I AM sitting in Yuki Arashi, a sexy little sushi den on Park City’s historic main street, known for its beautifully inventive Japanese, French and Korean maki and tapas. It’s the kind of place where I should be on a date. But instead, I am with several grown up friends and our combined seven children — a situation that can only be described as “kiddie mayhem.”
At one point, I am literally fighting with my toddler over the tangy kimchee miso. She wins, quickly moving on to the shrimp tempura roll with truffle oil. At least she has good taste. We are a chaotic mess of flying shoes and wasabi-smeared stuffed animals. Just as my child climbs up on the table to put on a little show for everyone, actress Katherine Heigl swans past, fresh-faced, regal and unfazed (she’s a local, and she is on a date, with her husband).
To me, the scenario perfectly captures the effortless cool that Park City has become in the 30-plus years I’ve known this resort town. Utah ski resorts were once regarded as the most backward of the nation’s playgrounds. Fast forward a few years, and Park City residents are now more blasé than New Yorkers about celebrities (thanks to a little event each January called Sundance), the town is filled to the brim with adventurous restaurants (with more on the way, see below) and a few antiquated liquor laws are now gone, slicking the way for some fun, new venues. Now, name a high-profile luxury resort brand, and it’s either just opening, or opening next week. But at heart, Park City is a family destination. You want someplace precious? Try St. Moritz.
It wasn’t always this way. The resorts that comprise the Park City area began in the 1960s, when skiers at Park City still rode modified mining cars left over from its silver mining days. My earliest memory of tiny Park West (now Canyons) — confirmed by Dick Bench, a Canyons employee who has been there since he was a ski patroller in 1968 — was that it had two choices for skiers: beginning, and deathwish, where kids like me took the gentle runs off the Tumbleweed and Arrowhead chairlifts, and grownup local powderhounds came for the a legendary mogul run served by the ominous-sounding Slaughterhouse lift.
There was a certain lack of panache to the resorts. Certainly, we got posh Deer Valley in the 1980s, but at the time, it was regarded as the resort for rich visitors (and the joke was that there were people to ski for you if you didn’t feel like it).
Times were when you and a few friends could spend a winter waiting tables at Main Street Pizza & Noodle and living in the old ramshackle miners houses that dot the mountain around historic Main Street to feed your ski need. If you wanted a drink in one of the few bars in town (which were all designated “private clubs” by the Utah liquor law of the day), you’d walk in and ask some old guy propping up the bar to “sponsor” your membership, buy him a drink, and voila — après ski. Those houses have all been artfully redone and now sell in the millions, and in 2009, former governor Jon Huntsman lifted the membership laws. Today, you don’t have to buy an old guy a drink before you get yours. Unless you want to.
Sundance, which started out as a little indie cinema festival in Park City brought to us by our only local celebrity, Robert Redford, morphed into a gloriously crazy mash-up of celebrities in thousand-dollar mukluks. This brought us Paris Hilton, making off with $7,000 in swag from one of the “gifting suites”; Bill Gates dancing on a banquette during a performance by John Legend at an after-hours party; white fur-clad socialite Tinsley Mortimer picking up free jewelry at the Lia Sophia Lounge.
Sundance has given the Park City area some star power, and the 2002 Winter Olympics gave the area some visibility. But the real changes for skiers have been on the mountain (at Canyons, specifically), where massive expansion has taken what was ParkWest from 1,400 acres to more than 4,000 acres with 21 lifts — the largest ski resort in the state. When Canyons opened for the season last Friday, skiers could ride the first heated ski lift in North America (it’s like riding inside a pair of orange goggles), plus take in 300 acres of new terrain on Iron Mountain, and hang out at a new “ski beach” at the base (with concert event space, a restaurant capitalizing on local Utah foods, and après ski lounges). A new 20-million-gallon snowmaking pond ensures no off-days. Of course, while Utah’s panache may have been, at one time, in question, its characteristically dry, airy powder never was. Now you just have better venues from which to enjoy it. Here’s how to do it this year:
WHERE TO SKI
■ Park City Mountain Resort
1310 Lowell Ave., 435-649-8111, parkcitymountain.com
More than 3,000 acres for both skiers and snowboarders. Single-day lift ticket $89.
