understand where the things they eat actually come from,” she said. “I want this to be something they can grow up with and hopefully carry on in some way.”

But in the meantime, Jensen needed someone with experience to spearhead the growing operations. That’s where Midway-native Jacee Andersen came in.

Andersen, who spent the last two years working at Gracie’s Farm in Wanship, said her family was always close with the Jensens. So, she called them when she heard they needed a farmer. 

Taking the job gave Andersen the chance to build her own farming vision, but it also brought her back “full circle.”

“When this was an alfalfa field, me and my sister grew up playing soccer in this field and raising chickens,” she said. “It’s cool to be able to come back, and the same people that were here that raised me are buying from the farm stand. It’s such a cool, full-circle moment because I never thought I’d come back to Midway. Never. So it’s cool to see the community again and be a part of it.”

She also never planned to be a farmer. While growing up in Midway meant growing up in an agricultural community, Andersen decided to pursue product design and development at Utah State University in Logan. 

But after taking a job designing ski clothes and mountain bike apparel, Andersen said she realized how wasteful the industry was and that she was holed up in an office instead of being outdoors.  

One day she went to the Downtown Farmers Market at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City and learned about its closed-loop system, where any excess inventory is turned into compost. Fascinated, Andersen quit her job and visited Costa Rica to learn more about farming before moving to Hood River, Oregon.

There, she went to the farmers market and offered to help out for the season, becoming the town’s shared “harvester.”

“I had this idea of farming, and it’s so much harder and not what you think. But I was just addicted, like absolutely addicted,” Andersen said. “I just knew it was what my calling was.”

That’s why in 2024 she applied to work at Gracie’s Farm, which is led by Lynsey Gammon as part of The Lodge at Blue Sky, Auberge Collection. There, the farming philosophy of using regenerative methods, ensuring healthy soil and mentoring other women aligned with Andersen’s own goals.

It’s what she’ll bring to Velvet Acre Farms.

This season, which runs through October, is a discovery year for the small crew, Andersen said, so she decided to simply build off what “Farmer Steve” started.

Having existing infrastructure is huge for a budding farm, Andersen said. Velvet Acre inherited about 1.5 acres of farm beds, all the irrigation and a high tunnel, which helps grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and basil. The farm also has some perennial crops that return every year, like asparagus and, most famously, 3,000 feet of raspberry bushes.

The biggest benefit so far has been the size. With 7 acres to farm, Andersen said Velvet Acre Farms has much more room to experiment with different crops and methods, whereas market farms are usually limited to an acre.

Cover cropping, or planting crops between growing seasons to add nutrients to the soil and keep the ground covered, is something Andersen has been able to try on some extra beds this year. It’s one way she can improve soil health, which is important for farming and an overall healthy environment.

“It creates more microbial activity from the soil, so you’re bringing in all of the nutrients to the root zone for the next season, so you don’t have to bring in and haul in compost and use all that labor to spread that,” Andersen said. “(You) never really get the opportunity to get two back-to-back cover crop seedings.”

This year also gave Velvet Acre Farms a chance to experiment with different soil amendments and mulching practices to best balance the salinity and pH levels in the high tunnel. 

One row of tomatoes was planted with plastic mulch, another with living mulch and another with wildflowers. Andersen said they’ve been monitoring the tomatoes for signs of dehydration, caused by high salinity, to determine which method is best.

A big challenge the farmers hope to address next year is the lack of power on the property. 

Right now, they don’t have the ability to heat the high tunnel or a greenhouse. Without heat, they can’t grow their own seedlings from seeds, which meant this season they had to buy already-started plants from other farms and wait until the weather warmed up enough to transplant crops such as tomatoes. That should change come next season, Andersen said. 

Francis Family Farms was set up as a U-Pick, meaning anyone could come and pick crops from the land, so Andersen and Jensen said they wanted to continue some of that model.

“We have so much respect for the Francis family and the seven years they put into this land, and we really want to honor what they started while making it our own,” Jensen said.

Visitors are still welcome to pick seasonal crops like raspberries, pumpkins, summer and winter squash, kale and fresh flowers. However, certain crops like tomatoes, zucchini, snap peas, peppers and broccolini are now sectioned off to be harvested and sold grab-and-go style at the farm stand.

Andersen said not only is a U-Pick farm a great stop for families, but it also helps reconnect people to their food.

“People don’t know that raspberries have a season, tomatoes have a season. They’re not supposed to be year-round,” she said. “It tastes better because you picked it and you saw it, and you know the farmer, you know the land, you know it’s being taken care of. So I guess it’s more imprinted in your brain, and hopefully that lasts.”

Andersen said for this first year, she’s taken a big-picture approach to see what flows organically and observe what the community wants. 

“There’s this really big energy in market farming to just go, go, go, go, go, produce as much as you can in our short season. And this year I’ve really been trying to take a step back,” she said. “None of us really know the land yet.”

In the future, she’s considering possible community supported agriculture, or CSA, memberships. This season, Velvet Acre Farms is offering a week-to-week harvest box. Rather than committing to a whole season of produce, people can buy one-off boxes based on availability. The farm is also hoping to keep collaborating with locals, like sourcing compost from the Kohler family and providing produce for restaurants like Hidden Peak, The Pizza Yard and Midway Mercantile.

All of it is aimed at bringing awareness to farming, Andersen said, which is necessary even in a small mountain town like Midway. 

Andersen said growing up, everyone at her school was a rancher or had crops like wheat, hay and alfalfa. But now she’s seeing interest in agriculture decline. For example, Mountainland Technical College, which offers career and technical education at the high school and college level, just opened its first campus in the Heber Valley, but it doesn’t have an agriculture program, citing a lack of interest.

“That shocked me,” she said. “That goes hand in hand with my personal goal for this season of just connecting people back to where food comes from and how big of a responsibility it is for all of us to buy local, support farmers.”

