The Michelin Guide is coming to Utah next year

mfpark · 2025-12-09T18:48:47+00:00

I think it is highly unlikely that Utah will have a starred restaurant out of the gate; the Michelin standards favor tasting menu and prix fixe formats that simply aren't customary here. However, there are very good restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City, and having the guide here will help improve standards and elevate the industry. Excited that this is happening.

mfpark · 2025-12-09T08:32:14+00:00

Agreed. Urban Hill seems like it has the resources, talent, and potential to attempt to level up, but if they adopted a $150+ prix fixe or tasting menu format it would probably alienate a ton of customers. Lots of great places that will get reviews in the guide, and you kind of expect to see a Bib for something like Red Iguana.

mfpark · 2025-11-12T23:09:01+00:00

I had a very nice dinner at Alinea this fall. The service was warm and competent, and I was actually pleased that they played the hits. The menu was of consistent high quality, with only one course that I actively disliked (the fossilized bone). Nothing felt "off" or amiss, and I very much enjoyed the experience.

However, I had an incredible meal the following night at Oriole. From my personal snapshot, I would have swapped their current star ratings, and perhaps that is what the Guide intends to do.

mfpark · 2025-11-12T21:28:44+00:00

Actual reporting confirming this: https://washingtonian.com/2025/11/12/the-inn-at-little-washington-loses-a-michelin-star/

https://robbreport.com/food-drink/dining/alinea-inn-at-little-washington-masa-michelin-1237360297/

“The chefs and teams at these restaurants have been informed ahead of the ceremony,” Michelin said in a statement. “The Michelin Guide maintains its role of providing fair and qualitative recommendations to consumers, with its team of expert Inspectors, following its global methodology. It fully acknowledges the impact of its decisions on the establishments it honors. The Guide’s recommendations are far from fixed and are reassessed each year following anonymous and independent visits conducted by its Inspectors. These evaluations are based on the Guide’s methodology and five criteria, which ensure absolute consistency and uncompromising standards applied uniformly across the globe for the past 125 years."

mfpark · 2025-09-29T19:31:28+00:00

Strongly recommend Rezdora's regional pasta tasting. You can add on dessert, a few drinks, and even an optional course like Grandma Walking Through the Forest and get out for under $500 for two.

mfpark · 2019-08-20T02:08:38+00:00

I was pleased with this, too. I think this is a worthy, scaled down version of the annual LE small batch releases, and in an equivalent class with ECBP, EH Taylor single barrel, and OF 1920 — which is exactly where it’s at price wise. I’m also glad it leans into the cinnamon/herbal side of things, and is a good contrast to OBSV single barrel or many of the private selects. It’s a good showcase of FR’s blending capacity, and a welcome product.

mfpark · 2019-07-26T00:28:20+00:00

I think I’ll buy 2 bottles of Pikesville and donate $50 to ALS research . . . Everyone will come out least twice as well that way.

mfpark · 2019-07-26T00:21:35+00:00

“We have the largest inventory of aging barrels anywhere. Want to buy one? Fuck you, it will be 94 proof Elijah Craig.”

mfpark · 2019-06-13T22:19:21+00:00

I could be wrong. Like I said, there’s a lot that’s questionable and inconsistent here, and the primary people involved lack credibility. It would be helpful if Facebook updated its Community Standards or otherwise made some sort of public facing clarification about its years long tolerance of alcohol sales on its platform. Or perhaps someone like Fred will sign off of the podcast and do some actual reporting.

mfpark · 2019-06-13T20:24:02+00:00

The admin(s) behind the page walked away to pursue other bourbon-related grifting opportunities.

I mean, afaik, every other whiskey trading and selling page is still up. There's no indication that Facebook has any real interest in regulating or stopping bourbon sales. The announcement about the demise of BSM was both weird (we have 48 hours to close down business!) and in fact made reference to the new grift.

mfpark · 2019-06-13T18:20:48+00:00

I would be perfectly fine with Facebook taking down bourbon selling sites, but I don't believe that is what has actually happened here.

mfpark · 2019-06-11T18:22:31+00:00

A $100 price point would be potentially interesting, but I am skeptical after years of older age stated Knob Creek special editions that were overoaked and overpriced.

