Pago

Below are photos from the new Salt Lake eatery, Pago. Trendy little places have been popping up around the city for the past few years. With some failing to capture the hearts and minds of the popular crowd here in the city. While Pago has so much to offer good old SLC I feel it has a few kinks to work out.

Before we tackle the kinks, I would like to commend the chef of Pago for creating a menu that flows well and blends with the wine selection. I enjoyed the curried vegetable soup. That brought a rush of flavor and joy to my pallette. It was a masterpiece in culinary art, giving all who dared try it a flury that soup rarely give. To complent my entrée, the poached albacore tuna salad sandwich, I chose a glass of 2007 Latour Poully-Fuisse Burgundy. This wine had an abundance of floral notes as well a hint of the oak barrel this wine spent time in. Together the tuna and the burgundy made the meal complete. Yet as I enjoyed my meal, my colleague had the pasta. It was overpowered by basil and oregano giving the delicious first bite a strong and foul after taste. That however can be remedied with a great thing: taste the food before it goes out. If the seasonings are off, you can catch it. However I will grant that Pago is new and has those kinks to work out.

The menu at Pago rivals many other establishments in the popular 9th and 9th neighborhood of Salt Lake City, yet the originality of the place lacks the merit of a mainstay restaurant. Many of the physical traits of the eatery hint at originality but nothing too extraordinary. Storage of wine and liquor brings to mind the wine cellars of old -brick cubbies with stacks of wine and liquors- minus the brick and enter glass. Which overall makes convenient usability nearly impossible. Another of Pago's misses are the ridiculous starched aprons the servers don. These cumbersome things make easy travel through the compact dining room(s) a mere dream. The friendly service staff gave 101% effort to lug their aprons around the room.

Pago is worth a try if you can deal with over seasoned pasta and floor length starched denim aprons. It might be worth the effort if only you partake in one of their wonderful wines.

Pago
846 South 900 East
SLC, Utah

Although the dining room was compact-to-the-max, the overall ambiance was there. Ot was in the creative handle-less coffee mugs, the flatware, and decent stemware topped off with a rustic-chic décor: original brick, an abundance of barn wood, and who can forget the denim aprons (as awkward as they were they fit).

Lunch that day was interesting to say the least, yet with a few flaws fixed Pago might just become the place to be in the 9th and 9th District.