In the June/July issue of Men's Journal, Sarah Rose provided three examples of fine-dining possibilities in or around our beloved parks. For good measure, we took the liberty of adding to her list with a couple of our favorites:
1) Bryce Canyon, Zion and Canyonlands national parks in Utah: Hell's Backbone Grill, with its "Buddhist vibe" and regional flavor, is strategically located near all three parks. Chefs Blake Spalding and Jennifer Castle, who got their start preparing fine cuisine for rafting expeditions, use organically-grown produce form a nearby farm and prepare mouthwatering dishes such as Spicy Cowgal Chipotle Meatloaf with lemony mashed potatoes, and Chocolate-Chile Cream Pots.
2) Badlands National Park and Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota: The Corn Exchange is just outside the Black Hills park but close to both. Chef M.J. Adams, who was trained at the French Culinary Institute, "walked away from the New York restaurant scene and took her fancy culinary degree west," writes Rose. Among Adams' specialties: Buffalo Bolognese, from locally-raised buffalo, ground and simmered with porcini and organic tomato sauce.
3) Yosemite National Park, California: The Ahwahnee Dining Room is within the park and "offers a huge menu, though it's the 34-foot beamed ceiling with sugar-pine trestles and the candelabra chandeliers you'll tell your friends about first." Chef Percy Whatley was a finalist in the Bocuse d'Or which, as Rose points out, is "the culinary equivalent of the Olympics." Specialties: grilled bone-in ribeye from tender Brandt beef, and watermelon, avocado and cucumber salad.
4) Glacier National Park, Montana: The Grill at Belton Chalet at the park's west gate, regarded by many as the finest dining experience in the area featuring fare prepared by renowned chef Melissa Mangold. Start with the wild mushroom bruschetta and finish with a bacon-wrapped, sugar-cured bourbon fillet atop garlic-whipped potatoes. For fish lovers: Caribbean-spiced Ahi tuna seared rare over plantain tostones finished with a mango coulis and fruit salsa.
5) Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona: El Tovar Dining Room within the historic hotel of the same name, featuring casual elegance within a dining room that boasts stunning views from the South Rim and vast Native American murals on walls of Oregon pine. Views are best enjoyed over a wild Atlantic salmon tostada with organic greens and a tequila vinaigrette, or a hand-cut Black Angus New York strip steak with buttermilk-cornmeal onion rings. El Tovar is open for breakfast, too, and pre-exploration fare includes Blackened Breakfast Trout with eggs and a wild mushroom and creamed-spinnach omelette.
Doesn't that sound just Grand?
-- Image of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park courtesy of Kenny Karst
Alessandra Ambrosio
Kate Walsh
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