Dining out: Market Street Grill

If you've never thought of having a party for seafood, you've never visited Market Street Grill.

This Utah-grown group of four restaurants is, hands down, the best place in the state to indulge in seafood. To wallow in seafood.

And, of course, to celebrate seafood. Now (February) happens to be the crab festival. In April and May, it will be time to celebrate halibut. Summertime is for wild Alaska salmon, and fall (October and November) is shrimp-festival time.

I get the need for these attention-getting events in land-locked Utah. For lots of us, frozen fish sticks, "Krab" salad and a plate of overcooked salmon at an office Christmas party sum up our experience with the fruits of the ocean. Unlike in places such as Hawaii or coastal California, seafood just isn't part of our mentality in the same way as, say, Dutch oven.

Sure, we've changed in the past couple of decades. The popularity of fish tacos and the rise of home barbecuing as a gourmet sport have broadened our piscatory horizons a bit. But step into any Market Street restaurant, and prepare for the mental shutters to swing wide.

First, no matter which one you visit, you'll walk into a gorgeous dining space. Downtown, in the historic New York building, has a jazzy, elegant air; University an intimate, barrel-ceilinged dining space. Cottonwood and South Jordan, the newest member of the family, share an atmosphere of dark wood and lustrously lucent surfaces that give me the feeling of being in the world's most swanky swimming pool.

But instead of smelling chlorine, you catch whiffs of herbs, butter, garlic, lemon. And you see, in gleaming (but separate) glass cases, fresh for-sale seafood and Market Street's house-made desserts, displayed like the jewels they are.

My husband, our friend, Wendy, and I dined at the South Jordan location on a recent Saturday, arriving just as the place opened at 4 p.m. This is because, on the other occasions we've tried visiting the place on a weekend evening, say at 6:30 p.m. or so, the place is absolutely packed. Take my advice: make reservations, or come early.

I've written about Market Street before, so I'll just briefly mention the things I always enjoy there: the slices of crusty bread that zoom to the table almost as soon as diners sit down; the silky clam chowder, best I've had, full of the complex mingled flavors of leeks, bay, sherry and clam; the filet mignon, whose fork-tender texture and gorgeous sear prove seafood isn't the only thing they know how to make here.