The largest commercial beer competition in the country was held last week and three Salt Lake City breweries came home with medals.
Proper Brewing Co. earned gold, in the 2020 Great American Beer Festival, while TF Brewing and Grid City Beer Works — which opened during the pandemic — each received a bronze.
Proper’s English-style golden ale — called Proper Beer — won in the English Ale category, which had 93 entries. “Our flagship English-style golden ale has always been a winner amongst our team,” Proper owners said in a Facebook post, “and now it’s a winner at the largest beer competition in the USA.”
Gold medals are given to “world-class beers,” according to the GABF website, “that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance.”
TF Brewing’s Granary Keller Bier took third in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category, which had 71 entries; while Grid City Beer Works’ Honey Cream earned bronze in the Honey Beer category, which had 72 entries.
In all, there were 91 beer categories covering 170 styles and subcategories. This year there were 8,806 entries from 1,720 breweries in 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
Officials awarded 272 medals to 240 breweries during a virtual ceremony hosted on The Brewing Network, competition manager Chris Swersey said in a news release. “This has arguably been one of the most challenging years breweries have ever faced, so we hope these awards serve as a symbol not only of brewing excellence but also the resiliency of the craft brewing community as a whole.”
Restaurants win design awards
Downtown Salt Lake City workers appreciate The Daily Cafe — a fast-casual restaurant on the street level of the Goldman Sachs building — for providing healthy meals on the go.
But top interior designers also salivate over the restaurant’s serpentine counter, custom llama wallpaper and its other “texture-rich” style elements. Those components recently earned the cafe a 2020 Best Design Award in a contest, sponsored by the Utah chapter of the International Interior Design Association.
Part of chef/owner Ryan Lowder’s family of restaurants — which also includes Copper Onion, Copper Common and Copper Kitchen — The Daily was selected as the winner in the “play” category.
Snowbird’s SeventyOne restaurant received the “merit” award in the same category. It also was the “People’s Choice” pick.
The Daily — which has remained closed through the pandemic — was designed by Salt Lake City’s cityhomeCOLLECTIVE.
The long, narrow space of the 222 Main Building — with several points of entry — presented challenges, Design Director Lauren Bald said in a news release. “Our designers conceived the serpentine countertop to allow the best flow through the restaurant’s unique constraints.”
SeventyOne, whose name reflects the year Snowbird opened, was designed by Salt Lake City GSBS Architects to celebrate the ’70s.
“The space is flush with bold, but earthy materials,” GSBS said in its entry, “retro kitsch style, op-art patterns, and technicolor schemes contrasting clean, fresh lines.”
Utah restaurants, bars dominate USA Today awards
Utah ski resorts and their on-mountain restaurants, bars and hotels dominated this year’s “10 Best Readers Choice” travel awards, sponsored by USA Today.
Alta Ski Resort earned five nominations in four categories including best Ski Town, Best Ski Resort and Best Ski Hotel — for its Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge. It also had two picks for Best on Mountain Restaurant — Collins Grill and Rustler Lodge Dining Room.
The public gets to pick the winners in each category through an online vote at 10best.com/awards/travel. Vote once a day, every day through Nov. 9.
Here’s the full list of the Utah nominations:
Best On Mountain Restaurant • Burgers & Bourbon, Deer Valley; Collins Grill, Alta; Rustler Lodge Dining Room, Alta; and The Viking Yurt, Park City.
Best Apres Ski Bar • High West Distillery and Saloon, Park City; and The Apres Lounge, Deer Valley.
Best Ski Hotel • Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge, Alta; Stein Eriksen Lodge, Park City and Sundance Mountain Resort, Sundance.
Best Ski Resort • Alta Ski Area, Powder Mountain and Snowbird.
Best Ski Town • Alta.
Utah Human Race will fight hunger
For the past 14 years, some 5,000 people have gathered on Thanksgiving Day to run the Utah Human Race — a benefit for the Utah Food Bank.
This year, that won’t be possible.
But the event is still happening, as participants can register and complete in a 5K or 10K race anytime between Nov. 1 and 27.
The cost is $30 per person and includes a T-shirt and race bib that will be mailed to participants. Registration is now underway at www.UtahHumanRace.org.
— Alixel Cabrera
Honey, I need this grilled cheese
When Utah blogger Chelsea Lords was asked to partner with Sara Lee for its Artesano Grilled Cheese Showdown, she immediately decided to use Utah honey in the recipe.
“And in my opinion, nothing pairs better with honey than bananas and cinnamon,” said Lords, who authors Chelsea’s Messy Apron. The result is a sweet French toast-like mascarpone grilled cheese with caramelized bananas.
Lords’ recipe competed this week against seven other bloggers’ creations from around the country on Sara Lee’s Instagram stories. The winner will be announced Nov. 2 and will receive $1,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.
— Alixel Cabrera
Follow @kathystephenson