Inside Ritual Chocolate’s Heber City factory, guests learn how to taste chocolate like professionals during weekly bean-to-bar classes. From Madagascar’s bright citrus notes to savory pairings with olive oil and smoked salt, the experience blends science, craftsmanship, and Utah creativity into one unforgettable night.

From Park City to Moab and every town in between, Utah’s most distinctive local shops offer character, creativity, and a strong sense of place. Our contributors share the bookstores, cafés, boutiques, and hidden gems they return to again and again.

European Tastees celebrates two decades in Utah, growing from a family dream into a market known for Old World flavors, immigrant heritage, and a new expansion filled with global goods.

In Sugar House, Maria Florencia Farr makes empanadas that carry more than filling. They carry memory. Each one recalls suburban Buenos Aires, where families gathered late at night and meals were unhurried, familiar, and shared.

“In Argentina, dinner doesn’t happen at five,” she says. Empanadas were a constant in her childhood, as ordinary and dependable as cookies in an American home. Learning to seal them, shaping the distinctive repulgue by hand, marked a small but meaningful rite of passage.

When Florencia moved to the United States 18 years ago, food became one of the clearest reminders of what she had left behind. She missed the everyday tastes of home and kept searching for them. Over time, that longing evolved into something larger, shaping the decision to build a place rooted in tradition, meant to be shared.

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