OUR AWARDS
2025 7Shifts Restaurant Innovators
brooks kirchheimer
2025 Best Chef: Park City
chef brandon - hearth and hill
2025 Best Appetizers: Park City
hearth and hill
2025 Best Chef: SLC
nick zocco - urban hill
2025 Best Fine Dining Restaurant
urban hill
2026 DiRōNA Award
urban hill
2025 Beat Bobby Flay Winner
Nick Zocco - urban hill
2025 Best Chef Semi-Finalist
Nick Zocco - urban hill
2025 Caterers
hill's kitchen
2025 Gourmet Southwestern
urban hill
2025 New American
hearth and hill
Wine Spectator 2025 Award of Excellence
urban hill
2025 Chef of the Year
Nick Zocco - urban hill
Restaurateur of the Year
Brooks Kirchheimer
2025 Best Restaurant Park City
hearth and hill
2024 Best Chef Finalist
Nick Zocco - urban hill
2024 Best American Contemporary
urban hill
2024 Best Chef
urban hill
2024 New American
hearth and hill
2024 Best Restaurant in Downtown SLC
urban hill
2024 Best Fine Dining Restaurant
urban hill
2024 Best Restaurant Atmosphere
urban hill
2024 Best Restaurant Park City
hearth and hill
2024 Outstanding Restaurant of the Year
urban hill
2024 Best Bakery 3rd place
hill's kitchen
2024 Best Lunch 3rd place
hearth and hill
2024 Best Family Restaurant 3rd place
hearth and hill
IN THE PRESS
Our family of restaurants are proud to be featured in the following articles.
Please contact HillTop@welovebreadandbutter.com for any Public Relations related inquiries.
Eight Utah Restaurants Are Semifinalists for the 2026 James Beard Awards
January 21, 2026 | The James Beard Foundation recently announced semifinalists for the coveted James Beard Award, a food and beverage industry recognition on par with the Oscars and the Grammys. Eight Utah restaurants made the cut, proving that our state’s dining scene is a star on the rise.
In the past, Utah’s restaurants have made us proud by reaching the semi-finals and finals rounds, but nobody from the Beehive State has taken home an award … yet. Could 2026 be the year? We sure hope so.
SEASONAL WINTER MACARONS
Winter 2026 Issue | Sarah Whistler, on Seasonal Macarons: “Macarons can be very difficult to make, but they just take practice. To create a stable meringue, you want to use aged egg whites, crack the egg whites and let them sit in the fridge for a couple days. Sift the dry ingredients to make sure they are super fine. After piping, remove air bubbles by firmly tapping the tray.”
Wine Trends Shaping Bars and Restaurants in 2026
Jan 20, 2026 | Overall, Katie Forstner, beverage manager and sommelier at Urban Hill in Salt Lake City, Utah—from Hill Top Hospitality—said it’s an amazing privilege to serve and sell wine in today’s market. “We have the most educated, adventurous cohort of drinkers in history, and I think we’ll continue to see guests peruse our wine lists with open minds,” shared Forstner. “I think people will continue to seek unique wines with a story that can pair with their meal.”
‘Hill’s Diner’ concept serves comfort-centric dinner service at Hill’s Kitchen Park City
December 25, 2025 | Hill’s Kitchen Park City is leaning into nostalgia and comfort with its latest limited-time pop-up concept: Hill’s Diner. Designed as a casual, approachable extension of the restaurant’s café, Executive Chef Evan LaValley said the dinner service from Friday through Jan. 4 reimagines classic diner fare with a sense of fun.
The pop-up is part of an ongoing effort to keep the restaurant’s offerings fresh while responding to how and when guests want to eat, LaValley said, and the idea for the concept emerged during those team brainstorming sessions.
Snow Adventures in Park City, Lake Tahoe, and Whistler
Dec 5, 2025 | Nearby, Kimball Junction is a shopping and dining hot spot with comfort food eateries such as Hearth and Hill. But Main Street in Park City remains the big draw, with acclaimed restaurants like Riverhorse on Main and French bistro Le Depot Brasserie.
