Utah Restaurants Best of 2022: Season's Eatings | Restaurant Reviews | Salt Lake City Weekly

Utah Restaurants Best of 2022: Season's Eatings 

My favorite dining experiences and discoveries of the year.

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Sol Agave - ALEX SPRINGER
  • Alex Springer
  • Sol Agave

Another year of dining out has come and gone, and while the year is ending with the news of some truly heartbreaking closures—especially when awesome bakeries are concerned—it has also provided quite a few memorable experiences for this locally-sourced food dude. While I will wish our eateries who have closed their doors this year a very fond farewell and hope to see their proprietors do something awesome in the future, I also wanted to take some time and reflect upon the most memorable restaurant experiences that I had over the course of 2022.

I'll kick things off with my visit to Nana's Sonoran Hot Dogs (Instagram: @nanas_hotdogs, 623-210-7320), as I was able to cross Sonoran hot dogs off my junk food bucket list. This regional Arizona snack—which wraps a hot dog in bacon before nestling it in a dreamy-soft bun and topping it with everything from nacho cheese to flamin' hot Cheetos—is one of the finest culinary inventions of the modern age. Not only was the experience of trying something I had fantasized about for years everything I hoped for, but there was something special about the experience itself; the Ledezmas, who own and operate the food truck, are always enthusiastic when someone tries a Sonoran dog for the first time. On top of that, I feel like everyone's first time with one of these bad boys should take place in a parking lot on a spring evening just as things are starting to warm up. You can catch Nana's all over the place, but they typically hunker down at Latino's Furniture (7659 S. Redwood Road) in West Jordan on weekends.

From there, I need to talk about a restaurant whose bonkers concept came together rather nicely upon visiting, and that's Dolly Donuts (3245 S. State Street, 385-355-9904, dollydonutsut.com). In a spiritual sense, Dolly Donuts is a diner that hearkens back to the golden age of soda jerks and jukeboxes. They've taken the tools from that toolbox and crafted something that also supports a full bar and a doughnut bakery, and I've never really seen a place stick the landing on such an ambitious concept. A visit to Dolly Donuts for their spin on the famous Juicy Lucy burger (with its signature cheese-stuffed ground beef patty), a cold local beer and then some homemade doughnuts for dessert is escapist dining at its finest.

It's no secret that I tend to gravitate toward the misfits of the local dining world, but I did have some great moments in the world of more upscale dining this year. Perhaps the most surprising of these moments came from Sol Agave (749 W. 100 North, Ste. CRA8, 801-692-1758, solagave.com) in American Fork. As someone who grew up on the more casual Mexican restaurants that dot the Wasatch Front, it's good to see that the team at Sol Agave are presenting a more sophisticated take on the cuisine of Mexico. There is a lot to be said about the complexities, flavors and history that comprises Mexican food, and diners don't often get the opportunity to explore that world to its fullest. Though Sol Agave's menu is still accessible for the most skittish of diners, it's doing great things to present Mexican food as fine dining which I really hope we see more of in the future. Oh, and don't even get me started about their butter cake.

I also continue to be impressed by Laurel Brasserie & Bar (555 S. Main Street, 801-258-6708, laurelslc.com), which continues to be one of the most welcoming fine dining spots in town. Being housed inside The Grand America Hotel tends to give the restaurants within a reputation of being overly expensive, but Laurel has kept its menu reasonable without skimping on the quality of its dishes. Its expansion into cool nightspot territory has been a success—it's got a fantastic dinner and drinks menu—and its brunch buffets are great family-friendly dining events. On top of all that, it's a truly gorgeous space filled with immaculate white tile and lushly maintained patio.

Last but definitely not least was the pop-up event called Arthur (Instagram: @_arthurslc) hosted by Kevin and Alexa Finch. Course after course of locally-sourced delights came our way, and each dish built upon the last so fantastically that it was hard to keep my head on straight. When you dive into the rich luxury of a grilled maitake mushroom and bearnaise sauce, only to shift gears to a black cod filet swimming in acidic bone broth and pureed garlic, your knees turn to jelly, and you need someone to slap you in the face to make sure your feet are still on the ground. There are times when a corner of reality's fabric gets peeled back and you catch a glimpse of the infinite, and this was one of those moments for me.

Here's to one more year of living deliciously. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you all in 2023.

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