Zach Wade
Owner & Chef | Cosmica
Zach Wade’s restaurant achieved landmark recognition as the first Utah establishment in a decade to make the New York Times’ “Best Restaurants in America” list — bringing national attention to Salt Lake City’s evolving culinary scene.
Zach Wade was working a typical, bustling night at Cosmica when he got the text: His Italian restaurant, which opened in March in Salt Lake City, had made the New York Times’ “Best Restaurants in America” list. It was the first time a Utah restaurant had made the cut in a whole decade.
He couldn’t fully acknowledge the designation until many hours later — after the last carpaccio was served and the restaurant’s pink-and-red neon ceiling lights powered down for the night. Months later, he’s still wrapping his head around it.
“We’re just keeping this thing running every day. It’s so busy. It’s a small restaurant,” says Wade, Cosmica’s owner and chef. “I run the restaurant every day. I cook every day. We’re just trying not to run out of bolognese.”
Originally from Massachusetts, Wade first visited Utah while taking an outdoor leadership course as a kid. When he and his business partner — renowned restaurateur and James Beard Award winner Zak Pelaccio — learned of the location for what would become Cosmica from a mutual friend, he jumped at the opportunity to take a break from the East Coast and serve simple, straightforward Italian food in an auspicious market.
“We feel really lucky to be part of this little community here,” Wade says. “We found a home amongst other businesses doing like-minded things. What T.F. Brewing is doing, Water Witch, Nohm, The Pearl, Central 9th Market — it’s a sweet little community that we’re really happy to be a part of. … We do something different than the other Italian restaurants here, but they’re all amazing. I eat at all of them. We just wanted to offer a different vibe.”
That vibe? It’s undeniably Instagrammable (see: the “spaghetti Western” interior design, the pink cowboy bathroom, the neon-lit dining room, and the portrait of Wade’s dog, Leo, that hangs over the bar). It’s no-fuss, well-executed Italian food. It’s the type of warm ambience that lures you in for a social aperitivo or a long, leisurely meal — if you can get a table, that is.
“This is what my partner and I signed up for. We’re just so happy that the restaurant has been this well-received,” Wade says of Cosmica’s booming popularity. “I can walk out into my dining room any night of the week, and it’s busy, and people are smiling. It’s such an amazing feeling.”
Looking to the future, Wade hopes to potentially expand his restaurant group into other states. But for now, Utah gets to claim his full attention — and for a food scene largely unacknowledged by out-of-state media (or, at best, recognized only by the hallmark items of green Jell-O and funeral potatoes), Cosmica’s achievement marks an entrance into a national conversation that’s long overdue. It’s an achievement best celebrated with some handmade pasta, maybe a glass of natural wine, and definitely an order of the House Puffy Bread with stracciatella and salted chilis alongside.
