This quick little article from About.com gives a pretty good list for the best hamburgers in Salt Lake City.
My personal favorite is Crown Burger. They have the best pastrami burgers in the area piled high with pastrami on top of ground beef patty. Add their onion rings with fry sauce and you have the greasiest meal in the city.
Enjoy!
Jonny Goldstein is from New York, but he traveled to Brunswick, Ohio and got his first taste of The Midwest Jello Pretzel Salad. He shared his experience with us.
Bonnie Nelson was nice enough to explain the details to him:
“It’s just your basic midwest doncha know yeah sure cookin’.”
“What makes this thing a hit is the salty with the sweet thing goin’ on.”
Jello is a popular dish here in Utah, but I have never seen this pretzel salad. I guess it hasn’t gotten over to the Mormons yet. It sure looks delicious, though.
This time of year, there are lines all day and into the evening at Iceberg Shakes. The hot weather brings us Utahns out to partake of the creamy goodness. At times, people will wait in line for forty-five minutes for their shake. Iceberg is beloved all over town.
When you read the first review of the Iceberg on Citysearch, however, you get another view entirely:
“Oreo? I went to the iceberg ready for a good shake. I ordered an Oreo shake and I think the only Oreo that got in the cup could have been a speck of dirt. There was nothing in my shake. Thinking it was a fluke I went back, and again ordered an Oreo shake. Well much to my suprise this one was poor as well. I don’t think the shakes were good at all. I say keep looking!”
I have to agree. The quality of the shakes is variable. What you get one day will be entirely different than you get the next. I used to order pistachio shakes and got a vanilla shake with some pistachios in it. Then out of the blue, one day, I got a bright green pistachio flavored shake with NO nuts. (?!) I came back a week later and ordered a pistachio shake and got the vanilla and nut variety. It was such a hassle to get something consistent that I have stopped going there entirely.
Yet, the restaurant is BELOVED! The lines form every day with people clamoring for the “famous” shakes. I don’t quite understand it, but that doesn’t make it any less of a Utah tradition. If you come to Salt Lake City, you MUST stop at Iceburg and have a very variable and maybe even displeasing shake. It’s the rules, you know.
Where: Iceberg Drive-Inn
Jim Reams wrote a weblog of his own for years. When he decided to open his BBQ restaurant, he announced it on his weblog. Opening day he had a crowd of fifty readers at the door. See this video of Jim describing the Nashville style of BBQ and his business.
You can read Jim’s weblog here:
BBQ is a fierce competition in the United States:
“Texas does beef. Tennesse does pork.”
With so much contention in the world, I actually feel a happy comfort with the idea that Texas and Tennessee think they understand BBQ. It’s when the Mormons learn how to BBQ green Jello that the fighting will turn ugly.
Real Live Preacher traveled to Tennessee to perform a wedding for a former member of his little church in Texas. While there, he sampled the famed Tennessee BBQ and visited the tourist town of Sevierville. Read his adventures here:
Next time you are traveling, bring along a notebook and record your thoughts about the places you see. Having a record of your journeys will let you relive your trip over and over.
Whether you’re east of the Mississippi or west of it doesn’t matter. It seems that everyone loves a good BBQ. Tangy, sweet, spicy or flaming, a good BBQ sauce can make or break an outdoor affair. It doesn’t matter if you’re staying home for the holiday or traveling, if you’re from the United States, you will be invited to at least one BBQ. Here are some recipes to help you know what to bring:
Have a happy Independence Day. If you’re not from the United States, celebrate your Tuesday the American way and have a BBQ tonight. Enthrall your senses and tantalize your tastebuds. Give your mouth a vacation.
The first time we drove to San Diego, we took a break in Barstow, California. We were tired and wanting to get to our hotel, but we were many miles away. We stopped at Barstow Station and ate at the Havana Hut inside. The Cuban empanadas were so delicious that we have stopped at Barstow Station every time we’ve driven through ever since.
This time, we took some pictures before we ate so you could enjoy the flaky pastries and beefy goodness with us.
Barstow Station is a tourist trap of the best kind. There are kitschy items to buy, many varieties of food to choose from and a spot to rest when you’re just sick of driving and wish you were in San Diego already.
Even though your gas tank doesn’t need a fill up in Barstow, take a few moments and eat a beef empanada at the Havana Hut in Barstow Station. You’ll thank me for it. I promise.
