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Utah Style and Design Magazine / Statements of style: blog / November 2009 / Dressed to Impress: Spruce Restaurant

Dressed to Impress: Spruce Restaurant

Who turns down an invitation to a soirée at Park City's chicest new dining hot spot? Not us. 

Last week we attended Slow Food Utah's Harvest Dinner at Spruce inside the new Dakota Moutain Lodge, part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection. (Spruce is an offshoot of a San Francisco restaurant by the same name.)

Spruce Restaurant

As snow began to fall outside, we took our seats near a roaring fireplace in one of the dining rooms, settling right into the cushy saddle leather chairs, and admired Spruce's glamorous interior. The room is swathed in deep chocolate mohair and velvet. Talk about rustic-chic.

For the evening's feast, chef Mark Sullivan and his chef de cuisine, Sandra Middleton, prepared a six-course tasting menu focusing on seasonal ingredients from local famers (Ranui Farm, Clifford Farm, Tagge's Farm) and local food purveyors (Crumb Brothers' Bakery and Valley Game). Many of the ingredients for the evening's dishes were hand-picked that very day, offering a true farm-to-table experience. In addition to Sullivan's dishes, wine pairings for each course were poured by Spruce's expert team of sommeliers.

Dinner began with a caramelized root vegetable soup and a salad of beets, field greens, crispy pig's feet and a farm egg, followed by servings of rainbow trout with preserved cabbage, rocket greens and citrus brown butter, and pan-roasted elk with chicories, foraged mushrooms and currant gastrique. Course number five consisted of delicious Drake's feta topped with Clifford Farm honey and paired with Crumb Brother's rye bread. For dessert, Spruce served up warm, doughy, sugar-coated beignets with a variety of "toppings" including huckleberry caramel, plum compote, creme anglaise and mixed berry preserves. A few beignets, a cup of coffee and an extra serving of artisan chocolates later, and the entire table was happy, full and more than satisfied.

The only thing that equalled the amazing meal was the setting itself. If you have an appetite for  some very style-savvy dining, Spruce's spectacular dining room and bar will satisfy your hunger.

Spruce, Dakota Mountain Lodge, 2100 Frostwood Drive, Park City, 435-647-5500, dakotamountianlodge.com