With the snow melt in spring, northern Utah is transformed into a verdant playground for thrill-seekers and outdoor enthusiasts. And with a bumper crop of new farm to fork eating establishments, there’s never been a better time to visit and embrace Utah’s elevated, healthy lifestyle.
The urban heart of Utah’s thriving Wasatch Front, Salt Lake City is the perfect adventure base camp for hiking and biking, exploring lush forests on horseback or journeying up and away by hot air balloon. The high elevation capital also boasts a diverse and distinctive range of culinary options, with a big emphasis on locally sourced, wholesome fare. Here’s the pick of newest eateries in Salt Lake City and beyond:
Salt Lake City
SLC Eatery opened in early 2019, serving ‘modern American food’. This new city centre restaurant specialises in small plates featuring the best local ingredients with a seasonally changing menu. Diners help themselves to dishes from a trolley, dim sum style, or can opt for larger plates with a distinct Asian flavour.
Oquirrh Restaurant – named after the nearby Westerly mountain range – opened in downtown Salt Lake City at the beginning of March 2019 with the mission ‘to contribute to the community with the finest dining service, food and support of local artisans’.
Brothers Jacob and Ammon Chung revolutionised take away fodder when they opened their first late night sushi delivery service in Provo, Utah, under the name Five Sushi Brothers. They’ve just opened a Salt Lake City restaurant in the revitalised Regent Street area. Other new establishments in the neighbourhood include Honest Eatery, serving protein shakes plus customisable açaí bowl with a variety of gourmet toppings.
Vessel Kitchen of Park City has just opened a second restaurant in Midvale, south of Salt Lake City. With a commitment to only sourcing produce from trusted growers and partners, Vessel Kitchen’s ethos is one of ‘good food choices’ providing good fuel for the body. Another Park City spin-off, HSL is a sister establishment to award-winning Handle. The new restaurant boasts a commitment to fresh sourcing, frequent foraging, and local loyalty.
Park City
Famed for its world-class ski resorts and playing host to the Sundance Film Festival, Park City has an array of other year-round activities from biking, fly-fishing and white-water rafting to stand up paddleboard yoga in a 10,000-year-old crater.
It’s also home to over 150 restaurants and the annual Savour the Summit event, which this year takes place on 22 June. A variety of restaurants set up along Main Street for the massive outdoor dinner party, serving their specialties to over 2,500 participants.
Recent restaurant openings to add to the city’s well-established healthy dining scene include Hearth and Hill. Park City’s newest gathering spot offers a ‘fresh, new, approachable take on contemporary American cuisine’ that’s locally driven and community focused.
Ogden
Ogden was the first settlement in Utah and comes with a notorious reputation – in its heyday the city’s 25th Street was a hotbed of illegal activity around the arrival of the railroad. While the town has long since cleaned up its act, its youthful, independent spirit remains and restored buildings are more likely to house juice bars and yoga studios than brothels and saloons.
Press Together (opened spring 2018) serves raw, organic and cold-pressed juices, smoothies and bowls. Meanwhile Vegan bakery, Lavender Kitchen, sells plant based goodies out of recent Ogden arrivals including Cuppa and Kaffe Mercantile.
Getting to Utah is easy thanks to the daily non-stop flight with Delta Airlines from London Heathrow to Salt Lake City (seasonal, see www.delta.com/gb/en).
For more information on Utah, see www.visitutah.com/uk