For Adam and Meisha Ross, the opening of the LOMA restaurant on Main Street is a full circle move – it was here that they met 13 years ago.

“We actually met here at the Bistro the Sunday after Arts Fest,” Meisha said. “(Adam) quickly became the head chef at the Bistro, and back then the Bistro was a really great place to hang out. And so my girlfriend and I were there when Arts Fest was wrapping up.”

But it was another woman he impressed first, Meisha said, laughing.

“She left him a tip with her phone number,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, wait, yeah, he’s a good catch.’ … So I just started visiting the bistro a little more often.”

And so it began.

Their paths to Park City are somewhat correlated, Meisha said, as they both moved here from Colorado a year apart.

Adam grew up in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York and attended the Johnson and Wales culinary school in Denver right after high school at the age of 18. For him, moving to Park City was a strategic decision.

“It was clear to me that there were two options for building a career: big cities or holiday resorts. Personally, I have never been a fan of big cities,” he says.

A marketing professional by training, Meisha began her career at Arapahoe Basin, then operated by Vail Resorts, and later took a marketing position at Park City Mountain.

As a couple, they toyed with the idea of ​​opening a restaurant and were looking for buildings to rent.

“I think in Park City today, the building is always the first piece of the puzzle, especially for us. We’re trying to fund the process on our own, so we’re trying to be pretty fiscally responsible, and so obviously coming across an empty space in Park City is one thing. Coming across an empty space in Park City that we can afford is a whole other challenge,” Meisha said.

When the building on Snow Creek Drive became available, the two seized the opportunity and opened Twisted Fern in 2017.

The restaurant’s kitchen concept from the beginning was to “honor the roots of the ingredients,” Meisha said.

“In general, food actually tastes good, but sometimes we go a little overboard with the way we season the food or add sauces,” she said.

Many of the spicy sauces that come from French cuisine were created in a very different – and much less progressive – era, Adam said.

“Times have changed. We no longer try to cover up rancid meat, bad fish or spoiled vegetables,” he explained. “We have a very robust food economy where everything is quite fresh and delicious.”

Twisted Fern’s menu features many whole foods and locally sourced ingredients, the couple said, such as produce from Moonshadow Farm and domestically raised Utah elk.

The flavors are light and refreshing, with the idea that you can come in before or after a bike ride and still carry on with your day,” said Meisha. “The food is nutritious, it fills the body and gives you the energy you need for your activities.”

In their cozy setting, the Twisted Fern, they decided to explore the possibilities for a second restaurant, keeping the same philosophy for the cuisine but opting for a modern Italian style: homemade pasta and wood-fired pizza.

They have now been restaurant owners for seven years.

“When we opened Twisted Fern, we had a seven-month-old and then shortly after that I had another baby. So we also had the difficulties of being new parents and learning how to do this. So there were just a lot of challenges in general,” Meisha said.

And then, of course, there was the pandemic. Being a small business in Utah was actually an advantage at the time, they said.

“I think the beauty of being a small business is the ability to adapt quickly. There aren’t many layers you have to jump through to make a change,” Adam said. “With COVID, everything changed daily this year, a year and a half. You wake up, watch the news, see what you’re supposed to do that day, go to work and figure out how to get through the challenges of that day.”

Now that they are a little better prepared, they can apply these experiences to their second project with LOMA.

“I’ve learned a lot in seven years. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve improved. I know what to focus on, how to delegate better,” said Adam.

The couple has made a name for themselves in the community, which also helps.

Meisha’s marketing career has evolved, bringing her high-profile and local clients such as Kimball Arts Center and Festival and Woodward Park City. Adam’s time at Twisted Fern has proven his expertise.

“I think Adam has a really good reputation with the staff as well,” Meisha said. “People know he’s going to be in the thick of things and working just as hard.”

And it is a lot of work, they said, to prepare their premises on the lower Main, train the staff and finalize the menu.

For the second time, finding an affordable and available building on Main Street – this time with a wood-burning stove – helped bring LOMA to life.

“I think the location and the style of construction really complete the concept for me, so we’re not trying to put a square peg in a round hole,” Adam said.

Why not wood-fired pizza and a light summer menu to start, inspired by the large terrace?

As for new challenges, Meisha will have more time to parent her children alone as Adam’s workload increases as head chef of two restaurants. But her boys – Lachlan and Lander – are older, more involved in the process and are some of Adam’s biggest supporters and tasters.

“The boys are so proud of their dad and they’re so proud of Twisted Fern and LOMA,” Meisha said. “For them to be able to experience this and realize that nothing happens without a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication, that’s probably an important life lesson for them.”

LOMA is open daily for dinner and offers brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

“I just find the energy that I felt in the community when we started talking about LOMA really exciting,” Meisha said.

Reservations are now available on their website lomaparkcity.com and for Twisted Fern at twistedfern.com.