First tastes of the food and drinks at the new hotel at the Union Pacific Depot

This article is excerpted from the Utah Eats newsletter, compiled by Kolbie Peterson, The Salt Lake Tribune’s food and drink reporter. To get the full newsletter in your inbox every Wednesday, become a subscriber by going to sltrib.com/newsletters.

Hello, Eaters!

Asher Adams is a new luxury hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, and last week I got to tour the building and try all of the culinary concepts.

Inside is a coffee shop, two bars and a full-service restaurant, and I’m excited to share my findings on the food and drink with you Eaters.

The hotel is located partly inside the historic Union Pacific Depot at 2 S. 400 West, adjacent to The Gateway shopping center. In homage to the building’s original use, the different food and drink establishments are all themed around trains and train travel.

Also, the coffee shop, restaurant and bars are all open to the public — you don’t have to be a hotel guest to visit. (Check out my story on sltrib.com, which goes into more detail about the Asher Adams project and the inspiration behind the culinary concepts.)

My tour started at Counterpart, a coffee shop, small market and gift shop just off the depot’s grand hall.

This cute cafe serves coffee drinks, matcha, chai, tea, breakfast items (croissant sandwiches, breakfast burritos and more) and sweet items like housemade muffins, cookies, loaf cakes and cannolis.

I ordered a 12-ounce latte ($5) and a cannoli ($6), and I had a pleasant time sitting and enjoying both under the high ceiling of the grand hall. I thought the cannoli was a little overpriced for the size, but it tasted good.

My next stop was The Bar at Asher Adams, in the middle of the grand hall. If I didn’t have plans that evening to eat at the hotel restaurant, I definitely would’ve ordered off the food menu, which looked decadent.

Instead, I ordered a drink, my first martini ever (yes, I’m 37). The Old King Cole Martini ($16) was made with Bombay Sapphire gin, Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry Dry and Angostura orange bitters. I thought it tasted really clean compared to the whiskey-forward drinks I usually gravitate toward, with just a hint of citrus. Very nice.

For dinner, I had a reservation at the restaurant Rouser, which is a beautiful place to have a meal. I started with the Parker House Rolls ($10), served with ash butter and local honey. Interestingly, the chefs create ash butter by mixing bits leftover from the restaurant’s charcoal grill into the butter.

Sadly, the rolls were underdone, and the bottoms were doughy. But I split a couple of rolls in half to taste the top portion, and the amount of flavor the chefs were able to cram into something as simple as a roll was amazing.

For my main course, I ordered the ricotta gnocchi ($32), based on the recommendation of my server, Corrine (who did a great job), and Zachary Lippincott, the director of food and beverage for the hotel. For more information on that dish, read the “Dish of the Week” section of this newsletter.

My last stop of the night was at No. 119, the hotel’s second-floor cocktail bar. I decided to check out one of the bar’s zero-proof cocktails, and ordered the Garden Boxcar ($13), made with Seedlip Garden 108 zero-alcohol spirit, Peychaud’s bitters, mint and sparkling water.

I thought it was an absolutely refreshing way to wrap up the evening, and lovely to sip as I looked out the windows over downtown Salt Lake City.

Live deliciously,

Kolbie

Food News

Openings:

• Mo’Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food is holding a grand opening celebration Thursday for its new location, 4315 Pony Express Parkway, Suite 160, in Eagle Mountain, according to a news release. At the “Friends and Ohana” event, attendees are invited to enjoy a complimentary mini plate between 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for lunch and from 6 to 8 p.m. for dinner. At 5:30 p.m. there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Mo’Bettahs founders Kimo and Kalani Mack, the release said. On Monday, if you mention Mo’Bettahs “BOGO Monday” promotion at the register, you can buy one plate and get one free.

• National drive-thru coffee concept 7 Brew just opened a location at 877 E. 4500 South in Millcreek, its second stand in Utah, according to a news release. (The other location is at 2298 N. University Parkway, Provo.) 7 Brew offers more than 20,000 unique drink combinations and promises a speedy drive-thru experience, a representative said.

Closings:

• Spilled Milk Ice Cream & Cereal Bar has closed all its locations, according to an Instagram post from Saturday. What started out as a trailer in Sugar House grew over the past five years into a business with five locations, including one in the Delta Center. “Our goal was to create an experience for people to come in and stay a while and enjoy ice cream together with the people they love,” the post said. “We’ve loved seeing this dream come together.”

Dish of the Week

If you want to order something decadent at Rouser, get the ricotta gnocchi, made with broccolini, wild porcini mushrooms, crème fraîche, aged Parmesan, shaved truffles and ricotta from Bellwether Farms in California. First off, they put ricotta right into the gnocchi dough, and the result is gnocchi that’s less chewy and much more creamy (my server called it a “mashed potato” texture, which I thought was accurate).

Pairing that texture with the flavors of the Parmesan and truffles was really nice. I liked all the contrasts between nutty and salty, tender and crunchy, and the dish just felt really cohesive.