Hill’s Kitchen Offers Breakfast, Lunch and Bakery Takeout in Park City
Hill’s Kitchen is a spinoff from the popular Hearth and Hill restaurant at 1153 Center Drive in Park City’s Redstone Shopping Center. When I visited there last week, I realized that the two spots serve different purposes. Hearth and Hill, opened in 2018, is a sit-down restaurant, and Hill’s Kitchen is a large catering kitchen and bakery. Open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., it mainly offers takeout breakfast, lunch and bakery items, although there is a small cafe of seven tables.
However, while lingering over my lunch with a friend last week, I wondered if owner Brooks Kirchheimer may end up trying to fit in more seating space. Every seat was taken on a Thursday at 1:30 p.m., and I’m guessing those tables are prime real estate during the lunch hour. While visiting with Kirchheimer that afternoon, I asked him about it. He said they recently added a couple of sidewalk tables, and I’m sure they will be well-used during the summer.
A main purpose of Hill’s Kitchen is the capacity to cater for large groups — up to 500 people, according to Kirchheimer, who actually came up with the idea soon after he opened Hearth and Hill in 2018. It also gives chef Jessie Rae Nakoneczny room to for baking, offering 12-20 different pastries each day. That includes butter croissants as big as my hand, danishes, muffins, cheesecake, cookies and scones.
“We asked ourselves, what are people looking for that’s not in the Park City market?” Kirchheimer said. “For instance, stromboli, we do them really well. We had a meeting yesterday and talked about what’s selling — Grab and go salads, the cookies, brownies, the pastries overall, sell really well.”
There’s something for just about everyone — quiche, salads, grain bowls, wraps and smoothies. Plus iced and hot coffee using sustainably produced beans from female-founded local coffee roaster Publik.
Our lunch choices might not be that of the typical Park City customers, but I’d definitely recommend the items I tried.
My favorite was the Hatch chile scone. This is NOT the same as the Utah-style, deep-fried scone. It’s the biscuit-y pastry that just about everyone else in the world besides Utah refers to as a scone. It may not have the outer beauty of a croissant or pretty Danish, but it makes up in rich flavor, with little bits of tomato and chiles.
I also liked the corn chowder ($6 for an 8-ounce bowl), studded with chunks of potatoes and chopped chiles that gave a hint of Southwestern kick.
The smoked chicken club sandwich ($13) was generous with tender chicken, and layered with lettuce, tomato and bacon.
My friend, Marilyn, had the grilled cheese sandwich ($10) made with dill Havarti, Woodland cheddar, and garlic aioli, on sourdough bread.
I had thought about trying the grain bowl ($12). Already packaged, it has farro and quinoa on the bottom, with black beans, sliced carrot, red pepper, shaved beets, almonds, and mandarin oranges arranged on top. It looked like a hearty vegetarian/vegan lunch option.
My friend took an almond croissant home to enjoy later, and deemed it “Out of this world!”
There were other interesting items like “protein balls,” which probably appeal to those wanting a healthified treat: cherry, almond, hemp seeds, protein powder, maple syrup, oats and flaxseed.
Kirchheimer told me that like Hearth and Hill, the Hill’s Kitchen space had sat empty, never used, for about 10 years.
‘We like to build from the ground up instead of taking over existing things, he said. “That way, we don’t find as many old wires and other problems, and we can create spaces exactly how we want them.”
This is just the second step for Kirchheimer’s company, Leave Room For Dessert Eateries. It is also opening two more restaurants in Salt Lake City. Urban Hill is slated to open this September/October in the Post District (between 5th and 6th South and 300 West). It will have a wood-fire grill and a large patio.
“We will be next to the new Traeger headquarters,” Kirchheimer added.
And, a second Hearth and Hill is in the works in Sugar House, near Whole Foods.
I asked him about the challenges of retaining staff during the current labor shortage. “
“We have been in really good shape since day one,” he said. “Most of our crew lives in Salt Lake City and they drive up to work. We pay them well and treat them well.”
Kirchheimer earned a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the University of Denver, then worked his way through the restaurant world, including the Montage Beverly Hills, Montage Deer Valley, Zoom, and Merriman’s in Maui. His father, David, is a partner in the business, and has worked in the financial industry.
The Kirchheimers chose Leave Room For Dessert Eateries as their company name because they wanted something a little quirky, not stuffy, Brooks told me. “Our family has always loved dessert,” he said. “Growing up, we always had six to eight different pints of ice cream in our freezer.”