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Show The Park Record A-8 Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, February 23-26, 2013 MARKETPLACE Nightly Lodging Tally Projected Tally for week of Feb. 23- Mar 2, 2013 Tours highlight Main Street fare 20000 18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 New business caters to tourists through stomach Mon Tues Total Visitor Nights: Weekly High: Nightly Average: Year-To-Date: By GINA BARKER The Park Record Imagine an afternoon filled with demiglazes and braised shanks, pot stickers and forest mushrooms, red wine reductions and black bean quinoa salad. Are you hungry? Because Shirin Spangenberg, the owner of Park City Food Tours, wants to both feed and educate you. The new business offers tours of the fine dining options and history of Park City's Historic Main Street. Whether popping into the Wasatch Brew Pub for a starter or checking out the latest creation at Zoom Restaurant, Spangenberg walks groups down the street, stopping in this or that business while providing a touch - or perhaps an avalanche - of local color. And at the heart of the business is a concept any Main Street merchant could stand behind: get more people to come back, spend money and support the local economy. "I know a lot of people on the street, which made partnering with businesses easier. My whole goal is to bring recognition to the restaurants and businesses on Main Street. Hopefully, people will be so enthralled they will go back," Spangenberg said, "and they usually do." But even locals are realizing the benefits of the tour, that there is more to Main Street than meets the eye. With more than 20 years in the community, Spangenberg delivers on stories, from the Old West days of Mormon pioneers to recent events such as the Tour of Utah and the most recent celebrity sightings at the Sundance Film Sun Wed Thurs Fri 88,059 14,627 (FRI) 12,580 760,040 Sat 7.0% 3.0% Nightly Lodging Tally Estimates Occupancy At: 52% Computed by adding the projected number of visitors per night for the week. Actual number of overnight visitors may vary due to last-minute reservations and walk-ins. Source: Park City Chamber Bureau Continued From A-7 GINA BARKER / PARK RECORD Shirin Spangenberg of Park City Food Tours stands in front of the counter opening into the kitchens at Zoom where the head chef prepared dishes for the tour. Festival. If locals are inviting out-of-town guests to stay, it's the kind of tour they should take and commit to heart, embodying an air of a know-it-all guide to all things Park City. "It's so funny," Spangenberg said. "The street is so dynamic. It changes all the time, and people take it for granted. I've always enjoyed coming on to Main Street, but starting this business has opened my eyes, to what there is, to how wonderful our business owners are, to spending a good time in our home town." The tour even includes less obvious "food tour" merchants, incorporating galleries where owners highlight a new artist, understanding how to properly taste olive oil or a personal hand treatment at the Mountain Body Spa. In each location, a server or manager steps up to explain what the restaurant offers and what the group will try. "This is an opportunity for people to sell their restaurant, their business," she said. "You have a captive audience. They are here for food, so this is a golden opportunity." Spangenberg first had the idea to start her business in Park City after a trip to Orange County where she used an online coupon to take her first food tour. An admitted foodie, she saw the potential for expanding this idea in Utah. "We have so much personality on this street," Spangenberg said. "I knew I could do this." "The point is to have fun, get to know people, enjoy others' company," she added. "and that is on top of enjoying the food and getting to know the area better." In December, she gave the first tour, and each experience is a little different, she said. Large groups treat the tour like a party, with perhaps a few more cock- tails involved. Small groups become very intimate, people swapping stories and really getting to know each other. And there is something for everyone. The Park City Food Tours works with a variety of special dietary needs, whether kosher or gluten-free. As the winter season continues, Spangenberg will continue to offer an apres ski schedule, targeting tourists who are just getting off the slopes. As spring and summer approach, she hopes to change up the schedule and offer deals to locals and the Wasatch Front for a dinner experience. Park City Food Tours 435-640-1271 www.parkcityfoodtours.com info@parkcityfoodtours.com Reservations can be made online. Tour costs $64 per person. Liquor laws on docket no one direction would win without going through the standard process. Malone added to the thought, that determining what Senate leadership would look like at this point is too early in the game. Hans Fuegi, a Park City restaurateur and board member of the Utah Restaurant Association met with Valentine before the start of the General Session to discuss liquor law issues and the concept of a master license. It is a concept he and other members of the association support. "I think it is a solution if done right," Fuegi said. "What it would do, it would free up a substantial amount of licenses. If you had a multiple location operation, say 12 or 15 stores or restaurants that could operate under one license, that allows a lot more of these licenses to be available for new operations without having to change the whole formula." Other bills the chamber and local business owners are watching include whether or not a customer may order a drink if they have indicated an intent to order food, swapping liquor licenses from the windely unused reception center license to a social club license and transferring $37.5 million from state alcohol sale revenues into the education fund. "We have more liberalized liquor laws than other states, areas of the country that are completely dry," Valentine said. "… There is a full spectrum, and Utah is on the conservative side. But that is because we are a controlled state, but taking down the Zions Curtain and removing requirements to enter a social club, we have become far more mainstream." 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