She referenced the book “What I Stand for Is What I Stand On” by American environmentalist, farmer and cultural critic Wendell Barry, who died Tuesday. He wrote, “If you eat, you are involved in agriculture.” 

Eaters, Andersen said, have a huge role to play in the success of farming.

“As a farmer, we’re not the ones really deciding what happens to the land. It’s the people, the eaters, because if they don’t buy our food, then we don’t have a purpose,” Andersen said. “The eater is the person who really decides what gets to happen to the land and their community, and a lot of people don’t think about that.”

Velvet Acre Farms is ultimately shaped by the community, by what people choose to buy and support, Andersen said. September is one of the most bountiful months on high-elevation farms, she said, with an abundance of popular items like raspberries, pumpkins, decorative corn and tomatoes. Of course, the raspberries are a big seller, but she encouraged people to branch out and try other things, like turnips.

Jensen said it’s just the beginning.

“Long term, I’d love for Velvet Acre to become a place that feels like a part of the community — a place where families can come, pick flowers and berries, see the animals, shop for fresh produce and just slow down and enjoy being outside,” she said.

U-Pick season at Velvet Acre runs from 2-7 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturdays through Oct. 24. 

The farm stand will be open during Swiss Days festivities, which run Friday and Saturday. It’s located across the street from one of the event shuttle lots, so Andersen encouraged people to pick a container of raspberries or a bouquet of flowers while in the area.

“Come and pick, bring your family and see where it comes from,” she said. “Teach your kids about food from an early age so they want to keep seeing that in their life and they keep buying the local raspberries as they grow up.”

To learn more, visit velvetacrefarms.com.

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Koyoté, a Japanese ramen and izakaya restaurant in Salt Lake City that’s surged in popularity since opening in late 2023, is ready to expand.

The second location from business partners and chefs Hiro Tagai and Felipe Oliveira will open in October in Kimball Junction.

It’s pure luck that the restaurant was just Michelin Recommended in the state’s first inclusion in the Southwest Michelin Guide, Tagai said.

The chefs have been ruminating on expanding Koyoté for a while now, but they also knew it had to be the right location. 

Tagai said Park City was on his radar not just for its chef connections, like Briar Handly of Handle and John Courtney of Chop Shop Park City, but also from existing diners at Koyoté’s Marmalade location. 

“We always were looking at Park City, in a way, but were always kind of hesitant because property and all that is ultra expensive in that area,” Tagai said. “To make it work we’d have to raise prices and we didn’t want to stray away from our DNA too much.”

So the pair signed the lease when the former Hana Ramen Bar location in Kimball Junction became available in late spring at the right price and with fewer renovation demands.

Unlike their second restaurant opening — Junah, a Japanese-Italian concept in Central Ninth that was designed around the location — the Kimball Junction spot will hold true to Koyoté’s existing menu and strategy.

The Japanese restaurant first opened at the end of 2023 after Tagai returned from ramen school in Japan. There, he fell in love with Tokyo-style ramen, which is especially popular in the country and known for its clear broth style.

“This concept was brewing since like 2016, 2017. That’s when I moved to Japan to study ramen,” he said. “It just made sense to bring that clear stock to America. … (It had been done), but it just wasn’t the focal point of any of the restaurants. So it was partly running against the grain and partly that I really love that style of ramen.”

Ramen is the heart of Koyoté, but ultimately the restaurant is Tagai’s attempt to deliver a high-quality, authentic Japanese eatery. The menu includes less common Japanese dishes like a chashu-don, shioyaki saba and gyoza, plus chef creations like a whipped tofu appetizer served with scallion pancakes. 

Tagai was born in Japan before moving to Utah as a child. He said that for a while, the state’s Japanese options were more caricatures of the nation’s cuisine. Most of the options were sushi and American-style ramen using a thick, pork-based tonkotsu. With his own restaurant, Tagai wanted to highlight the depth and variety of Japanese food.

“Koyoté was mostly for me to set a baseline for Japanese food in Utah, in a way,” he said. “I just wanted to bridge that gap, where it’s like, ‘Oh, this is what it should taste like.’” 

Tagai said he wanted to open something he was very proud of.

“Especially for the Japanese people that come, I wanted to make it feel like a restaurant that would exist in Japan,” he said.

Another unique feature of the restaurant is its lack of servers. Ordering and payment are done through QR codes at the tables. Tagai said the decision to structure the business that way was partly a nod to ramen shops in Japan, where ordering is done on a tablet, diners take a ticket to their seat and give it to the chef. 

It also sidestepped any frustrations with tipping culture that followed the COVID pandemic, Tagai said, and ensured that the most dedicated, skilled staff would have higher pay.

“I’ve worked in many restaurants, I’ve been every position possible, and I feel like the servers usually get paid the most. How we do it, the cooks end up getting paid the most,” he said. 

Koyoté was “an instant success.” 

It was never planned to open multiple Koyoté locations. But Tagai said he and Oliveira felt it was ready for expansion after seeing exponential growth.

“The amount of people that especially come visit us during the colder months really signaled that we should open another one in a colder destination,” Tagai said. 

Right now, the Kimball Junction spot is slated to open next month, but it depends on how the buildout goes.

The interior design will have a similar feel to the Marmalade location, but it won’t be a copy-paste version.

“We don’t want to be lazy and just recreate. I think it’s important to level up,” Tagai said. “Trends change, so we wanted to be up to date, or maybe a little further than that.”

To match Summit County, Tagai said the space will be slightly fancier, but the prices won’t be much different from the existing menu.

“We want to make a place with high-quality ingredients, high-quality food that doesn’t cost that much. That’s why we had to really find a place (where) the overhead wasn’t too crazy and the rent wasn’t crazy so we didn’t have to raise the price,” he said. “I believe the price from here to there might be acutely different but pretty much the same.”