MOUNTAIN MAGAZINE
Winter 2026 Issue | Hearth and Hill is another Kimball Junction favorite, and its eclectic menu ranges from burgers and ramen to gyoza and birria tacos. The Eatery opened in the neighborhood seven years ago, and co-founder Kirchheimer calls this booming area the perfect home. “We opened in Kimball Junction because we wanted to be a gathering spot for the community and felt that Kimball Junction was central to the year-round community of residents,” he says. “We also knew that Center Drive in Kimball Junction could be the new Main Street of Park City and provide locals and visitors alike with multiple dining, shopping and workout options with free parking, convenient public transportation and [a location] adjacent to Swaner Preserve.”
36 HOURS IN PARK CITY, utah
Dec 25, 2025 | Parkites (as Park City residents are known) congregate at the family-owned restaurant Hearth and Hill in the Kimball Junction neighborhood (across the road from Utah Olympic Park) for its casual atmosphere and consistent quality. Crowd-pleasing dishes are prepped in the glass-fronted open kitchen, including pasta and burgers, bison short ribs with a mole sauce and red-pepper polenta ($44) and a half-dozen hearty salads. If the craft cocktails don’t tempt, try a chai blossom mocktail ($7) made with chai-coconut syrup, lemon juice, orange-blossom water and soda.
2026 Trends: What Will Shape Menus, Marketing, and the Bottom Line in Restaurants
Dec 9, 2025 | Amber Lam, assistant general manager at Hearth and Hill – Sugar House in Salt Lake City, Utah, believes Earl Grey will take the spotlight. “It might be the time for Earl Grey to shine again—or any other teas like chai,” she said. “Matcha is expensive and hard to get right now, so people are looking for the next matcha-esque thing. Earl Grey lattes are nice but Earl Grey cocktails elevate a space.”
HOW BROOKS KIRCHHEIMER BUILT A PEOPLE -first restaurant empire in utah
December 14, 2025 | In one of the most inspiring episodes of The Late Night Restaurant Podcast to date, we sit down with Brooks Kirchheimer, the visionary behind Utah’s celebrated Hill Top Hospitality Group. From playing pretend restaurant as a kid to running five thriving restaurants with a 300+ person team, Brooks’ story is a testament to what happens when you lead with heart, not ego.
Hill Top Hospitality plans benefit dinner featuring its seven head chefs
October 28, 2025 | The chefs behind Hill Top Hospitality’s five restaurants will gather in one kitchen for a first-of-its-kind dinner event at River Bottoms Ranch in Midway.
The multi-course “Farm Dinner” on Nov. 15 will feature every executive and pastry chef from the growing company, including restaurants Urban Hill, Hearth and Hill and Hill’s Kitchen. Each will prepare a course that reflects their unique style, culminating in a collaborative showcase of talent and creativity — all for a cause that’s close to home.
Hill Top Hospitality co-owner Brooks Kirchheimer said the evening marks the realization of a long-held dream: “To be able to highlight all of our chefs, but also to highlight just the growth that we’ve achieved as a company.” Kirchheimer added he fully expects “a lot of laughter, a lot of fun,” along with some extraordinary food.
Chef Collaboration Dinners at Urban Hill Are Uniting SLC’s Culinary Scene
August 1, 2025 | Watch too much food television and you’ll come away with the conviction that professional chefs and cooks are a cunning, competitive bunch of egomaniacs striving to become Top Chef, fearful of being Chopped, and gunning to Beat Bobby Flay. Teamwork and collaboration be damned.
That’s why I am relishing what the folks at Urban Hill restaurant and its owner – Brooks Kirchheimer and the Hill Top Hospitality group – are up to. Specifically, their Chef Collaboration dinner series, which takes place each month at Urban Hill.
On a monthly basis, Urban Hill Executive Chef Nick Zocco pairs with another Utah Chef to create a collaborative dinner with beverage pairings. According to the folks at Hill Top Hospitality, “The Urban Hill team really wants Utah to understand what they’re trying to achieve in terms of unifying the SLC food scene through these collaborations. While creating delicious, fresh dishes is a great product of this series, the most innovative aspect lies in how chefs are bringing together their concepts to set a new standard of collaboration. It’s about breaking down barriers between chefs and restaurants, fostering creativity, and building a stronger culinary community.”
Japanese cuisine takes center stage at Hearth and Hill’s next regional dinner
August 11, 2025 | Hearth and Hill Park City’s regional dinner series will return Wednesday, Aug. 20, with the fourth installment, featuring a seven-course Japanese menu along with optional wine and sake pairings.
Hosted in the restaurant’s private dining room for about 40 guests, Executive Chef Brandon Giles said the plan is to deliver a unique divergence from their usual menu, one that further showcases the talents of their culinary team.
