Taverna
“We found the building before we knew what we were going to do in it.” Andrea Tree and Nate Silverstein like to tell the story that way, because it captures how Taverna came to life in Salt Lake City’s Marmalade neighborhood. They wanted a place where their children could actually be present, where families could gather, and where a well-made cocktail and a great slice of pizza could exist in the same room without anyone feeling shut out. When a motorcycle shop close to home appeared with a hand painted “For Rent” sign and a phone number scrawled across the fence, they called, stepped inside, and started imagining what it could become.
Andrea grew up in Millcreek, her childhood steeped in art. From the age of six until eighteen she spent afternoons at the Visual Art Institute, learning to see and to create. “It was my passion my whole life.” All of those years paid off in 2002 when she earned a full-ride scholarship to the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland.
Nate was born and raised in Salt Lake City, but his culinary imagination was shaped by Brooklyn. His father grew up there and worked in Little Italy restaurants as a teenager before coming out to Utah to manage Italian kitchens and later work for an Italian import company. “I grew up in the kitchen,” Nate said. “I was always surrounded by Italian meats and cheeses and fine foods.” New York pizza was treated with near reverence. “They definitely fetishized the New York City pizza. The crispy crust. Folded in the middle. That was the standard.” Their favorite local spot was Big Apple Pizza on 3300 South, still serving the same slices decades later.
In Portland, Andrea immersed herself in design and communication arts while Nate studied psychology and began working as an assistant to an action sports photographer. He learned precision in the studio, how to light reflective goggles and capture motion mid-air. She spent hours drawing, designing, and imagining what might come next.
When Andrea graduated in 2006, they packed up their lives and moved to New York City. She worked for Core77 at the height of the blogging era, traveling to Milan for the furniture fair and taking on small design projects on the side. Nate studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and shot freelance work while absorbing the rhythm of the city. They lived like so many young New Yorkers, working hard, chasing opportunity, and eating pizza at all hours.
Then came 2008. When the economy collapsed, they faced a choice. Three more months in New York or move back to Utah and put a down payment on a house. They chose home.
Back in Salt Lake City, they found a home in Marmalade and began again. Andrea worked across freelance design, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, and local firms. Nate took over management of Twilight Lounge on Second South and eventually bought into the business. For ten years, it was a second home. When COVID shut everything down, the partnership no longer felt right, and they both knew it was time for something new.
That next chapter became the International Artist Lounge on State Street. The space already had a stage when they bought it, and that detail alone sparked an idea. With so many friends who were musicians, it felt natural to make it a place where music could thrive. Andrea handles the bookings, three bands a night, almost every night of the year. Nate designed and built the colorful back bar himself. “We pride ourselves on paying the artists,” Andrea said. “Every single one of them.” They call it a five-star dive bar and mean it with affection.
But even as International flourished, another idea continued to simmer. Before COVID, Nate had developed a building in Marmalade with plans for a neighborhood market, a project that dissolved in a partnership dispute. The experience stayed with him. “I still had that aspiration to serve the neighborhood we live in with great food,” he said. “And to create a neighborhood watering hole. A place where people get a cheap bite to eat and have a cheap beer and socialize with their neighbors.” The desire was not just to open a restaurant, but to anchor something lasting in the community where they were raising their children.
It was in 2022 that they noticed the “For Rent” sign and the phone number. Nate called. They rented it first, using it as a workshop to build furniture and pieces for International. When the timing felt right, they bought it outright. They named it Taverna.
Andrea and Nate have two children. Utah’s alcohol laws meant their kids could not step inside their International bar ever. “We wanted to include them in our business operations,” Nate said. “Bring them to work with us.” They also heard repeatedly from families that there were few places in the city where parents could enjoy a well-made cocktail and quality food while bringing their children along. It took several years, but this time, the dream was pizza, community, and a place that could hold more than one kind of night. In February 2026, they opened their doors.
The space is thoughtfully divided, one side a twenty-one and-over bar, the other a family-friendly dining room. Drinks can be enjoyed throughout, but the layout allows guests to see the bar without hiding it away. Upstairs, there is space for kids to gather, do homework, or play games while their parents linger at the table.
At the heart of the restaurant is its Italian-made oven, placed front and center. “We wanted to embrace that New York aspect,” Nate said. “The oven up front. Interacting with the pizzaiolo. Slices available all day.” Unlike conveyor-belt operations that tuck the pizza out of sight, Taverna makes the process visible. Guests can order a whole pie or stop in for a single slice that does not break the bank.
Nate describes their style as neo-New York. “The fathers were retiring, and the sons were taking over,” he explained of the evolution happening in pizza cities across the country. “We’re offering higher quality dough.” Where traditional shops often relied on bleached, bromated flour and lower hydration, Nate is blending organic flour from Logan and Central Milling with imported Italian flour. The dough ferments for three days. “By using higher quality flour, better cheese, organic tomatoes, the finished product is heavier but sits lighter in your stomach.” He has noticed that guests who come in intending to eat one slice often order a second, sometimes a third.
In the summer of 2025, Nate trained with three-time world champion pizzaiolo Giulio Adriani at a pizza university in Maryland. “Kind of mystical in the way he talks about the dough,” Nate said. The experience sharpened his technique, but the real work happens daily. “I’m the first one here. I make the dough. And if we don’t have a qualified pizzaiolo in the kitchen, that person is me.”
Square pies are coming next, both Sicilian and Detroit-style, each with their own character. “A deep dish is like a casserole,” he laughed. “We’re not doing that.” Instead, the focus remains on regional craft, texture, and balance. Salads and desserts will follow, but the heart of Taverna is simple. Excellent ingredients. Thoughtful technique. A place to gather.
Taverna feels deeply personal and unmistakably communal, an extension of Andrea and Nate’s home, their art, and the life they have built together. From art studios and darkrooms to bars, music stages, and now a neighborhood pizzeria tucked inside an old motorcycle shop, every step has been taken side by side. “Our motto was, you just live day by day and let’s see how long this lasts,” Andrea said. “And it did and it does.”