Initially, the menu will be the same across both locations, but Tagai expects that will evolve as they learn more about the specific demands and interests of Park City-area diners. 

“We’re really excited to get to know everyone up there and find out what kind of stuff they like and really be part of that community,” Tagai said.

For more about the restaurant, visit koyoteslc.com.

The post Koyoté will showcase authentic Japanese cuisine at new Kimball Junction location, chef says appeared first on Park Record.

Ten mixologists went head-to-head in front of a panel of judges for the chance to win $1,000 and bragging rights as the winner of the Mountain Mixer cocktail contest.

The winner, Adriel Danan representing Dos Olas Cantina at Pendry Park City, said he didn’t expect a victory.

He’d gone last in the finals, creating his Mezcal-based cocktail, Crimson Smoked, to a much smaller crowd last Saturday. When judge Charles Joly started describing the winning cocktail as “classic” with a “beautiful twist,” Danan had no idea his name was about to be called.

So he was “speechless” when handed a giant check with his name on it.

Danan, unlike some competitors, is far from new to the mixology world. He started bartending at the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to Park City in 2010.

“I was living in St. Louis when a friend invited me out to experience Park City and go snowboarding. I immediately fell in love with the mountains and the lifestyle here, and decided to make Park City home,” he said.

There were plenty of bartending opportunities in the ski town, and Danan began working at properties such as The St. Regis Deer Valley, Zermatt Utah Resort & Spa and Homestead Resort. 

“I’m naturally an introvert and tend to enjoy working behind the scenes, but bartending gives me a creative outlet and constantly challenges me,” he said. “There is always something new to learn. You can put a million of the best ingredients into a drink, but if you don’t understand how to bring them together and create balance, you’re not going to make a great cocktail.”

Two and a half years ago, Danan joined the Dos Olas team, where he now creates a majority of the cocktails on the menu. As a cantina with mainly Mexican flavors, a lot of the signature drinks use some kind of tequila, though he will design an off-menu drink with a different base spirit.   

As a bartender, Danan said his goal is for guests to have a great experience and a taste of something new or unexpected. Like in Crimson Smoked: The rim, instead of being a classic tajin, uses smoked paprika to draw out the smokey notes of the mezcal.

He said he has the freedom to experiment at Dos Olas, which puts a lot of effort into its cocktail program.

“We use fresh fruits, vegetables and garnishes and squeeze our juices in-house. There are a lot of interesting ingredients and techniques throughout the menu,” Danan said. “Our Col Morado, for example, incorporates a purple cabbage ice cube, while the Spicy Pepino combines fresh cucumber and jalapeño with mezcal, tequila blanco and agave.”

In addition to prioritizing balance in a cocktail, Danan said he loves garnishes and wants his cocktails to be beautiful. For Crimson Smoked, he cuts and arranges the peel of an orange slice to look like the head feathers of a bird. 

Part of what resonated with the Mountain Mixer judges about Crimson Smoked was Danan “infusing a bit of yourself,” as Joly put it.

Danan is originally from the Philippines, so instead of using lime juice as an ingredient, he used calamansi, which is a small citrus fruit common in Filipino cooking and drinks.

“It has a bright, tart flavor that works really well against the smokiness of mezcal,” said Danan. “I wanted the cocktail to make sense for Dos Olas while also incorporating something personal to me.”

When it comes to bartending, Danan loves a challenge. That’s why he chose mezcal for the contest.

“I knew mezcal would be a fun challenge because it has such a distinctive flavor and can easily overpower the other ingredients in a cocktail if you don’t balance it correctly,” Danan said. “I liked the idea of taking that on.” 

He started with the recipe for a mezcalita, which uses mezcal, lime and agave, then built in other flavors to make it unique: a blood orange purée and the calamansi juice, plus the smoked paprika rim.

“Each component serves a purpose: You get smoke, citrus, sweetness, acidity and a little savory element, but they all have to work together,” he said.

Crimson Smoked is on the menu at Dos Olas, as required by the cocktail contest organizers Park City Area Restaurant Association, so people can taste the winning drink by Danan himself. Starting Sept. 2, the restaurant is also running a buy-one-get-one entree promotion on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through Oct. 2.

When Danan isn’t serving drinks at Dos Olas, he’s exploring the outdoors. During the summer months, he loves riding his motorcycle or fishing, but in the winter he’ll be on the slopes snowboarding.

“I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors, which is a big part of why Park City has been such a great fit for me,” he said.

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LAS VEGAS — Park City is now home to a Michelin-rated restaurant or two. Or three, actually.

The Michelin Guide on Wednesday evening released its first-ever Southwest Guide, which lists recommended restaurants across Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, in a ceremony at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. 

Handle, The Nelson Cottage by High West and Matilda are the three Park City establishments to make the pages of the region’s first little red book. 

Handle earns a Michelin Recommended

Handle, which opened in 2014 at the Gateway Center in Park City, is led by chef and co-owner Briar Handly. He also opened a Salt Lake City location in 2016 called HSL.

As a Vermont native, Handly said he learned to cook with the seasons, which is how he designed the modern American restaurant. Menus are tweaked and printed daily, and no style of cuisine is off the table. 

He attended the ceremony in Las Vegas, and said by Thursday the announcement had fully sunk in.

“More than anything I just feel incredibly proud — of our team, of what we’ve built at HANDLE, and of the restaurant community here in Utah,” he said. “The recognition is an incredible honor, but more than anything it motivates us to keep growing, keep getting better and stay true to what we’ve always wanted HANDLE to be.”

This Michelin recognition isn’t the first time Handly has caught the eye of prestigious reviewers. In 2020, 2022 and 2023, he was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award in the Best Chef: Mountain category.

Following the initial announcement of the Michelin Southwest guide, Handly said he expects the decision to include Utah will lead to improved dining quality statewide.

