With the recent addition of the Pendry boutique hotel at Park City Mountain, the Canyons Village has expanded greatly and has simultaneously become a hot spot for dining and shopping. One of the new additions to the dining scene is a bustling restaurant and cantina called Dos Olas.
“Dos Olas, meaning ‘two waves,’ is a nod to the waves that keep us inspired on the mountain and in the sea,” say the folks at Dos Olas. “That sense of playful inspiration, creativity and variety fuel every facet of the overall Dos Olas experience.” The restaurant is vibrant – brimming with color and featuring bold, nature-inspired mural art from Mexican artist Pilar Cárdenas.
Dos Olas is really two establishments in one. There is a 21 and over cantina area with a full bar as its centerpiece, and then a family-friendly dining area, as well as an outdoor patio and slopeside ski beach in warm weather. There is also live music on the plaza adjacent to Dos Olas during the summer months.
The talented mixologists at Dos Olas offer up a robust menu of tequila, mezcal, cocktails, beer and wine. I counted some 25 different tequilas, ranging from El Jimador Blanco ($12) to Komos Extra Añejo Auténtico ($65). In addition, there are around 15 or so mezcals to choose from.
The bar also serves up unique cocktails such as La Última Palabra (The Last Word), made with tequila añejo, sweet vermouth, Campari and Amaro Montenegro, as well as Margaritas like the Skinny Mamacita with tequila blanco, fresh lime, and Cointreau, or the Sandy Fácil Basil: tequila reposado, watermelon, basil, lime, chile salt, and agave.
As you peruse the Dos Olas menu, you’ll enjoy nibbling on a gratis basket of tortilla chips with salsa roja and salsa verde. Both salsas are devilishly spicy, but I especially loved the smoky salsa roja made, I think, with chiles de árbol.
You can upgrade your chips and salsa experience with an order of guacamole ($18), which is a bit pricey due to the current cost of avocados, but delicious nonetheless. Another good starter is Queso Fundido, a gluten free dipping dish made with Oaxacan and asadero cheeses, chorizo, and roasted ajillo mushrooms.
Seafood lovers will want to enjoy the excellent Ceviche ($22) at Dos Olas. It’s made with the fish of the day – whatever is fresh – along with mango, cucumber, avocado, onions, lime, cilantro, radish, and jalapeño chiles to give it some zip. Other seafood options include a shareable salad of Camarones & Aguacate ($24), which is grilled shrimp with mixed greens, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, queso fresco, radish, and cilantro-lime dressing. From the taco menu there is also a Pesca Taco with tempura-battered fish, shredded cabbage, chile ajo aioli, and avocado puree ($24 for 2 tacos with sides).
Be sure to bring a group of friends with you if you order the Barbacoa Nachos ($24). It’s an enormous serving. My wife and I split the nachos and could barely put a dent into it. It’s an appetizer that could easily – and I mean this literally – be shared by 8 to 10 people. A large serving dish – approximately 9” x 13” – is stacked high with tortilla chips, shredded beef barbacoa, black beans, guacamole, Oaxacan and asadero cheeses, fried onions, jalapeños, and pico de gallo. I especially loved the tender and tasty beef barbacoa, which you can also enjoy in taco or burrito form.
In addition to beef barbacoa, taco options at Dos Olas include yaca (adobo-roasted jackfruit), carnitas, camarón al pastor, carne asada, tinga de pollo, and the aforementioned pesca (fish). Each order is two tacos made with corn or flour tortillas or lettuce cups and includes rice and refried black beans. The taco platters run from $19 to $24.
Side dishes ($5 each) include slow-cooked beans to which pork can be added, fried plantains, a side Caesar salad, or rice with refried black beans, which was excellent, garnished with queso fresco.
The Dos Olas menu has a “Classics” section meant, I suppose, to appeal to American palates since most of the dishes – burritos and fajitas, for example – aren’t ones you’d find in Mexico except at touristy restaurants aimed at Americans, whose only “Mexican” culinary experience might have been at Taco Bell. I ordered the Carne Asada ($38) from the Classics menu, which was a perfectly grilled, medium-rare hanger steak with chimichurri, served with spring onions, Hatch chiles, roasted mushrooms, spring onions, rice, beans, and tortillas. The steak was fabulous and I loved the chiles, although they were very, very spicy.
My wife and I really enjoyed talking with Executive Chef Carlos Segura, who is a very nice, friendly, and outgoing guy. He’s originally from Mexico City, where he learned to cook from his mother. He would eventually work his way into high-end restaurants in places like Mexico City and Cabo, where he was recently Executive Chef at the Garza Blanca Resort. We are very lucky to have him here in Utah. My only wish would be that he’d have the leeway to cook some of the truly Mexican dishes my wife and I discussed with him – like chiles en nogada, posole, tlayudas, and such.
Inspired by the moles of Oaxaca, Chef Segura has a very unique vegan dish on the menu, which my wife absolutely loved. It’s called Coliflor Con Mole ($28). The dish is a generous serving of roasted cauliflower, with rice and beans and sweet plantains. But the highlight of the dish is the mole, a very complex sauce in the Oaxacan style that is made from some 25 different ingredients and cooks for days, said Chef Segura. It’s a wonderfully rich sauce that I wish would find its way into other dishes at Dos Olas – chicken with mole, perhaps?
Dos Olas is a bustling, vibrant new addition to the Park City dining scene and one that, judging from the crowds on a busy Monday evening, has already been discovered by locals and tourists alike. The fact that parking is free at the Pendry with validation doesn’t hurt. We were too stuffed to try dessert at Dos Olas on this visit, but you can bet we’ll be back to have a go at Chef Segura’s Churro Ice Cream Sandwich or perhaps the Flan with creamy orange blossom custard, fresh berries, and quinoa crumble. To paraphrase Arnold Schwatznegger, “We’ll be back!”
Photos by Ted Scheffler
Culinary quote of the week: “I’m convinced that anyone who doesn’t like Mexican food is a psychopath.” – Jim Gaffigan
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Originally trained as an anthropologist, Ted Scheffler is a seasoned food, wine & travel writer based in Utah. He loves cooking, skiing, and spends an inordinate amount of time tending to his ever-growing herd of guitars and amplifiers.
