Alta/Summit County v. Park City

[Waitman]

Anyone have any experience or opinions on the Alta region as opposed to Park City? Sure, skiing opinions are important, but I'm more curious about food at this juncture.

[ol_ironstomach]

I don't think there are a lot of options up there, at least nothing resembling Park City proper with its myriad of bistros and 3.2% (by weight, or 4% ABV) microbreweries. I accidentally drove all the way up Little Cottonwood Canyon on a business trip once after receiving some mildly inaccurate directions from the folks we were meeting, and saw basically nothing along the route other than private homes and the resorts. Our intended destination was the Silver Fork Lodge (and restaurant) in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a kitschy log building with a great view; the food is okay, but hardly destination-worthy.

[AlexC]

If memory serves, the best restaurant up near the resorts in Little Cottonwood is called the Shallow Shaft, and they serve classic American fare with a lot of game in the rotation, and the prices were in the $30+ entree range. This is par for the course in Park City as well, where the name-brand restaurants charge truly exorbitant prices. That being said, last winter I had I an excellent meal at the new Spruce at the Canyons. Expensive as hell, but man, it was good.

The restaurant at the Alta Peruvian lodge was mediocre (again, been a few years since I ate there). On the whole, I'd eat dinner at Snowbird before Alta, and I believe that hotel dining is largely what you're looking at.

Also, on the mountain at Alta itself (best skiing in the whole wide world, IMHO), you can have a wonderful lunch at Collins grill. French bistro insprired fare, great soups, it's worth making a res and going.

Alex