“Stars from them do not come easy, so we will see what shakes out in their 2026 guide,” Handly said in December. “If nothing else, I believe it will make chefs of the Wasatch step up their game a bit, including us, so that’s exciting, and we are looking forward to it.”

Handly expressed the same goal, of continually stepping up his game, going forward from this first year.

“We will continue to put out the best food we can,” he said. “We’ll keep supporting local, keep pushing ourselves creatively, and continue to take care of our guests and our team as best we can.”

The Nelson Cottage earns a Michelin Recommended

The Nelson Cottage by High West Distillery, located on Park Avenue a few doors up from High West Saloon, is a tasting-menu concept led by Chef de Cuisine Julia Sorroche.

It’s known for whiskey pairings and “whiskey ambassadors” who guide diners through the tasting and sipping of a multi-course dinner. The menu changes every two to three weeks, sometimes more frequently, and each iteration is built entirely around what is available and at its peak in Utah.

High West’s Executive Chef Jordan Harvey, who attended the Las Vegas ceremony, said he believed that structure may have resonated with the Michelin inspectors.

“I think we’re chosen for not just the quality of ingredients but what we do with them, being of a particular size and style of menu and service. It really allows us to hone in and focus on little details and nuances,” Harvey said.

Harvey credited Sorroche for guiding The Nelson Cottage to the Michelin level. Sorroche has been with the restaurant for four years, and she incorporates her training under Michelin-rated chefs and her Brazilian heritage in each menu. Either in flavor or in presentation, Sorroche said, she adds touches of Brazil, even in the use of green and yellow to represent the country’s flag.

When the Southwest Michelin guide was first announced, Sorroche said she’s always wanted to win a Michelin star and that she believed The Nelson Cottage was already operating at that level. 

“I’ve always tried to push myself,” she said in January. “I think that would be awesome, not just from a personal standpoint as a professional accolade, but also as something that I think my team and everyone at the cottage would love to get is that recognition.”

So the Michelin Recommended inclusion is a huge milestone, both Sorroche and Harvey said.

“Being a part of the first Southwest Michelin Guide is a dream come true from a culinary standpoint,” Sorroche said. “I am so proud of my team for all their hard work into getting this recognition.”

Now, her team plans to continue pushing for their ultimate goal: a Michelin star.

Matilda earns a Michelin Recommended

Matilda, a pizza and small plates restaurant in the Snow Park shopping center, is co-owned by Ian Pope, the chef also behind Five5eeds.

Setting out to create the right pizza, Pope knew he wanted a sourdough crust because of its flavor and better digestibility, so he brought on Sam Pew, a sourdough baker in Salt Lake City, as a consultant.

“He is obsessed about the flavor of sourdough, and not just the act of sourdough, but he’s obsessed about what flour you put in there, the percentages of flours, the flavor of the different flours, and that really aligned with what we wanted,” Pope said.

The result is a 100% sourdough, fully naturally leavened, with a touch of rye for the added nutty aroma and taste, cooked at a low temperature to keep its form. And of course, fresh, produce-driven toppings.

Pope missed the award ceremony in Las Vegas, and said the announcement came as a complete shock. He said throughout his career in hospitality, the Michelin Guide has been “the North Star” to the industry.

“To see Matilda included in the guide is genuinely a dream come true and a reflection of the hard work, care and commitment of our entire team,” he said. “We’ve always believed that a relentless focus on quality and consistency would take us in the right direction and to have that recognized by Michelin is an incredibly proud moment for all of us.”

The Michelin Guide evaluates restaurants using a long-standing global methodology built on five criteria: quality of ingredients, harmony of flavors, mastery of technique, the chef’s personal expression and consistency across multiple anonymous visits.

Three primary recognitions are included in each guide: Michelin stars, from one to three, are the most prestigious; a Bib Gourmand is given to “friendly establishments that serve good food at moderate prices;” and Michelin Recommended, which honors establishments serving “good food.”

Founded in France in the early 1900s to support motorists — and tire sales — the guide has maintained the same inspection approach ever since, expanding its reach worldwide.

Michelin introduced its first North American guide in 2005 for New York and has steadily grown its coverage to include major U.S. and Canadian destinations. Recent additions include Colorado, Atlanta, Mexico, Texas, Quebec, the American South, Philadelphia and Boston.

When the guide expanded to the United States 20 years ago, International Director Gwendal Poullennec said his inspectors witnessed a surge in quality and quantity of restaurants. So a few years ago, the guide started to plan a gradual expansion throughout the rest of the country.

The Southwest Guide is the latest in that growth, he said.

The Park City Chamber/Bureau was influential in bringing the guide to the state through the Wasatch Culinary Collective, which includes Visit Salt Lake, Visit Park City and Sundance Mountain Resort. Together, the collective, as paid sponsors, helped turn Michelin’s eyes toward Utah restaurants for the first time.

Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, and Dan Howard, the vice president of communications for the Chamber/Bureau, were both in Las Vegas for the ceremony. Chad Linebaugh, the president and general manager of Sundance Mountain Resort, also represented the Wasatch Back.

Wesselhoff and Howard were overjoyed to see The Nelson Cottage and Handle teams at the ceremony cocktail hour. Even though the two helped secure the guide in Utah, they had no idea if anyone from Park City would be included.

“I’m giddy on the inside!” Wesselhoff said.

She said the Michelin Guide is part of her team’s thoughtful strategy toward creating more of a four-season economy, especially for low-snow years like this one.

“With the loss of Sundance (Film Festival), there was a lot of conversation about, ‘How do we elevate the arts?’” she said. “The museums and the galleries and the artists, but it’s also film and culinary arts, and that’s where we started thinking about, ‘How can we really lean into our restaurants as culinary arts?’”

Ultimately, projects like a Michelin Guide are marketing, the Chamber/Bureau said, a way to put the Park City name in front of a wider food-loving audience. 

That’s also an “ingredient” that Michelin looks for when determining a new location, Poullennec said.

