Food Review: Plum Alley

Pork belly steamed buns from Plum Alley

After the rockin’ success of The Copper Onion, it came as no surprise when chef/owner Ryan Lowder and his superb staff branched out and around the corner with another restaurant. Plum Alley serves Southeast-Asian Fusion based on the same locally sourced, seasonal, simple and homey (yet excellent) cooking ethics. The restaurant has experienced a little upheaval in personnel and menu shifting as they found their stride, but it’s only gotten better at each turn. … read more

Barley’s Angels: Beer School is Now in Session

Originally started in Oregon, Barley’s Angels is an international society dedicated to women who are passionate about craft beer. The organization allows women from any corner of the globe to begin their own chapter of the brand, and that’s exactly what Alexandra Ortiz de Fargher of Park City did. Having already been well initiated into the craft beer scene (her husband, Trent Fargher, is the owner and founder of Shades of Pale Brewing Company) Ortiz de Fargher wanted to start her own craft beer adventure. She and all the members of Barley’s Angels are dedicated to several philosophies: overturning the idea that beer is only a man’s drink, and convincing women who have written off beer as a bitter, tinny and cheap substitute for wine or spirits that they just haven’t met the right beer yet.  … read more

Different Spokes: Year of the Bike

As spring weather wafts across the Salt Lake valley, more cyclists are coming out of the woodwork. An ample array of road bikes, fixies, mountain trudgers and your occasional tricycle have flooded the streets of downtown, affixing a semi-control over lanes stretching from the U to Rose Park. More than anything, I’ve enjoyed zipping around without fear of skidding my too-thin tires into a rogue snowbank. 2013 has been coined “Year of the Bike” by the City, in appreciation of its most sustainable form of transportation, and I was lucky enough to speak with four of the masterminds behind the most recent programs. … read more

Casey Kawaguchi: Streetstyle to Slopestyle

Like many artists, Casey Kawaguchi has been honing his skills since childhood. He has developed a style all his own, creating street-inspired art with a distinctive Japanese influence. His materials of choice—spray paint and scavenged wood—easily lend themselves to his style. Kawaguchi has managed to create a cohesive body of work that is instantly recognizable as his. … read more

The Hop Bombshells: Drafting Ladies into the Homebrew Army

The story of the Hop Bombshells begins with a talented woman looking for her kind. Jamie Burnham is the manager of Salt Lake homebrewing institution The Beer Nut, and a little over a year ago, she got the spark of an idea from her assistant, Dave Watson, that maybe the lady patrons of her store would enjoy being part of a club where the craft and creativity of beer making could thrive. She put the idea out to her female customers who came to pick up supplies, and received an overwhelmingly positive response. After collecting names and emails, and admittedly “dragging [her] feet for a few months,” she put together the Hop Bombshells, a club exclusively for the fairer sex of homebrewers.  … read more