Category: Utah

ChickenDog FriendlyUnited StatesUtah

The Crack Shack – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

Only culinary historians would call 2020 the “year of the fried chicken sandwich.”  Most of the rest of us would call 2020 the “year of the Cabrona virus” or the “year the world shut down.”  During that annus horribilis, some 50 chains introduced either brand new premium chicken sandwiches or upgraded former versions.  The instigator of the “chicken sandwich wars” was Chick-fil-A whose slogan boasts “we didn’t invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich.”  In response Popeyes Louisiana Chicken debuted its own crispy fried chicken sandwich and posted a mean tweet disparaging Chick-fil-A’s claim.   So why did comfort seeking consumers flock to chicken chains in 2020?  The answer to that question is in the question itself.  During the Cabrona…

Dog FriendlyItalianRated 25SandwichUtah

TONY CAPUTO’S MARKET & DELI – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

Most of us know someone like Lucy Van Pelt, the irascible, bossy, highly opinionated diva in the syndicated Peanuts comic strip.   Since her debut in 1952, Lucy has been the perpetrator of two long-running gags.  One involves her holding the football (ostensibly so that Charlie Brown can kick a field goal or extra point) and pulling the ball away because she doesn’t want Charlie Brown to get it dirty.  The second gag parodies the lemonade stand operated by many young children under spacious skies.  Instead of a lemonade stand, she operates a psychiatric booth where she offers advice and psychoanalysis for a nickel.  The “advice” is often worthless though on occasion, she actually dispenses a pearl of wisdom.  Lucy…

BakeryDonutsRated 23Utah

Banbury Cross Donuts – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

“Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, She shall have music wherever she goes.” ~The Dorling Kindersley Book of Nursery Rhymes While planning our culinary exploration of the Salt Lake City restaurant scene, there were a number of restaurants we categorized as “must visit.”  Among those in that rarefied air were restaurants with a national profile such as Tony Caputo’s Market & Deli and Freshie’s Lobster Co.  Another made our must visit solely on the basis of its name.  The name Banbury Cross probably doesn’t resonate with you if you’re not a bona fide Anglophile or if haven’t lived in the Cotswolds.  Having…

BarbecueDog FriendlyUtah

Blu Pig BBQ & Blues – Moab, Utah

Gil Garduno

For many of us barbecue is a noun as in “a social gathering at which barbecued food is eaten.”   For others it’s a verb (to roast or smoke food over wood using smoke at low temperatures over a long cooking time).  For the most passionate and devoted, barbecue is a way of life…even a religion.  That religion is practiced by large and small congregations in both outdoor and indoor temples throughout a portion of U.S. Highway 61.  The hymns wailed and warbled by choruses of angelic voices are the reason that portion of U.S. Highway 61 is known as the “Blues Highway.”  Rivaling Route 66 as the most famous road in American music lore, the portion of U.S. Highway 61…

Dog FriendlyPizzaUtah

Nomad East – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

A-Team leader “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard) used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  We learned during our trip to Salt Lake City that sometimes baking in a little flexibility into a well thought-out plan can produce results even better than expected.  Such was the case with our trip to Salt Lake City.   Capably assisted by my dear friend Becky Mercuri,  I did a lot of research on the Salt Lake City area restaurant scene, compiling a list of dozens of prospective restaurants.  We literally didn’t even begin winnowing down that list until just before setting out each day. Predictably, some of the critically acclaimed restaurants on our list were as good as expected.  More often…

Dog FriendlyFusionUtah

Harvest – Park City, Utah

Gil Garduno

Park City consistently ranks as Utah’s most expensive place to live with a $1.4 million median home price (as of July, 2021).   Not bad for an old mining settlement which was in danger of becoming a ghost town until a group of miners pitched the idea of a ski resort in an effort to save their town.  That was the start of the world-class mountain resort town Park City has become.  In 2002, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, both in the immediate area, were official venues for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.  For amateurs and professionals alike, Park City is a skier’s mecca, home to the largest ski resort in the United States.   Park City may…

Dog FriendlySandwichSeafoodUtah

Freshie’s Lobster Co. – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

The best lobster in the world?  In Salt Lake City?  That’s as improbable as the Detroit Lions winning a Super Bowl, as unlikely as drivers in New Mexico developing the motor skills to use turn signals, as far-fetched as a conservative NRA member driving a Subaru in Santa Fe.  As a landlocked state some two-thousand miles from the cold New England waters that produce the world’s most delicious lobsters, the notion that a Salt Lake City restaurant would be acclaimed as home of the “world’s best lobster roll” seems quite implausible indeed.  Even the concept that a lobster restaurant (other than Red Lobster) would experience wild success in Salt Lake City could be construed as rather fantastical.  Utah isn’t exactly…

BurgersDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyUtah

Proper Burger – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno

Television would have you believe Mars and Venus have different ideas as to what constitutes the proper way to eat a burger.  Representing Venus (women), as depicted in a Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s, is a geriatrically advanced woman who takes a small bite of her juicy burger then daintily wipes off the detritis with a napkin.  Representing Mars (men) is Food Network superstar Guy Fieri.  The platinum-coiffed restaurant impressario’s approach to properly eating a burger is mirrored by most of us Martians.  It’s not for the faint of heart or children and you shouldn’t attempt it without a net. If the burger is what some of us more seasoned folks might call a “Dagwood” (characterized by its skyscraper height…

BakeryClosed in 2022Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenUtah

Les Madeleine’s Patisserie Cafe – Salt Lake City, Utah (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

About fifteen years ago, Becky Mercuri, a highly-regarded food writer from upstate New York contacted me about a book she was working on to recognize the best breakfasts in every state.  I was already a huge fan of Becky’s writing so when she asked for my input on the best breakfast in New Mexico, I considered it a huge honor.  It didn’t take very long before Becky and I began a daily dialogue not only on food, but on virtually every topic under the son.  The more we shared with each other, the more our kindred interests revealed themselves.  We discovered so many mutual interests that it called to mind something Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle once said: “A friend…

AmericanDog FriendlySouthernUtah

Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeaid

Gil Garduno

In 2008, Natchez, Mississippi, was officially named the Biscuit Capital of the World, a process which took three years of research by Chef Regina Charboneau.  Just our luck, the Natchez native and French-trained chef began serving her famous biscuits at her Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez a decade after our last visit to the “Antebellum Capital of the World.”  While we didn’t get to partake of Chef Charboneau’s celebrated biscuits (revered by the Rolling Stones), our breakfasts in Natchez were memorable because biscuits in the Mississippi River town are truly “biscuit capital” worthy. In the quarter-century plus since we lived in Mississippi, we haven’t missed the oppressive humidity or the politics (on par with New Mexico and let’s just…

Dog FriendlyFine DiningUnited StatesUtah

Desert Bistro – Moab, Utah

Gil Garduno

My Kim didn’t buy my explanation that Moab is an acronym standing for “Mother Of All Buffets.”  She did find my legitimate explanation viable.  I explained that Moab means “a land just short of the Promised Land,” a name bestowed  because the Moab valley was a verdant oasis in the middle of a desert.  Moab first appears in the Old Testament book of Genesis and is situated in ancient Palestine just east of the Dead Sea where Jordan now lies.  Because of the physical similarities to the desert jewel of the Old Testament, the small Utah town founded by Mormon settlers in the 1800s was dubbed Moab. When we first visited the Moab area nearly three decades ago, its breath-taking…