“When we make the decision to move forward with the full-scale Michelin Guide selection project, we have to ensure that not only are there existing good restaurants,” he said, “but also because we feel there is a real dynamic, and that the arrival of the Michelin Guide could play its role as a catalyst to push the destinations to the next level in the coming years.”

During Wednesday’s ceremony, across the four states included in the guide, Michelin announced one two-star restaurant, four one-star restaurants, 18 Bib Gourmand restaurants, 41 recommended restaurants and two “Mindful Voices” awards.

This is just the start. Poullennec said the guide is designed to be updated and evolve as the industry rises to the challenge.

It’s not just Michelin’s presence that helps “raise the bar,” he said. It’s ultimately the consumer.

“To build a sustainable gastronomic ecosystem, first and foremost you need discerning clients. I mean, foodies,” Poullennec said. “The quality of the restaurants is driven by the local foodies. The more discerning they are, the more willing they are to be exposed to new trends, new concepts … it makes a whole difference.”

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Over the past year, a miniature European village coined Southill in Midway has come to life under the vision of developer Dan Luster. Part of that vision includes two restaurants — Montblu and Charolais — but that wasn’t always the plan, Luster admitted. Then he met chef Steven Fretz.

Fretz is a career chef in the fine dining world, most recently known for his “baby,” Coast Range, a high-end steakhouse in Solvang, California, which has been in the Michelin Guide for four consecutive years. But he actually got his start in the Wasatch Back.

“When I graduated high school, me and my best friends moved to Park City and worked at Deer Valley,” he said. “We got jobs as prep cooks in the kitchen cooking 500 pounds of live Dungeness crab. We were just these kids, man. Super high energy. The chefs loved us.”

That move to Utah from his home in Oregon wasn’t entirely new, Fretz said. He lived in Salt Lake City from 7 to 11, and his mom’s side has long held roots in the Heber Valley. 

“My grandparents are buried in Heber Cemetery, so we would come up to Heber all the time. Swiss Days, come up all the time. My uncle Dick still has Dick’s Barber Shop on Main Street in Heber. We’d always come up, see Uncle Dick, get a haircut,” Fretz said. “My great-grandmother ran The Hub.”

After that first gig at Deer Valley Resort, Fretz spent another three winters working in kitchens in Park City. But what really catapulted Fretz’s career was a conversation with a guest chef while he was a line cook at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.

The chef from San Francisco saw Fretz’s work ethic and gave him a nudge.

“I didn’t ever want to become a chef. It was just something I was good at,” Fretz admitted. “I went to culinary school because some chef that I thought was really badass said, ‘You need to move to San Francisco and go to culinary school.’ I was like, ‘OK,’ and so I did.”

He didn’t just attend school; he excelled. He graduated from the California College of the Arts with a 4.2 GPA and a literal star with his name on the campus sidewalk: the Daniel Carlisle Walker Award for culinary excellence. He landed an externship at the Fifth Floor with chef George Morrone, who historically didn’t accept interns, because the college’s chef personally called in a favor. 

Fretz said he just went along, kept his head down and worked hard, and maybe that’s what set him apart? 

But after years of working for others and helping open restaurants around the country, the natural progression was to start his own project.

First he had The Church Key, which opened on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills in 2012 — “an epic time,” he said. Then, when the pandemic hit and he moved up to Solvang near Santa Barbara, California, he and a few friends bought and built out a restaurant that would become Coast Range.

Solvang, like Park City, is a very transient population with intense busy seasons October through February, Fretz said. And like Midway, its charm comes from its European, specifically Danish, architecture and culture. 

Now that Coast Range runs itself, Fretz said he was ready for his next thing.

Utah has always been home despite the chef’s 30 years living in California, so when he decided to start another project, to “nest,” Fretz knew he wanted to be back in the state. 

That’s when he met Luster.

“Dan and I started really bonding: him admiring my craziness and my craft, and then me admiring his craziness and his craft,” Fretz said. “It just meshed together.”

Luster, a self-described activist, said his philosophy in preserving Midway’s charm is to control the inevitable development and growth. Take the sheep pasture right outside Montblu along Midway’s Main Street, which used to be an auto shop:

“This is now America’s most expensive sheep pasture. I had to pay full price, like $2.5 million, for the auto shop, buy it like I was going to run it as a business. And then we took it down, and now it’s a sheep pasture,” Luster said.

The sheep are Swiss, Valais Blacknose to be specific, to appease Midway’s chosen character, Luster joked. In reality, the original settlers of Midway were English, hence his Cotswolds-inspired neighborhood.

That desire to keep projects in line with the city’s existing charm is why Luster ultimately decided to keep ownership of the two restaurants, which were built to meet a city requirement for commercial space.

“I had no intention of owning restaurants. The business model was to have pads and sell them off,” he said. “A few (buyers) came along, and it just didn’t fit, and we were unwilling to just list them and sell them because it’s so critical to the whole vibe of not only the village, but Midway generally.”

So Montblu and Charolais were born: the first a more casual breakfast and lunch spot, the latter meant to be a high-end French steakhouse.

“Montblu, it’s whimsical. It’s sheep,” said Luster, gesturing to the pasture abutting the cafe’s patio, “and even some of the recipes are going to be kind of fun. Charolais the steakhouse, I can say, without too much hubris, I think it’ll be the top-rated restaurant in the entire state.”

He and Fretz both say they want Charolais to be to Salt Lake City what The French Laundry is to San Francisco: a top-tier restaurant in a more rural, surrounding area. 

“If we’re going to shape (the growth), what are we going to be? Are we going to be high-elevation Orem, just fill it in, or are we going to be Carmel or Southampton or Yountville?” said Luster. “I see Midway as those places in embryo.”

Fretz said he’s shooting for Michelin recognition again now that inspectors consider Utah for the Southwest guide. 

