‘Hill’s Diner’ idea serves comfort-centric dinner service at Hill’s Kitchen Park City

Hill’s Kitchen Park City is leaning into nostalgia and luxury with its newest limited-time pop-up idea: Hill’s Diner. Designed as an off-the-cuff, approachable extension of the restaurant’s café, Executive Chef Evan LaValley mentioned the dinner service from Friday via Jan. 4 reimagines basic diner fare with a way of enjoyable.

The pop-up is a part of an ongoing effort to maintain the restaurant’s choices recent whereas responding to how and when friends wish to eat, LaValley mentioned, and the thought for the idea emerged throughout these staff brainstorming classes.

“We were just chatting as a group, like, what can we do? What can be exciting?” LaValley mentioned. “Diner kind of just kept making its way through the cuts.”

This newest run follows different dinner pop-ups on the Park City location like sushi nights, a noodle home and a current smash burger collection. When the staff started throwing concepts on the wall — actually, on scratch paper taped up within the kitchen — the diner theme caught.

It was a pure alternative, the chef mentioned, as a result of they’ve all had diner experiences, whether or not via work or simply for enjoyable. For himself, rising up in a small rural city in Vermont meant diners have been a fixture of his childhood. Later, diners advanced into his late-night gathering spots throughout faculty and years cooking alongside the East Coast and within the South.

“The diner feel — it’s got that comfort feel. It can be family centric, friend centric, usually there’s a little bit of chaos involved with it. There’s nothing that really screams diner like a kid screaming in the background,” he mentioned with fun. 

From there, the Hill’s Kitchen Park City staff additional brainstormed for menu improvement, in search of methods to make it their very own. 

“Everyone kept throwing up ideas,” LaValley mentioned. “Like, steak and eggs: instead of just doing traditional steak and eggs, someone’s like, ‘Oh, we could do Korean short ribs and eggs.’ So that’s going to be our steak and egg.”

That method defines Hill’s Diner. Rather than replicating a conventional menu, the kitchen is experimenting with extra inventive interpretations. Instead of fried hen, Nashville scorching hen and Huli Huli smoked hen will likely be that protein; or, as an alternative of straightforward fries, why not poutine, LaValley mentioned. Standard potatoes are swapped for Hawaiian candy potato salad, or a aspect of latkes. 

“Like green beans, right? It’s comfort food. Green bean casserole is something our grandparents or parents probably made when we were always going to Christmas Eve dinner,” he mentioned. “So it’s just one of those things that are very approachable. Just trying to put a fun spin on it.”

A build-your-own system stems from the chef’s personal expertise at diners, the place friends can order a predominant plus one or two sides of their alternative.

“There’s always something, when I go into a diner, like, ‘Oh, I want part of that. I want some of this.’ So I always order two or three things, and I never finish any of it,” he mentioned. 

The format of Hill’s Diner is deliberately fast and informal, designed to serve skiers and locals in search of satisfying meals with no prolonged sit-down expertise, LaValley mentioned.

“What do people want to have when they’re coming off the mountain?” he mentioned. “Those times when individuals are most hungry and trying to find something to eat that’s quick and easy, (and) they don’t really have to get out of their ski gear to do.”

Hill’s Diner runs from 4-8 p.m. for dinner service, opening simply because the resorts shut, and the eatery will proceed to function its regular breakfast and lunch hours. 

Beyond the meals, the pop-up serves as a inventive outlet for the Hill’s Kitchen staff. LaValley emphasised that rotating ideas maintain long-time workers engaged and studying, and his philosophy because the kitchen lead is all about having enjoyable.

“It’s really nice to just see us as a team do new food and do different things and just have fun with it,” LaValley mentioned. “I’m really big about fun with food. We’re not doing brain surgery. It’s fun. It’s just food at the end of the day.” 

Hill’s Diner, he added, is a technique his cooks can embrace that creativity.

“We have one guy, Alfredo, who just does breakfast every day. Burritos, breakfast sandwiches, omelets, all that. To see him get to be a part of something different … it opens up everyone’s eyes to see something new,” LaValley mentioned. “It’s an opportunity to get knowledge from other people if they have other experiences doing it.”

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