This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
One year after opening Salt Lake City's popular Current Fish & Oyster restaurant, owners Joel LaSalle and Mikel Trapp are at it again with the new Stanza Italian Bistro & Wine Bar, where Faustina use to be.
The menu, created by executive chef Phelix Gardner, formerly of Pago and Finca, includes house-made pastas such as carrot torchio with milk-braised rabbit and gnocchi with green garlic pesto and fiddlehead ferns. The entrees include branzino fish with blistered snap peas and half-grilled chicken with panzanella and ricotta salata.
Arancini rice balls stuffed with fresh mozzarella, burrata with fava bean relish, lamb carpaccio and the signature Caesar with mustard vinaigrette are a few of the small plates and salads to try. Stanza offers a wine list with many Italian selections as well as a beer and cocktail menu.
After an extensive remodel, fans of Faustina will hardly recognize Stanza, which is Italian for "room." The main dining room holds 140 people and has a 28-foot-high tongue-and-groove cedar ceiling with luminescent circle lights. The patio has been expanded to seat 80, and there is a second-floor mezzanine with a patio for private events.
What customers won't find at Stanza is a bar with a Zion Curtain, the 7-foot-high barrier intended to shield minors from the mixing and pouring of alcoholic beverages. LaSalle and Trapp — who merged their restaurant holdings into one company called Main Course Management — remodeled around the original Faustina bar. By leaving it unchanged, the restaurant kept its grandfathered status and avoided having to build the structure required for all new restaurants that serve alcohol, said LaSalle.
Where • 454 E. 300 South, Salt Lake; 801-746-4441 or stanzaslc.com
Prices • Small plates and salads, $6-$15; pastas and entrees, $17-$38
Hours • Open at 5 p.m. Monday -Saturday; reservations recommended
Details • Main Course Management also owns and operates Current Fish & Oyster, Under Current Bar, Café Niche, Kyoto, Oasis Café, and Café Trio Downtown and Cottonwood