“People want something unique. They want something that has soul,” said Luster. “Our obsession and level of detail. It’s Fretz, like it’s a perfect fit.”

With Charolais, expected to open in fall 2027, Luster and Fretz are dreaming big, especially since they’re building the restaurant from the ground up. 

“I was like, ‘Dan, can we make a cheese aging cave?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t see why not.’ So it’s right next to the wine cave, and I was like, ‘Can we make the wine cave bigger?’ So he made it twice as big,” Fretz said. 

As construction on Charolais finishes, the chef said he’s focusing on Montblu, which should open this fall.

As Luster said, Montblu is a whimsical space, with a cartoony logo of a Valais Blacknose sheep on the sign, sandwich paper and napkins. 

While it’s more playful, the food is still very serious, Fretz said. Everything will be made in-house, from the breads to the foie gras pâté. And for those who know him, Fretz is bringing his “chefy” brown-butter glazed, triple-fermented brioche doughnut, which goes with him wherever he works.

“My favorite things to cook are things that are technique-driven, technique-based,” said Fretz. “The gratin fries take two days. The bread takes three days. So it’s all very thoughtful.”

For example, instead of a turkey sandwich with sliced deli meat, Fretz makes a turkey terrine: paper-thin layers of turkey and white truffle cheese pressed overnight. Each sandwich is made from its own miniature loaf of brioche bread and dressed with a pecan gremolata and an aioli. Instead of simple French fries on the side, it’s served with gratin fries made of stacks of sliced potatoes, cut into thick blocks, then fried and topped with flaky French salt.

Fretz said, in honor of their sheep neighbors, Montblu will never have lamb on the menu.

The chef has permanently relocated to Midway, a kind of return to his heritage, which he calls “serendipitous.” He remembers visiting the hot springs or coming up for Swiss Days as a kid. Now he’s returned, but not empty-handed.

“I got to bring the fine-dining aspect of how I’ve been trained to Midway,” Fretz said. “It is a bit of coming home to, like, this is it. I’m not going anywhere else. I’m not opening restaurants anywhere else. … For a chef, this is a dream come true.”

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Saturday night, 10 local mixologists took the stage at Deer Valley Resort’s Silver Lake lawn to compete in the finals of the second-annual Mountain Mixer cocktail contest.

The event, hosted by the Park City Area Restaurant Association, is a chance to showcase the culinary talent of the group’s members and is the latest evolution of its long-standing summer cocktail competition. 

Last year was the first return to an in-person format after years of operating as a month-long online contest, Savor the Cocktail, where people could vote for their favorites. But after some voting fraud, the association went back to an in-person contest with judges from the beverage industry determining the winners.

The first Mountain Mixer was held in Silver Lake Lodge, and one of the biggest changes for Saturday’s event was the decision to move outside onto the lawn, said Ginger Wicks, the executive director of the restaurant association.

“It was really loud and cramped inside, and we’re very limited in the number of people that can attend when it’s inside,” she said. “As long as Mother Nature will always cooperate with us, I think moving it outside is great.”

And she did, holding off the monsoon thunderstorm until just after Dos Olas Cantina’s Adriel Danan was crowned the winner and given a $1,000 check. Instead of fireworks, his victory was celebrated with a lightning show.

The other major change, which came directly from guest feedback, was the inclusion of a bar serving all 10 of the finalists’ cocktails. 

Due to Utah’s liquor laws and liability of licensing, Wicks said it’s not possible for the mixologists to make and serve their own drinks. So last year they decided not to serve the concoctions so as not to risk compromising the drink’s quality. 

With high demand from attendees, organizers decided to give it a go and contracted Top Shelf Professional Bartending Services to work with each competitor to efficiently recreate the cocktails. 

It wasn’t quite efficient enough in the end, though: The biggest issue this year was the drink line, which had upward of a 40-minute wait throughout the three-hour event.

“While I think we took a really great step forward in letting guests taste the drinks, and having the ability to buy additional tastes of those drinks if they wanted, we didn’t probably execute the best way to allow that process to go quickly,” Wicks said. 

She said that’s the biggest takeaway for planning next year, and organizers are already thinking of ways to fine-tune the experience like having multiple bars or having bartenders focus on just two of the 10 drinks at different stations. 

“No event is perfect. We’re always learning and growing,” Wicks said. “I’m very hard on myself as an event person because I want everybody to have a really good experience.”

But even the ability to sample the drinks was a huge step up from last year, said judge Ben Usen, founder of Installation Coffee and regional sales director for La Colombe. He was the only returning judge and was impressed with the effort that went into the event.

Judge Casey Metzger, founder of Top Shelf, said the same. He remembers early iterations of the Park City Area Restaurant Association’s cocktail contests, which were in person in the early 2000s, and said the Mountain Mixer is a higher caliber than those events.

“I’ve been a judge in it before, but it was on a much smaller, more grassroots level,” Metzger said. “I think the partnership between Deer Valley as a venue and the resources that they bring to the table, that they leverage, it has a recipe for success.”

From the judging perspective, he said he was flattered to be included alongside Usen and the third judge, Charles Joly, who is a global cocktail champion and James Beard Award winner in Outstanding Bar Program for The Aviary in Chicago.

The three were placed on a smaller stage facing the main stage, where each contestant created their cocktail while explaining each ingredient and the story behind the drink. Judges chose the top three winners, but the audience was given a wine cork to manually vote for a favorite drink.

“You saw every type of cocktail that you can imagine here today, from spirit-forward to light spritzes, locally inspired ingredients to things from around the globe, culinary influence, things that were very personal to our bartenders,” said Joly. 

The three winners from last year made it to the finals again: AJ Anderson with HANDLE, Katelyn Fraser with Butcher’s Chop House and Charles Vincent Franco with Grub Steak. 

Anderson took first place last year with his cocktail Melt, and he returned to the stage with a “funky” approach to his cocktail Bloods Lake for this year’s event. The main shocker was his garnish: freshly grated cheese from Beehive Cheese Company.