Lambrusco vs. Moscato: A Battle of Italian Bubblies
Adding to the food-friendliness is the fact that these grapes are often used in the production of balsamic vinegar, too, which interestingly shows up in the wine. “Lambrusco tends to showcase notes of balsamic, violet and strawberry,” notes sommelier Katie Forstner of Salt Lake City’s Urban Hill, a 2024 James Beard Award nominee.
Though the flavor profile is drastically different, Moscato is similarly born from grapes in the Muscat family. “Muscat Blanc, the grape of choice for Moscato, is one of the oldest and most aromatic varieties in the world,” says Forstner. (Of note, Muscat is also made into sweet and dry styles of still wine, though in this case Lambrusco is duking it out against the sparkling versions of Muscat, like Moscato d’Asti.)
Summer menu refresh rolls out at one of SLC’s finest restaurants
June 26, 2025 | Hot off the heels of a recent menu collab with Tyson Peterson (Mar | Muntanya), chef Nick Zocco has revamped the menu at Urban Hill. The James Beard-nominated chef has been busy by the looks of things, the update is significant.
Restaurant Review: Urban Hill and Post Office Place Chef Collab
Salt Lake City Weekly, April 29, 2025 | While there is some pretty fierce competition among our local chefs, it’s all driven by a deep, mutual respect for one another. Sometimes you get lucky enough to see that respect first hand, and it’s something that the Urban Hill Chef Series (urban-hill.com) will be showcasing this spring. These events will feature a chef collaboration between Urban Hill Executive Chef Nick Zocco and another local powerhouse in the restaurant scene, and I got a chance to attend the restaurant’s kickoff event this month.
This State Has the Most Bizarro Drinking Laws.
Fodors, December 19, 2024 | Speaking of higher prices, you won’t find special discounts like happy hours at Utah bars. “If [a bar] wants to run a happy hour or other alcohol special, they have to run it all day long and it can’t currently be on the menu,” says Brooks Kirchheimer, co-founder and co-owner of Leave Room for Dessert Eateries, which owns several restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City. While you won’t see happy hours in Utah, you might see “Appy Hours,” which applies the happy hour concept to appetizers instead.
Meet America’s Top 50 Independent Restaurants for 2024
FSR, July 10, 2024 | These beloved, indie-owned institutions showcase the best of the U.S. when it comes to culinary prowess, community building, and delivering exceptional dining experiences from coast to coast.
Taste Utah Road Tour – Salt Lake County – Urban Hill
KUTV, July 3, 2024 | The Taste Utah Road Tour continues its flavorful journey across the Beehive State, and this time, host Katy Sine made a delicious stop at Urban Hill.
Nestled in the heart of Salt Lake City, Urban Hill is a vibrant restaurant that has quickly become a culinary hotspot, known for its innovative dishes and inviting atmosphere.
Urban Hill’s menu is a testament to the creativity and expertise of its chefs. Katy had the opportunity to sample a variety of dishes that showcased the restaurant’s commitment to using fresh, locally-sourced ingredients.
From appetizers to entrees, each dish was a work of art, both visually and in taste.
The 21 Essential Restaurants in Park City, Utah
EATER, Jan 19, 2024 | Situated in Park City’s restaurant row 2.0 (far from Main Street in Kimball Junction), this locals hub is an approachable take on contemporary American cuisine. It’s group-friendly with big booths and a lively bar where you can create your own Old Fashioned or order seasonal cocktails such as the January 19, 2024 | Cozy Sweater (bourbon, lemon, orange, maple, cinnamon bitters). Proprietor Brooks Kirchheimer, who recently added two new restaurants (Hills Kitchen Cafe and Urban Hill) to his portfolio, is known for his attention to five-star service. Chef Jose Morales stacks menus for brunch (Sunday only), lunch, and dinner with diverse dishes, including ahi poke, empanadas, curry farro, and steak frites.
Fast and Fresh Breakfast Spots in Park City
Park City Mag, December 6, 2023 | From the owners of Hearth and Hill, Hill’s Kitchen is a convenient, 25-seat daytime cafe serving up delicious eats in a snap. Their morning croissant, flapjack stack, and breakfast bowl are great ways to fuel for the day. Tight on time? Grab a pastry for the road or a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, chorizo, potato, and Chihuahua cheese.