Inside SLC’s newest luxury hotel, where drinks and bites pay homage to train travel

Downtown Salt Lake City’s newest luxury hotel features four drink and dining options — all meant to evoke train travel in some way, and all now open to the public.

The Asher Adams hotel’s theme makes sense, given its located partly in the historic Union Pacific Depot. There’s the coffee shop, Counterpart; the restaurant, Rouser; and two bars called The Bar at Asher Adams and No. 119, all situated inside the 2 S. 400 West property.

An adaptive reuse project that kicked off adjacent to The Gateway shopping center in 2021, the new-but-old hotel opened officially on Nov. 7 with a ribbon cutting. Asher Adams is named for John R. Asher and George H. Adams, cartographers who depicted railroad routes in “meticulous” detail, according to the Osher Map Library.

Asher Adams is made up of two buildings — a new 225-room guest “tower,” located just behind the Union Pacific Depot, and the depot itself, which has been carefully restored down to its stained glass, oil-on-canvas murals, and cracks in the original tile flooring.

When the depot was completed in 1909, its trains would take new Latter-day Saint missionaries away on their proselytizing missions, and whisk workers off to their jobs. After the building stopped operating as a train depot in 1986, its grand hall was used for a variety of purposes, including weddings and art exhibitions.

Now, Asher Adams’ cafe, restaurant and bars all pay homage to train travel. The four culinary concepts were first conceived by the Davidson Restaurant Group.

“Food and beverage is very much at the forefront of what this hotel is all about,” said Zachary Lippincott, director of food and beverage.

Counterpart, the cafe car

Located just to the left of the main doors when you enter Asher Adams, Counterpart is mainly a coffee shop, but it’s also a small market, a candy shop and a gift shop.

You can buy grab-and-go foods like house-made muffins and breakfast sandwiches, along with granola bars, boxes of crackers, soda, essential oils, branded clothing and more. “It’s somewhere that a guest can stop by three or four times a day for something different every single time,” Lippincott said.

The hotel plans to fill out the inner market area of Counterpoint another 40% to 50% with artisan products, including a variety of local items, he said.

Counterpart, which is meant to act like the cafe car on a train, is open from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. In the morning, the focus is on pastries and breakfast, but as the day goes on, the selection’s emphasis shifts to sweets.

The intent is to build out a full pastry kitchen for Counterpart’s use, so its baked goods can be made in-house, Lippincott said.

Patrons can order lattes, cappuccinos and other hot drinks from the counter, then sit in the grand hall to sip under the magnificent ceiling.

The Bar at Asher Adams, the lounge car

For the most panoramic views of the grand hall, pull up a seat at The Bar at Asher Adams, located in the center of the restored depot.

From your vantage point at this wrap-around bar, you’ll be able to see the northern mural, which depicts the completion of America’s first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit in 1869, and the southern mural, which details the arrival of Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saint pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Along with the tall seats at the bar itself, there are curved wooden benches and tables throughout the grand hall where you can sit with a classic cocktail and nibble on “fancies” like the smoked shrimp cocktail or the wagyu patty melt.

All of the food and drink on the menu is meant to blend elegance and approachability, said Bijan Ghiai, the hotel’s beverage manager. You’ll find offerings such as steak tartare with quail egg, various toasts and meat-and-cheese boards, as well as nostalgic but modern cocktails like the Bushwick, made with Rittenhouse Rye, as well as wine and beer.

Behind the bar is the depot’s row of old ticket booths, with a wall of clocks above them. “You get this sense that you are very much sitting in a train depot waiting for a train to come through, for wherever it is that you are traveling off to,” Lippincott said.

Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., The Bar at Asher Adams — which is meant to feel like a train’s lounge car — is a picturesque spot for lunch or dinner.

Rouser, the dining car

There are two entrances to the restaurant, Rouser: a separate exterior door just south of Asher Adams’ main door (behind the valet stand), and an interior door past Counterpart and the hotel’s main desk.

Once inside, you’ll find a lush, low-lit space, with Scandinavian-inspired furniture, comfy pillows, glowing lamps, forest-green walls, and velvet benches. Be on the lookout for the two large metal gates that separate the front dining space from the back dining space — they were found inside of the train depot’s walls and refurbished.

At Rouser — which is meant to represent a train’s dining car — the food takes center stage, but there’s also an emphasis on service.

“The vision that I’ve set forth for Rouser is that every guest should be considered as the weary traveler,” said Lippincott, “someone that could have potentially been on a train for the last four or five days, completely crossing the continent, and they finally landed in their location. And you really want them to be comfortable and kick their feet up.”

Lippincott said Rouser isn’t considered a “hotel restaurant,” which carries “a bit of a stereotype or a stigma,” he said, but rather a restaurant that can stand on its own as a food and beverage establishment and happens to be attached to a hotel.

The beating heart of Rouser is the Josper oven, grill and rotisserie, which runs on charcoal and is a throwback to the steam engines that were once fueled by coal. The exhibition kitchen behind the bar allows diners to see this high-end equipment in action, as seafood is cooked on the grill and whole chickens turn slowly in the rotisserie.

On the menu, which is overseen by chef Tony Coppernoll, and Lippincott describes as “modern American provincial,” you’ll find dishes as disparate as roasted Spanish octopus next to beef cheek chili, and whole branzino next to dry-aged duck. The idea is that train travel often brings you through different regions, and therefore, different cuisines.

“There’s all sorts of things on [the menu] that wouldn’t necessarily fit under one category of food description,” Lippincott said.

Rouser is open every day from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., and from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., for breakfast and dinner.

No. 119, named after a famous train

If you take the elevator to the second floor and make a right, you’ll arrive at the entrance to No. 119, Asher Adams’ whiskey-forward cocktail bar.

Named for one of the two trains that met at the completion of the transcontinental railroad, No. 119 provides stunning views of the grand hall, as well as South Temple and downtown Salt Lake City through preserved historic windows.

As part of the restoration of the bar, openings were created in the wall abutting the grand hall, allowing someone to stand in No. 119 with a drink and look down onto The Bar at Asher Adams and the rest of the train depot.

While smoking isn’t allowed inside, No. 119 “has that feel of smoking a cigar,” said Lippincott, where someone could close a deal or bring a date.

Food offerings are few, limited to snacks like nuts, popcorn and a charcuterie board. But there’s a variety of cocktails, zero-proof cocktails, wine and beer.

On your way to No. 119, perhaps you’ll get a glimpse of the Gandy Dancer, Asher Adams’ VIP vinyl lounge, which is available for reservation by contacting the hotel. Inside is a turntable and a selection of over 2,500 records, a collection curated by Jared Dietch in Brooklyn, New York.

No. 119 is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.