No trip to Texas would be complete without eating real barbeque. Not that stuff that you mix in with your ground beef for sloppy joes, I’m talking REAL Texas Barbeque. Stubb’s is the restaurant to indoctrinate you.
At true Texas man, Christopher B. Stubblefield had many wild adventures before he opened the current restaurant in Austin, Texas. From learning to cook in Lubbock, Texas, to serving 10,000 soldiers in the Korean War, Stubbs has kept the eating experience a beautiful fusion of food and music. Stubb’s restaurant has been the home to many famous live musicians who have played for their supper.
The BBQ sauce is such a legend that you can probably purchase it in your local grocery store. Imagine Mike’s surprise when he saw Stubb’s now-familiar face beaming down at him from the shelf in Salt Lake City, Utah. A little piece of Texas was waiting in our grocery store all along and he had to travel all the way to Austin to find it.
No trip to Austin is complete without a visit to Stubb’s Restaurant.
Where: 801 Red River Austin, Texas Google Map Phone: 512-480-8341
I’m always fascinated by restaurants that name themselves after a city. Big Apple Pizzeria is one of those places that focuses on how “New York” their pizza is. Having never been to New York, pizza is something that I equate with my hometown, Salt Lake City, so having them brag about being like New York pizza isn’t really an enticement to me.
Good food is, though.
We went to Big Apple to try out their original “Bender”. In their own words:
“A Bender is Big Apple Pizza’s own original creation. Your choice of meat and cheese is heated on pizza crust then topped with onion, green pepper, lettuce and tomato and then folded over to create a delicious pizza bread sandwich.”
When I read that description off the menu that had been left on my windshield out loud to Mike, we decided to go to Big Apple the next day. We HAD to go on a Bender…
Since there were no pictures of a Bender, I had to ask the guy behind the counter about it:
“Is it messy?”
“Messy?”
“Yeah, is it going to drip?”
“Yeah, it will probably drip.”
He should have just told me that I wouldn’t be able to eat it with my hands. It’s definitely a knife and fork meal, so don’t order it and expect to be able to eat it on the run in your car. That being said, it is worth every second you spend at the table with your knife and fork. Food this good shouldn’t be eaten on the run.
To top off the meal, we ordered their cannoli:
“Your menu said you have cannolis?”
“Yeah, which do you want, chocolate or normal?”
Mike and I looked at each other and I answered, “One of each.”
We have been driving up to Park City for our cannolis because we haven’t been able to find a good one down here. The ones from Big Apple were a little too sweet for my taste. I prefer the marscapone to be a little more savory, so we’ll still go up to Park City for cannolis, but there is no where else where we can get a Bender.
It’s a Salt Lake City Original, and that’s something to brag about!
Where (Two Locations):
2939 East 3300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah Google Map Phone: 801-485-4534
7206 South 900 East, Midvale, Utah Google Map Phone: 801-568-9095
This sandwich board stopped my power-walk home from the gym dead in its tracks. I stopped my chronograph and grabbed my camera out of my bag. I started taking pictures and looking for the cafe.
Across the way from the raw food bar and next door to the oxygen bar, sits Great Grains Cereal Bar. You can walk in and have a bowl of cereal. That’s all they sell is cereal. There is a chain of these specialty cafes called Cereality, but Great Grains has nothing to do with them. They are a home-grown cereal bar, just like we like our quirky restaurants.
When you walk in, you’re confronted with a long line of cereal choices. You can purchase a big bowl or a small bowl and you get to mix your cereal from your favorites.
They also have a selection of hot cereals for a total of twenty to choose from. You can top your cereal off with a wide variety of fresh fruits and flavored milks. There are so many choices, I can almost feel my mind locking up right now.
If your brain does lock up at all the choices, there are some suggestions on the wall to spark your imagination. Depending on your toppings and bowl sizes, a good bowl of cereal will probably cost you between 1-3 dollars.
They also have juice, coffee and hot chocolate for your drinking needs (not to mention the wide variety of flavored milks). You can sit down with a hot cup of coffee and a bowl of Raisin Bran with mango flavored milk.
When my sister told me about the Cereality in Chicago, I wanted to try the place out. I was jealous that they were going to Chicago without us. Here we are, the crazy Metropolitan trends are coming to our town today. We have our own cereal bar, who needs Chicago?
Where: 2148 S. Highland Dr. Salt Lake City, Utah Google Map Phone: 801-485-6300
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