Bambara, the longtime restaurant inside the Kimpton Hotel Monaco in downtown Salt Lake City, has a new executive chef. Jackie Siao now leads the kitchen at 202 S. Main Street, where the restaurant has been serving diners since 1999. Her menu brings global influences to a restaurant that also emphasizes seasonal cooking and local suppliers.
Siao's resume includes stints as executive chef at Adelaide in Le Meridien and, before that, Hyatt Centric in Park City, according to Utah Stories. Her prior experience also includes a run at the W Hotel in Aspen, as also reported by City Weekly. Bambara itself sits within the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City, which has housed the restaurant since it first opened its doors in 1999.
A former bank lobby on Main Street
The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City says its site has played a role in the city's evolution since the 1860s. The hotel says Bambara occupies what was once the building's bank lobby, where the polished marble floors remain. Its change from bank lobby to restaurant offers a glimpse of how downtown Main Street spaces have taken on new uses, according to Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City.
In a statement reported by Gastronomic SLC, Siao laid out her philosophy for the kitchen she now runs. “My goal for Bambara is to honor the classics that Salt Lake City has loved for years while introducing a global, adventurous edge,” she said. That balance between nostalgia and new influence is already showing up on the plate, with Utah Stories describing her cooking as drawing on flavors ranging from Paris to the Philippines and Mexico to Shanghai.
A Menu That Moves With the Seasons
Bambara describes its own approach as one that shifts alongside Utah's climate. The restaurant says on its own site that its culinary offerings transform with Utah's changing seasons, and that every creation reflects deep partnerships with local farms and producers, per Bambara's own menu page. That includes carefully sourced mountain trout, the restaurant notes, though the specific farm supplying that fish was not confirmed by Bambara itself.
Whistling Springs Trout Farm, a Payson-based supplier, lists Bambara among the restaurants it serves. The farm says on its website that it is currently making regular deliveries of fresh fish to chefs in Park City, Salt Lake City and Ogden, according to Whistling Springs Trout Farm.
OpenTable's listing describes a seasonal menu highlighting locally sourced game, artisanal cheeses, farm-fresh vegetables and regional specialties. The listing reinforces Bambara's stated focus on changing its offerings with the seasons.
Small Plates With a Global Reach
According to Salt Lake City Weekly, Siao introduced the new menu on September 5 alongside Anthony Coppernoll, Bambara's food and beverage director, who the outlet reports spent 25 years working as a chef before moving into his current role, as reported by City Weekly. The new lineup is built around four categories — provisions, raw, socials and plates — with the restaurant leaning into small bites and shared dishes rather than the larger entrees that once defined it, Salt Lake City Weekly reports.
Per the same outlet, dishes on the new menu include elk tataki with ginger shoyu, scallion and fresno, fried halloumi with raspberry hot honey, pistachio and gremolata, and a raw bar offering oysters, ceviche and bluefin crudo. Vegetable-forward options have also expanded, with the kitchen adding more vegetarian dishes alongside items like grilled romaine and carrots with shishitos, the report states. The menu's most expensive item is an 18-ounce UT47 New York strip served with potato pavé, morel mushrooms, asparagus and bordelaise, while most dishes fall into a more modest price range; Coppernoll told the outlet the restaurant wanted more affordable options because its point of entry had been high, as noted by City Weekly.
Reviving Bambara's Classics
The menu refresh also restores older favorites. City Weekly reported that staff helped reconstruct one returning dish, while another is prepared from a recipe dating to 1999. Those restorations bring some of Bambara's earlier menu into the current seasonal lineup, according to City Weekly.
City Weekly also places the menu changes in the context of Bambara's history, noting that Nathan Powers led the kitchen from 2008 to 2021 after earlier chef tenures.
Local Sourcing Behind the New Dishes
City Weekly reports that Bambara works with Frog Bench Farms and Beehive Cheese Company and sources beef from UT47, a group of Utah cattle ranchers. The restaurant's salmon comes from New Zealand, the outlet reported, combining regional ingredients with products sourced farther afield, according to City Weekly.
City Weekly reports that Bijan Ghiai curated Bambara's wine list, with an emphasis on wines made from biodynamic, dry-farmed and organically grown fruit. Bambara is located at 202 S. Main Street in Salt Lake City and can be reached at 801-363-5454.
