“There’s been a store like this on Main Street Midvale since 1933, since the end of Prohibition.” Rob Flygare says it simply, standing behind the counter of the Midvale Liquor Agency, helping customers one after another while trying to answer questions between sales. The interruptions never seem to bother him. In fact, they tell part of the story. After more than twenty-five years of running the shop, this steady rhythm of conversation, regulars, deliveries, and familiar faces has become deeply woven into his life. “It’s my business, it’s my baby,” he says. “I try to stay on top of it all.”

“People ask me all the time, ‘Dean, what is your secret?’ I always say, ‘You wake up every day afraid to fail.’” For Dean Pierose, owner of Cucina Wine Bar, the joke carries more truth than he first lets on. He moves through the restaurant with the ease of a man who knows half the room, greeting regulars, teasing friends, telling stories from Croatia, Chile, Spain, or Wyoming.

“I like to be behind the scenes and let the shop be our voice.” Meeting Scott Lyttle, one understands immediately that Tea Zaanti is an extension of who he is: calm, thoughtful, and quietly joyful. Scott's story begins far from Salt Lake City, in a Canadian household where food and conversation were the heartbeat of family life. He was born in Kingston, Ontario, while his father was earning a PhD, and grew up in Philadelphia after a series of moves that eventually settled the family there.