Utah’s newest fine-dining restaurant is called Yuta

Hey, Utah, have you been to Yuta?

It’s a new fine-dining restaurant — pronounced just like the state’s name — that opened about 20 miles east of Park City.

It has an award-winning chef, an organic farm and is located inside The Lodge at Blue Sky — a new luxury resort in Wanship. Utah diners might be familiar with the place. It’s on the 3,500-acre Blue Sky Ranch, which has been home to the High West Distillery and restaurant since 2014.

The new restaurant’s name and spelling, of course, are a nod to the Ute Indians, who used the word to refer to the area and themselves. It means “mountaintop” or “people who live high in the mountains.”

Running the Yuta kitchen is Galen Zamarra, who at age 24 won the the James Beard Foundation’s 2001 “Rising Star Chef of the Year” for his work at New York City’s Bouley and its sister cafe/bakery. Zamarra later opened Mas restaurants in the Big Apple and, most recently, was the executive chef at The Lambs Club.

Yuta serves “refined Western cuisine” prepared on a wood-burning grill, according to a news release, and is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Guests should expect Park City prices, ranging from the $24 hamburger for lunch to a $51 dry-aged rib-eye steak at dinner. Pasta, chicken and seafood are priced between those two points.

Zamarra’s signature dish, according to the release, is “clay pigeons featuring squab baked in clay with hay.”

The restaurant uses seasonal and sustainable ingredients when available, some of which are grown at Gracie’s Farm, Blue Sky’s on-site organic farm. Farmer and gardener Lyndsey Gammon uses a no-till method to produce herbs, vegetables and flowers for the restaurant. To extend the short high-altitude growing season, a greenhouse is being developed.

Guests can eat inside Yuta’s rustic dining room or on the outdoor patio, both of which offer a view of nearby Lewis Peak.

In addition to the restaurant, The Lodge, part of the international Auberge Resorts Collection, has 46 guest rooms and a spa. It offers guests outdoor adventures like full-moon hiking, fly-fishing and horseback riding.

That sounds just like Utah.

Yuta • 27649 Old Lincoln Highway (inside The Lodge at Blue Sky), Wanship; 435-571-0349 or aubergeresorts.com/bluesky. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; bar open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.