New Palomino bar in Park City offers upscale food and drink
Summer/Fall 2024
Written By: Ted Scheffler | Images: Deborah DeKoff
“There were only six seats at the bar — really just a waiting area,” says Riverhorse on Main Chef and Partner Seth Adams of the bar that’s tucked away in a corner of the venerable upstairs Main Street restaurant. But recently, Seth spoke to me about the impetus to open a separate, full bar at Riverhorse on Main, a bar that opened last winter and is called Palomino.
The new Palomino bar seats 25 people at the bar and can accommodate about 90 guests in total.
You may be thinking that launching a bar at a restaurant that first opened on New Year’s Eve of 1987 is a bit tardy. But then, there is a time and place for everything.
Seth says that he and his wife, Casey, were having drinks and tossing around the idea of opening a bar when the space adjacent to Riverhorse on Main — which was formerly a retail business — became available.
The space was 30 feet wide and 70 feet deep. It was perfect — especially since Casey is a designer.
“We had run out of time and space to build a bar upstairs in the restaurant, so it was like, ‘What if we put a bar here?’ and we just kind of dove in headfirst,” Seth says.
When Seth talks about the vision behind Palomino, he says, “We wanted a nice, upscale bar with good food offerings. Not everyone wants to drink PBR and shots.” Mission accomplished.
Menu temptations range from smoked salmon potato pancakes and a daily popcorn selection to buffalo quail bites, sous vide lobster tail, oysters, caviar and wild game sliders. This isn’t your daddy’s bar food.
According to Seth, many of the names given to the bar’s specialty cocktails were in the running as possible names for the bar itself, including Lodge No. 7, Reverie, The Parlor and The Gold Digger. The name Palomino was an instant hit with Seth and his partners. “Once the name Palomino came up, we four partners just said, ‘That’s it!’ It plays so well off the Riverhorse name and theme.”
As far as cocktails go, Seth says, “I’m not even a gin drinker, but I love The Seamstress.” The cocktail is made using Alpine Distilling’s gin, fresh heirloom tomato juice, St-Germain elderflower liqueur and fire bitters. Another popular cocktail at Palomino is simply called “FIU,” and is made with Corazón tequila, Ancho Reyes chili liqueur, agave, cucumber, mint and Tajín seasoning.
What does “FIU” mean? PCStyle Magazine readers must finish that puzzle themselves. I’ll just offer this clue: the last two letters stand for “it up.”
