Fine-dining vibe, fast-casual cost? This new restaurant wants Eagle to have it all
A Utah restaurant chain with a modern, flexible dining experience is planning its first out-of-state expansion — in Idaho.
Vessel Kitchen is on target to open in late spring in The Hemingway mid-rise development in downtown Eagle, founder Roe’e Levy said.
With 10 locations, Vessel Kitchen is a growing brand with an interesting, if not ambitious, concept. Drawing culinary influences from around the globe, the menu is filled with new American food geared for active, healthy lifestyles: protein-packed bowls, flavorful salads, even naan tacos.
It’s no high-end restaurant. Entrees hover around $15. But it’s definitely not another burger-and-fries place, either, said Levy, who was an executive chef at the Promontory Club private community in Park City before starting Vessel Kitchen in 2016.
Signature bowls include the Hash Hash (braised beef, sweet potato hash, horseradish crema, feta and pickled onion) and The Pioneer (shredded chicken, sweet potato hash, Peruvian green sauce, Israeli pico de gallo and micro cilantro).
Vessel’s website promises “a fine dining vibe at fast-casual affordability, speed and convenience.” Customers order at the counter. Food is brought to tables. But Vessel also sells plenty of takeout.
“You’re going through the line, you’re placing the order, and I can get you the food faster than you can even pronounce ‘Vessel Kitchen,’ ” Levy said.
“Take it with you or dining with us, we pride ourselves in trying to ... give you the best experience we can. Whether it’s dining with real china, real silverware on nice tables — or takeout in containers that are proprietary to us and make your food shine even 40 minutes after you buy it.”
Vessel Kitchen’s Eagle space at 55 E. State St. will be just under 3,000 square feet, he said. The plan is for at least 80 seats outdoors and a similar number outside on two patios: one along State Street, another along Eagle Road.
Levy worked “pretty much all over the Middle East in fine dining establishments,” he said, before moving from Israel to the United States in 2007. After arriving, he “always stayed in the kitchen, as well as being an avid skier and spending a lot of time outdoors.”
So expanding to the Treasure Valley might not feel exotic, exactly. But it’s a place that Levy believes fits Vessel Kitchen’s approach.
“We do a lot of business already with Idaho,” he said, “because give me a better potato, and give me a better sweet potato, and I’ll take it. Pretty much from the get-go I knew the Boise area was going to be our first expansion out of Utah.
“It’s a tight-knit community. It’s a place we know we can thrive in. We know it has similar values to our locations in Utah and has a ton of workability. A ton of traffic and a ton of like-minded people.”