■ Canyons
4000 The Canyons Resort Dr., 435-649-5400, thecanyons.com
Nine-peak resort featuring 176 trails and more than 4,000 acres for skiers and snowboarders. Single-day lift ticket $89.
■ Deer Valley Resort
435-649-1000, deervalley.com
Skiers only at this No.1-rated resort in North America four years running by Ski magazine. Single-day lift ticket, $90.
WHERE TO STAY
Waldorf-Astoria
The Waldorf-Astoria (aka Dakota Mountain Lodge), which opened last year, is a true ski-in, ski-out property, connected to Canyons via its own lift. Rooms are true custom luxe (nothing better than multiple gas fireplaces at the flip of a switch). The Golden Door Spa is, as you might expect, simple and perfectly executed. I tried the most complicated-sounding treatment — the Ultrasonic Triple Peel Micro Exfoliation Facial — which was less invasive than invigorating. If you want to go local, try a facial from local Utah honey. Insider tip: the one-bedroom suites are best for small parties; the room is has a giant, top-of-the-line kitchen and bar.
Info 435-647-5500; parkcitywaldorfastoria.com; rates from $499
Montage Deer Valley
Montage, with its grand-scaled Craftsman aesthetic, is right at home at the top of Empire Canyons summit, the new development at Deer Valley. It was just preparing to open when I toured in November. Vaulted ceilings, limestone fireplaces and tapestries as well as convivial great rooms (and fun touches, like an old-school basement bowling alley and game room) evoke old-school European ski tradition. Nice touches: the swimming pool, worthy of Caligula, is modeled after pools at Hearst Castle, the hotel keeps its own bees (this is the Beehive State, after all) and you can try its own Montage Mountain Ale made by Utah’s Wasatch brewers. The view over Park City is jaw-dropping.
Info 435-604-1300; montagedeervalley.com; rates around $845 per night
WHERE TO EAT
The best concept on the slopes yet: Drift, a mobile food cart (a la midtown Manhattan), which will be pulled by Snowcat to a different part of the mountains at Canyons each day (check the daily ski report to find out where it is), surrounded by picnic tables. Think upscale street food: Paninis, custom burritos, things of this nature.
If you arrive a bit later in the season, look for Canyons’ new restaurant sourcing food from around 25 farmers and producers within a 100-mile radius of the resort. Right across from the Red Pine Gondola, The Farm will serve things like Durham Ranch Wyoming Buffalo Chili, Utah Cheddar Ale Soup and a grilled Summit County T-Bone.
You’ll have to go to the top of Canyons’ DreamCatcher and DreamScape lifts for Cloud Dine, a 200-seat restaurant (opening December 20) with views over Park City and Deer Valley, and the ridgeline bows across the valley. Down in Canyons’ “Ski Beach,” look for the cool new Umbrella Bar with retractable walls and roof (depending on the weather), which will serve things like healthy gourmet hot dogs, and other carts, like a Bavarian pretzel stand.
On Main Street in Park City, Wasatch Brew Pub is a mainstay, having been there since 1986 (the state’s first brewery since Prohibition). Stop in for a good buffalo burger or fish and chips, and saucily named brews like Polygamy Porter. Its memorable slogan: “Why have just one?” (435-649-0900; wasatchbeers.com; 250 Main Street).
The new High West Distillery & Saloon, in an old livery stable at the bottom of a ski hill, is the first legal distillery in Utah since the 1870s, and the first ski-in, ski-out distillery in the world (let the drunken skier jokes commence!). But the food is also great, including entrees like bison rib-eye and coffee-and-bourbon-glazed cod. (435-649-8300; highwest.com; 703 Park Ave.)
Silver, in the original site of the Marsac Silver Mining Company, opens in about a week. The Rockwell Group design includes a walnut communal table with veins of silver and Venetian-inspired, blue glass chandeliers. Chef Todd Mark Miller’s return to Utah from places like Prime in Las Vegas and STK in New York and Miami should give some drama to generally understated Main Street; it’s already secured its place as the “In Style Photo Booth” for celebs attending Sundance (435-940-1000; silverrestaurant.com; 508 Main Street)
GETTING THERE
Salt Lake’s convenient airport is served frequently from JFK by Delta and JetBlue. Rent a car, and be on the slopes within the hour. Park City is about 40 miles southeast of the airport.