Events: Spencer’s, Stanza, Alamexo Cantina

Spencer’s For Steak And Chops – buffalo chop from regular menu

Spencer’s – Start the year right this Saturday night (January 6th) and join chef Sebastian Lowrey at SLC’s top steakhouse for a fun beer pairing dinner. Lowrey has created a six course tasting menu to pair with select Ballast Point beers; all at an unmissable price too I might add. The dinner is priced at just $55 for the six course meal of steak, mussels, ribeye and lobster with the beer pairing an extra $25.

The beer dinner starts promptly at 7 p.m. and the decadent menu is as follows:

Course one
* Poached lobster taco – blood orange hollandaise, avocado, fresh chili
* California Kolsch

Course two
* Mizuna – red radishes, cucumber, crispy sweet potato, toasted peanuts, Buddha hand vinaigrette
* Grapefruit Sculpin IPA

Course three
* Mediterranean mussels – cointreau, malapena butter, sour dough crostini
* Wahoo White

Course four
* Saffron fettuccine carbonara – smoked bacon, green onion, shaved Brussels sprouts, mixed peppercorn, pecorino Romano
* Piper Down Scottish Ale

Course five
* Dry aged bone-in ribeye
– black berry demi-glaxed, Fathom IPA
– yuzu honey-mustard, Sculpin IPA
– tarragon chimichuri, Manta Ray Double IPA

Course six
* Chocolate naught cake
* Victory At Sea Porter

255 S W Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 238-4748
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/utah/hilton-salt-lake-city-center-SLCCCHH/dining/spencers.html

Stanza: pea angnolotti

Stanza – If wine is more your think, Stanza Italian Bistro’s first wine dinner of the new year features wines from Dolfo and Zampato paired with chef Jonathan LeBlanc’s five-course Italian tasting menu. Held on Thursday January 11th from 6.30 p.m. cost is $100 per person (or $70 per person without wine pairings). Hillary Merrill, general manager writes:

We’ve discovered these terrific Slovenian wines that pair perfectly with Chef LeBlanc’s Italian tasting menu. I spent some magical time there in my travels, so it’s a very special dinner for me. Because of a shift in the Italian/Slovenian border recently, there is a lot of crossover in cuisine and wine so it’s fun to be able to explore the subtle differences and share those with our guests.

Course one
* Pacific oyster veloute with Sevruga caviar
* Zampato Sauvignon Blanc

Course two
* Prosciutto crudo with melon, rocket and burrata
* Zampato Cabernet Sauvignon

Course three
* Sweet Italian sausage orecchiette with rapini-almond pesto
* Dolfo Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot Blend

Course four
* Herb roasted lamb loin with white bean puree, artichoke barigoule, parsley-mint salsa verde
* Dolfo Merlot

Course five
* Lake Bled cream cake with cabernet sweet cherries
* Jelinek Slivovitz (plum brandy)

Alamexo – bar area

454 E 300 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 746-4441
stanzaslc.com

Alamexo Cantina – Newly opened sister restaurant to downtown’s Alamexo Mexican Kitchen, Alamexo Cantina in the 9th and 9th district urges guests to “Find Your LaPlaya with weekend winter warmers”. Specialty margaritas and $1 tacos are on the menu in the Cantina’s bar every Saturday and Sunday from noon until 2 p.m. through January. Served only in the bar, the tacos offered will change each week and will have one meat option and one vegetarian.

Options include artistic creations like tacos carnitas y salsa verde cruda, tacos flor de calabaza y salsa frijoles y hoja Santa, tacos de bistek y salsa molcajete and tacos Hongos y salsa guajillo; these are items that owner Matt Lake says, “we can do some really fun and adventuresome tacos that I normally wouldn’t be able to put on my daily menus.” Specialty margaritas, concocted by the team based on what local ingredients are in season, will change weekly too. For those wanting to extend the revelry into dinner, Matt and his culinary team offer their “all day, your way” menu too, Lake writes:

Our all-day menu always is always right for any time of day, whether you stop in for just guacamole and a margarita, a lunch of shared plates with friends, or a dinner with the entire crew, tasting some of everything. We don’t dictate how you create your meal … you can mix and match to create the perfect experience.

1059 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84105
(801) 658-5859
alamexocantina.com

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC.  I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City  dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.

I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV.   Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.    I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.

Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.