The ingredient was inspired by a cocktail he had while traveling through Taiwan at the end of spring, Anderson said. It was more of a savory cocktail, and by including some corn masa in his syrup, he joked he was making a quesadilla for the judges.

Franco returned with another Filipino-inspired cocktail as a nod to his heritage, this time incorporating pandan and coconut into his drink Coco Verde. Fraser’s drink Hive Mind incorporated flavors of orange and honey, referencing Utah as the beehive state.

Other competitors were motivated by travel, too.

Milana Powers with High West’s The Nelson Cottage said her cocktail was inspired by an open-air music festival in the Dolomites that people hike to. 

“I love the idea of music traveling through the mountain peaks and fresh air. And I wanted to recreate the same feeling in the glass,” Powers said.

The drink used High West’s Mountain Gin, with flavors of elderflower and rhubarb, and was topped with Dendric Estate’s Dry Cut cider.

Powers won the people’s choice award and “the love of Park City,” Joly said.

Jordan Greiner, who represented the Goldener Hirsch, Auberge Collection, said 40° North was the result of the hotel’s Amaro program and her “recent desire of just selling all of my crap, packing it up into a bag and traveling world.”

The ingredients are all found along the 40th parallel, which includes northern Utah, Greiner explained. High West bourbon was from Park City; Avèze gentian liqueur made with yellow gentian root from southern Europe; Amaro Lucano from Basilicata, Italy; tobacco bitters represented Türkiye; and then back to Park City with a spruce tip cordial.

It was Greiner’s first-ever cocktail contest, and she took home third with 40° North.

Metzger said her performance and concept were especially memorable, but what makes the Mountain Mixer different from other contests is that it’s all about the cocktail, not the bartender. The three judges were asked to rank each cocktail on four criteria — appearance, aroma, taste and finish — so the hospitality skills or competitors’ performances weren’t factors in the winners.

Does the drink have balance? Can every ingredient be tasted equally? Is anything overpowering? Does it make you want to take another sip? Those were some of the questions the judges considered, Metzger said.

Danan’s drink Crimson Smoked and second-place winner Chace Ciulla’s Cucumber & Jalapeño Gimlet stood out the most from the scoring despite being some of the simpler entries, he said.

The winning cocktail, Crimson Smoked, had five ingredients and was the only finalist to use mezcal as the base spirit. For the judges, the smaller glass size was a winning feature, too, because it showed Danan’s awareness of the ratios and prevented the flavors from becoming diluted. 

“Part of the simplicity of that cocktail is (that) he used a spirit that brought this strong flavor profile,” Metzger said. “When you get 12 ingredients, sometimes it’s tougher to get that perfect balance.”

Joly agreed.

“It was a drink that was equal parts classic and with a beautiful twist,” he said when announcing the winner. “It goes to show that sometimes sticking to a classic formula, but just absolutely knocking it out of the park with perfect flavor, balance, and a little bit of creativity, infusing a bit of yourself, can get the job done.”

Wicks said it was fun to see a completely new set of winners compared to last year, and for them to be spread around town. 

There were 21 entries for this year, which also shows a buy-in from the town’s mixologists, said Metzger. He said events like Mountain Mixer are one of the ways Park City can push itself in the culinary arts. 

“We are hospitable. Our tourism and hospitality are at the center of our economy, and we know this. And we should be trying everything we can,” Metzger said. “The bartenders, they’re the first to greet people. They can start that journey.”

All the competing drinks are included on menus at the participating restaurants, she said, so people who didn’t make it on Saturday, or want to sample the winners, can do so by stopping in.

The recipes for all the submissions are also available online at parkcityrestaurants.com/mountain-mixer-park-city, so people can try making them at home.

The post Mountain Mixer judges name Crimson Smoked the best cocktail in Park City appeared first on Park Record.

To the untrained eye, American mahjong, a tile game adapted from the version invented in China, is hard to follow. 

Rather than starting with a familiar deck of cards, the four-player game uses 152 tiles etched with unfamiliar characters. Beautiful, but not intuitive.

To start the game, dealing out tiles is extra complicated in what’s called the “Charleston” phase, a blind exchange of tiles between the players during which they each select their own game strategy based on their collected tiles.

And that’s another thing. Choosing a strategy depends on the National Mahjong League Standard Hands and Rules Card, an annual booklet that changes each year and lists the different types of winning hands. Every player needs a card in order to play.

Try learning while watching? The game is silent, save the clicking of tiles, until a “discard” phase, which sounds like some secret code as players reveal tiles face up: seven bam, one dot, flower, nine crack, three dot, bird bam, green dragon, soap. 

Confusing. 

But for those who take the time to learn, the game is more than just a mental challenge and a mix of strategy and luck. It’s an opportunity to make friends.

That’s what Après Mahjong cofounders Bethany Jordan and Natalie Stouffer realized when they began playing in Park City four years ago. 

“I am from Texas, from Dallas, and I moved here around 2020, and I saw what was happening in Texas,” said Jordan. “When I would go back and visit friends, it was one of those things where it was assumed that we all played mahjong.”

The game has surged in popularity on the East Coast and in the South, especially among middle-aged women, she said. Part of that is due to its history: An American Jewish couple from the Northeast traveled and worked in China in the 1920s, fell in love with the tile game, then brought it back to their community in the United States. By 1932, the National Mahjong League was formed to consolidate the rules and regulations. 

Park City and the West have been behind that curve, so Jordan and Stouffer learned from a mix of guide books and tips from a woman they played tennis with.

More and more people saw them playing and wanted to learn, too, so one day Jordan said, “What if we started a business?” 

“I wanted to go to the pool or just go to a park or whatever and see people playing and be able to join their game. And so our vision was to bring mahjong to the town and start teaching people, and it caught on like wildfire,” Jordan said.