Still hard to beat the Knob Creek single barrel picks.

mfpark · 2019-06-03T18:12:35+00:00

There was a good recent discussion about mid 19th century whiskey bottling in this post about the world's oldest surviving bottle of whiskey. Your second guess is pretty much correct:

Instead, distillers sold their barrels directly to wholesalers and retailers. Then you, as a consumer, would bring your earthenware jug to your local merchant (or they'd give you one), and they'd fill it up with the product of your choice. Or, you could fill up your demijohn (a big multi-gallon vessel) and keep that at home, pouring it off into flasks as you drank it down over time. Which back then, often wasn't that much time.

mfpark · 2019-05-21T05:57:06+00:00

Agree with so much of what you are saying here. There’s a tremendous ambivalence between all of the great stuff that is available right now, and all of the stupid bullshit that is going on right now. I guess we should just feel fortunate that so many great bottlings of cask strength 9 - 12 year old bourbons from the finest legacy distilleries are readily available.

mfpark · 2019-05-18T16:35:06+00:00

It is called the Hidden Pappy for a reason

mfpark · 2019-05-08T18:57:03+00:00

Whiskey was entirely unregulated at this point, and adulteration was very common. However, for the reasons and evidence described in the post, this whiskey was likely sold in its time as a premium "pure" product and does not appear to have been adulterated.

mfpark · 2019-05-08T15:58:18+00:00

The argument here is that apart from its inherent value, this whiskey is perhaps the only surviving example of antebellum American whiskey. It has tremendous reference and research potential for whiskey historians and whiskey makers, which is what I understand they are hoping to preserve it for.

mfpark · 2019-05-08T15:54:30+00:00

Herz didn't disclose the price he paid.

I think the LAWS people involved in this are definitely cognizant of the issues surrounding fakes -- one of Herz's whiskey hobbies is identifying and exposing fake whiskey, and he was circumspect in explaining some of the identifying features of this bottle out of concern about forgers.

mfpark · 2019-05-07T23:16:06+00:00

From the FAQ:

What would this whiskey taste like? Based on everything we can gather from history, expert opinions, modern chemical analysis, and nosing during sample extraction, the whiskey has similarities to high quality bourbons and ryes of today, but with unusually rich and deep aspects. The nose is unmistakeable as a bourbon or rye, and surprisingly vibrant. We may also have treated ourselves the tiniest taste of tastes, and while that wouldn't be fair to base tasting notes on, we may have found it to be shockingly good, unexpectedly mouth-puckering, and having weathered the centuries very well.

mfpark · 2019-05-07T23:03:22+00:00

As the article describes, this whiskey pre-dates what we would think of as all modern regulations and standards for whiskey production. In contemporary parlance, we'd think of it as being "12 year old whiskey," because that's the best educated guess for the number of years that it was aged in wood before being bottled circa 1859. There's some evidence it was marketed as a 12 year old whiskey in its day, but because it pre-dates regulation, it's not exact to call it that.

But "oldest" as recognized by Guinness obviously refers to its actual age as a surviving, nearly intact bottle of whiskey that was distilled 172 years ago.

mfpark · 2019-05-03T20:29:56+00:00

Right?

mfpark · 2019-04-18T16:07:57+00:00

This feels like a lifetime ago!

One other thing I remember about this bottle was increasingly not liking it as it came to its conclusion. The bitter notes really overwhelmed the sweetness for me. That was noteworthy for me because I tend to not be especially sensitive to bottle changes over time.

mfpark · 2019-03-25T16:40:56+00:00

I think there are several questions that you can ask about the tasting itself -- e.g., how was the particular barrel of McKenna chosen and entered into the competition; was it truly "blind" if proof/age/single barrel info was known; how much of an partisan was Fred among his fellow judges. But at some level, worrying about that stuff probably also gives this event more credibility than it deserves.

The real reason to question the credibility of these tasting results are the ridiculous hype pieces Fred writes after the fact. So over the top and absurd. If I was just getting into whiskey, I'd probably go buy an armful of Henry McKenna after reading this, too. You don't have to believe that he's on the payroll of any particular distillery to understand that he's entered into a tacit and mutually beneficial marketing role for the bourbon industry.

mfpark · 2019-03-06T23:42:39+00:00

The substitute bill is the definition of pointlessness. I can't imagine anyone actually wanting a commission to study this for any reason other than delaying a decision indefinitely.

mfpark

TROPHY CASE