Tin Angel Cafe

We headed to Tin Angel the other night and were kindly greeted at the door by Maya Angelou and entire original Broadway cast of RENT when we stepped inside.  Not really.  But it would have felt about right.  Think Bohemian chic decor, live blues music and haute comfort food.  Really interesting mix but it worked well.

Cocktails, not wine, were the order of the night for us.  I had a dirty martini (meh) and amelia had a couple of pomegranate infused medium-sweet cocktails.  They were all pretty good.  The wine list at Tin Angel is also very reasonable if you're looking for table wines at a great price ($28-36), so the need to BYOB is less pressing here.

We started out with a tapas plate and everything that came out was spectacular.  These were the highlights of the night for sure -  Moroccan spiced shrimp skewers on a bed of sprouts, the artichoke risotto cake with pea shoot pesto and (best for last) a sweet potato truffled timbal topped with wild mushrooms.  I'm not sure I've ever had a timbal - but think of a delicate souffle.  It was great. 

We split a green salad which was just spring greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, balsamic and a tarot chip topping.  

At this point I wasn't quite sure how to classify the style at Tin Angel.  Our entrees came out and were what pushed me to call the fare haute comfort food.  I had the wild boar agro dolce which is a wild boar braised with apricots, onions, carrots and currants then slow cooked in white wine, chicken broth and tomatoes.  It was served with a massive portion of soft polenta and topped with manchego cheese.  The entree was a touch sweet, and given that wild boar tends to be a bit of a sweeter meat, I think they could roll down on some of the fruit in the slow cooker, but overall this dish was fantastic and I would order again in a heartbeat.

Amelia ordered the wagyu short ribs.  Despite the fact that Wagyu beef is a big, big lie just like Kobe beef, her dish was fantastic.  While the wild boar had been dominated by (a delicious) medley of flavors from the slow cooker, the short ribs are sauced with a burgundy gravy that lets the flavor of the beef come out, and the beef was plenty flavorful in this case to stand mostly on its own.  The short ribs are served with blue cheese rosemary mashed potatoes and baby vegetables.

We finished off the night with a chocolate-espresso bread pudding (one order = two big slices) which was good, not great.  Overall I had no complaints about anything we had at Tin Angel and the food ranged from good to near mind-blowing.  This place is now on my short list.

The Verdict?  Tin Angel is equally suited to drinks and tapas, a quick bite with friends or a five course meal that will provide you with enough calories for several days.  They are not pretentious at all, just executing on some great ideas in a laid back setting that will make your inner hipster feel right at home.

SLC Mixers: Whiskey and Cheese Tasting

Becky Rosenthal, the SLC Foodie, is doing so many great things for the Salt Lake City food community that I wanted to be sure and highlight a great event that I attended last Friday.  SLC Mixers put together a whiskey and cheese tasting with a selection of whiskeys and Beehive cheeses.  The pairings were thoughtful and the crowd was a great mix of foodies, friends of foodies and interesting people of all stripes.  The event was interesting enough to keep the most knowledgeable cheese and whiskey aficionado entertained, but totally accessible to someone who has zero knowledge or experience with either.

I'll share one story to illuminate the mood of the evening.  Our whiskey expert asked the crowd, "who is Mark?" at one point, and then proceeded to ask me if I enjoyed my whiskey sour aperitif during the pre-event mingle.  I said sure, and then he told me that while the rest of the crowd had been drinking a delicious Sazerac Rye, my cocktail was made with a $6 (plastic) bottle of Canadian Hunter.  So much for my highly trained palate, but they gave me the booze as a consolation prize.

You SHOULD attend future SLC Mixer events by going here: SLC Mixers

You should also visit the SLC Foodie Blog: The SLC Foodie 

If you check out that video on the SLC Foodie blog, you can see the tail end of my whiskey switcheroo fiasco.

Pallet

I got a text from my boss a few weeks ago.  He was at Pallet a night or two after opening night and the text said "by far the hippest place I have been to in SLC".  Coming from a guy who walked out of a local Italian establishment because his waiter was unfamiliar with Burrata, I respect his opinion (and I'm still trying to get him to guest blog that one...).  Along with said text, I got a photo of the menu.  Truffle fries, sweet beats with almonds and prosciutto... so onto the short list it went for the WFR blog.

Boss was right on the hip factor.  Mojitos in mason jars, fine wines served alongside PBR tallboys wrapped in the requisite brown bag, and enough mustache wax to waterproof the Santa Maria.  Seating is family style, which could pose a bit of an issue, but the prices are high enough to keep the no-shower hipsters away so what you get is probably more like tier-2+ hipsters.  And good food.  Mostly.

That night we were presented with some granny smith apples drizzled in salted caramel and chives.  So hip.  But in all seriousness, this was a fun starter and I always appreciate something that I didn't order that isn't a basket of bread.

We started out with a few appetizers.  Gnoccis had come recommended in a review I read, so we ordered them.  Very good, but different.  These were almost like little mashed potato dumplings seared on two sides - not at all trending to the pasta side of the gnocci spectrum.  Still, sauced in a sage, parmesan and amaretto sauce, they were very good.

Next app was the crispy chicken wings with stone fruit, chili, mustard seed and jalapenos (I'm pretty sure ours also had citrus). Most of us were feeling like we could take or leave these - even my chicken wing loving wife.  They have some kick, so be prepared for heat.

Final app was the truffle fries.  If I were trying to explain this dish, I'd say they were fries - topped with truffles.  Not too much to it, but the generous portion of truffle shavings and parmesan were delicious.  My only complaint was that I either got tons of truffle or none with each bite, so I kept reaching into the dish and finding a truffle fleck for each fry.  The accompanying aioli serves as good truffle adhesive if you're trying this in the future.

We did a mixed greens salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts.  It tasted exactly like what that last sentence described.  I would order it again!

On to the main courses.  We ordered venison with mushroom risotto, the seared scallops with cauliflower and wild mushrooms, braised bison short ribs and the pan seared salmon.  My take is that the venison was the only fail - it was dry and based on some googling this is a common theme for this dish at Pallet.  Time to move that one off the menu.  The scallops were near perfect.  The other two entrees get a ten for presentation and a seven for deliciousness factor.  Well done, not perfect (the salmon was a touch overcooked), but I would be happy to eat either entree again.  The bison was particularly beautiful on the plate.

We did a couple of desserts: the toasted marshmallow with graham crackers, chocolate and pop rocks (don't say these kids can't have fun), and the epic stout chocolate cake.  The cake was my favorite as I'm a fan of semi-sweet desserts and anything that features epic beers.

Finally, I'd be remiss not to mention the decor.  This is probably one of the most well-designed spaces in Salt Lake City.  Really cool use of wood and new mixed with vintage decor.  That right there is my best shot at talking about interior spaces - but really you should just go look at pictures.  Good job to the Cityhome Collective - head over to their site for more eye candy. Patrick Davis Design worked on the interior and Nash Martinez - a friend of mine - was the man on the lighting.

The Verdict?  We had a great meal at Pallet.  It stands out because they are doing creative things at reasonable prices and seem to not take themselves too seriously - a rare mix in the SLC.  Pallet has room to grow on the execution front, but we will likely add it to our regular rotation and give it a thumbs up.