They did the market research and realized there wasn’t a single mahjong business in the state. Stouffer has a background in education and curriculum development, and she had the time and interest, so the two became partners and built out Après Mahjong. Now they have two or three events a day.

“We have private lessons. We have public lessons. We have open play. We do a weekly league. We do tournaments,” said Jordan.

All of it starts with beginner lessons, Stouffer said, and the most important part about the lessons is consistency across instructors.

“We wanted, if you came to a lesson and it was taught by me or anyone else, you’d have a similar experience,” she said. 

First they teach the tiles and tile names, with playful ways of remembering, like with how the soap tile belongs to the dot suit: “Soap makes bubbles. Bubbles are dots.”

Then they build from that knowledge to explain the National Mahjong League card, which lists ways to create winning hands, likening certain aspects to games like Rummikub or cards.

“It’s called scaffolding in education,” said Stouffer. “Your brain tends to hold on to information better if it can connect to prior knowledge that you already know. So we take it step by step.”

Most importantly with the lessons, less is more, Stouffer said. There’s over 1,000 ways to win based on the annual rules card, but it would be overwhelming to teach them all in one lesson. 

“People’s brains jump so far ahead, and then they forget where they are. So we try to just really keep them engaged,” she said.

A lot of the lesson involves learning by doing, so the instructor will lead the group of no more than eight students in a few practice games, helping them decide which strategy to take based on the tiles they’re dealt.

Stacy Miller is one of 12 instructors with the group. She first learned mahjong in 2024 but comes from a gaming family and has a “special affinity” for poker: Each year she goes to Las Vegas to compete in the World Series of Poker. But when she learned the tile game, she became obsessed.

“Mahjong has totally changed my life. I love it so much. I mean, it sounds really weird, but for a game player, I feel like it’s such a challenging, fun game with lots of levels,” she said. “And I also love all the ages. I’ve met so many people doing it.”

She started out playing in the league — a timed version that suits her competitive nature — before being asked to come on as an instructor. As a former English and public speaking professor, Miller agreed.

So far, she said she hasn’t met anyone who couldn’t learn the game, though some, like her 84-year-old mother, took a while to pick it up. 

“You could sit down as a beginner and play the game with just knowing the basics. But the more you play, the more you realize how strategic it is and how you can use defense,” Miller said. “I haven’t gotten bored with it because the longer I’ve played, the deeper I’ve kind of dove into it.” 

It doesn’t necessarily translate from poker, she said, which is more of a mix of skill and luck. Mahjong has more luck involved, but Miller said she loves that it’s more involved. 

“For me, there’s a lot of downtime in poker. You’re sitting there, maybe you’re not involved in a hand, so you’re sitting there waiting for the other people to get finished with the hand,” she said. “With mahjong, I feel like my brain is constantly going. You’re constantly thinking, and there’s no downtime.” 

Stouffer said part of mahjong’s popularity is that it requires more of an investment from players. Not just from the time and financial side, but from having to be fully present during the game. Hardly anyone pulls out their phones for the two hours of open play, she said.

“This is an age where people are so focused on screens that people are craving that analog, non-digital hobby,” said Jordan. “It also uses their brain. And as we age, we see our parents and even some peers suffering with dementia. … We want to keep our brain strong, and this is a game of strategy and thinking.”

After completing at least one lesson, players are invited to open play sessions a few times a week at their new permanent parlor in Park City. 

For at least the first year, Après Mahjong operated as more of a pop-up concept, working with businesses to host events and lessons. But eventually they grew enough to warrant a full-time home.

Stouffer joked that she finally broke after transporting folding tables, chairs, heavy mahjong tile sets and decorations through a snowstorm for an event at Wasatch Wool. That two-hour event turned into more like a four-hour job.

They found the parlor space, the second floor of the Gateway Center off Swede Alley and Heber Avenue, and moved in May.

There, the decorations lean into the ski-town vibe, with plaid tablecloths and vintage ski posters and collage art. But the real decoration is the mahjong tiles. 

Après Mahjong supplies tiles through an ambassador program with brand The Mahjong Line, which specializes in art-inspired tiles. Those sets run about $500 and are decorated with various themes like sea life, Western icons or mountain animals. A tile in their mountain line — a big horn sheep wearing ski goggles — inspired the Après Mahjong logo: a moose with ski goggles.

Open play is $20 for the two hours and set up for all levels.

“We’ve leveled it out by tables, and if you’re a beginner, we’re going to have an instructor there to answer questions. And the whole point is for them to become a part of the community, to feel more confident. You don’t get better unless you play,” said Jordan.

The levels from beginner to advanced are modeled after ski runs, magic carpet all the way to black diamond. Those players finish games in around 15 minutes, while beginners can take closer to an hour.

Jordan said since they started, Après Mahjong has taught or interacted with 1,500 people through events and lessons, and has built a large local community. But it’s also become a space for out-of-towners who know how to play, have the official card, but don’t have a group to play with. Being a space for visitors, especially in such a transient town like Park City, stems from Jordan’s own experience.

“I used to summer here, and it was just our family all summer, and you do crave that interaction with people. It’s like you’re a part of the community, but you’re really not because you’re just here for a few months,” she said. “It would have been so nice if I had had a place to drop in and get to know some people and play the game.”

The two said they’ve begun expanding into Heber City with lessons and plan to grow by providing training for people to start their own business in other towns. They’re also planning to purchase an automatic shuffling table, which makes the play even quicker. 

Still, the community building is the best part because players from different generations get to know each other over the game, Jordan said. Groups naturally have sprouted out and people organize their own game nights with people they’ve met through Après Mahjong.

“We want you to become friends. Keep coming to us, too, but please, the whole point of this is to build this community of friendship and to grow the game of learning and strategy and understanding,” said Jordan.

To learn more or sign up for a lesson, visit apresmahjong.com. 

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