Authors: Heck Fork Grief
Food Review: Vertical Diner – January 2011
Set in the Meat Packing District a mile or so south of downtown, the Vertical Diner is a recycled space with a comfortable retro-post-punk vibe and uncompromising vegan diner-style food. A large part of the success of this place, for me, is that it doesn’t feel preachy about its do-gooder agenda. Being vegan requires a strict set of principles, but Vertical Diner doesn’t radiate any angry or groovy moral attitude. It’s like an artsy diner from the ‘80s in a big city like Kansas City or San Francisco. … read more
Johnny Kolache: Friends Wanted Here
Johnny Kolache is a little coffee shop-sized pastry joint serving Czechoslovakian pastries in a number of fine and tasty ways. The white walls of the joint are covered with the enthusiastic autographs and mementos of many happy customers. Johnny Kolache might be the most intentionally unpretentious place in Salt Lake, and yet everything about the eats and the friendly help says that there’s a lot of pride behind this family and their homestyle food. … read more
Food Review: Da Hotdog King
Troy King is called Da Hotdog King––as are his fleet of hotdog carts. As Salt Lake’s only genuine Chicago hotdog cart, this newest soon-to-be Utah legend sits on the corner of 400 South and Main Street on weekday afternoons. The proud owner of two carts in Chicago and two in Atlanta, King is the friendliest high-powered executive you’re ever likely to chat with over a steam table. … read more
Korean For Beginners
I asked several of my foodie friends to take me to Korean restaurants, and, independently, each ordered exactly the same thing for our meal: Beef Bul Go Gi and Dol Sot Bop along with the customary bowl of rice and various kimchee and vegetable side dishes. The meals were delicious and easy. Bul Go Gi is a Korean style beef barbecue; it is salty-sweet and not too spicy. It is sold everywhere in Korea, even at the 7-Eleven.
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The Copper Onion: Dinner at a Friend’s House
If I had to eat out every day, and could only pick one place in town to eat at, it would be The Copper Onion. The Copper Onion’s food flies against the wind of contemporary dining—it is simple, serious and from scratch. While one could complain that it is almost sentimentally traditional—think homemade fruit cream pies and hand-minced meat loaf—it’s tradition from a time passed and a place gone. I feel less like I am in a restaurant, and more that I am at a friend’s house, and they really know how to cook the hell out of cooking. … read more
The Tin Angel Café
Now starting their fifth year, The Tin Angel began with the ambition of Kestrel Liedke and her best friend Robin Fairchild, who dreamed about the project for years. The dream became a reality when Kestrel married chef Jerry Liedtke. Jerry, having set up more than a few restaurants and having worked in fine kitchens in Europe and at resorts had a firm idea about what makes a kitchen succeed. Thus was born one of Salt Lake’s culinary no-brainers. … read more
What Awesome Tastes Like: Curry Fried Chicken
What do superheroes eat after a hard day of do-gooding? Shawarma, of course. If you saw Joss Whedon’s latest movie, The Avengers, and you stayed for the second, post-credit end scene, you know what I’m talking about. Where do the local superheroes get a genuine shawarma in our little home of vice and virtue? Well, there is only one answer: Curry Fried Chicken. … read more
Thai for Two: Tasty Thai
Tasty Thai specializes in curries dominated by strong flavors that have the ancient earthiness of Thai, but also a tang of vinegar and fresh ingredients, sunlight-bright on the tongue and sour enough to draw happy tears. Fresh rainforest smells dominate the vocabulary of many of the more common dishes served here, and some of the more uncommon dishes are great versions of what I think of as homey. … read more
Squatters: The New Version of the Old Standby
Squatters started in 1989 as a great idea imported from Europe—a brewpub—and they did it well. Bangers and mash were among the first things on the menu, and the beer was, by today’s standards, so-so, but it was better than the sad brews others were making at the time. Popular right from the start, Squatters brought a whole retinue of imitators: brewpubs with their own, great beer and versions of pub food. None have become part of the DNA of Salt Lake in the way Squatters has. The first three restaurants out of my mouth when I talk Salt Lake eating to strangers looking for a place are Red Iguana, Market Street and Squatters. … read more
To the Housewarming Party: East Liberty Tap House
East Liberty Tap House sits at the sunset end of 9th East and 9th South. It started as rumors—initially conceived as a neighborhood bar, a symbol of Salt Lake’s progress. Here it is, not a full bar, but a tavern tucked inside a bright, tightly furnished, little restaurant.
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Tosh’s Ramen
Tosh’s Ramen is a church to worshippers of a passing time, where secrets are revealed in bowl after steaming bowl of flesh, water and wheat. The keeper of the flavor’s secret, Toshio Sekikawa, holds his congregation in thrall.
The Rest
The Rest is my “why Salt Lake is great” restaurant/bar of choice right now, which might be a problem, as it is so small and so special. I almost hate to share it with anyone new—not for fear that it will go away, but that there won’t be any room left for me. … read more
