Don’t worry, everyone: I’m alive and well and living in … Salt Lake City! That’s right, my dear readers, I’ve whittled my personal belongings down to two suitcases, strapped my guitar to my back, and made my journey to the foreign land of Utah. Sound exciting? Ok, it’s not really, but it’s kind of exciting in a slightly amusing, messed-up, masochistic way. I mean, the last time I’ve had a conversation with someone who was chewing tobacco was on the tailgate of a pick-up truck at my rural Arizona high school. Now I just make my way to the Urban Lounge and I’m sure to find a tobacco spittin’ good time.
Signs that SLC is not NYC:
1. The people here are really (really really really) nice. One morning at Smith’s Marketplace, my cashier was an elderly woman training on the register. With nobody behind me in line, she chatted for nearly five minutes just to see how I was feeling. She told me how much she loved life, loved people, and looooved her new job. Coralie and I were her eighth and ninth customers.
2. The city blocks are miles long. If something is two blocks away, it can turn out to be a twenty minute walk. But nobody here walks! I don’t know if it’s because of the lack of walkers, but there are no trashcans on the street corners. Does having no trashcans on the street corners make for a dirty city? Surprisingly not … oh yeah, because NOBODY WALKS! It makes downtown feel like a ghost town. Everyone in cars. Feels so backwards.
3. Etude pour un cône isolé:
I’ve never had a fear of open spaces, although seeing this lonely cone in a giant empty lot, I couldn’t help feeling a bit agoraphobic.
4. I’ve been trying to eat healthy, but with McDonalds across the street, I’ve been failing … miserably.
There seems to be a lack of good restaurants here. Does anyone know of good restaurants in Salt Lake? Coralie seems to find our “disgusting American food” at least somewhat entertaining. Like candy you spray in your mouth.
5. The change of pace has been nice. While I enjoy the energy of New York, I’m also enjoying the chance to relax and play music. Life is so slow now. I measure time by bands I’ve seen and bands I’m about to see.
Figurines @ Kilby Court w/ Tapes n’ Tapes
Liars @ In The Venue
Fiery Furnaces @ In The Venue
All in all, I’m happy for this little vacation here in Salt Lake, where every day feels like the weekend.
My personal SLC restaurant: Bombay House. That’s some delicious Indian cuisine that I already miss. Blue Iguana is good Mexican food. Bajio Grill is good budget Mexican food. I’ve heard The Melting Pot is a really good fondue place, but we were always too cheap to go there and it was always packed and a long wait without a reservation.
PS: Glad you’re alive.
do you mean red iguana? hell yeah — that may be my favorite mexican food in the whole us of a. pick a mole, any mole!
there’s an afghan restaurant downtown somewhere — probably the only one in the yellow pages if you look — that’s not bad either.
nathan, what are you doing in SLC? please tell me you’re just visiting, and that you’ll be back in NYC shortly (unless of course this all has to do with a cute french girl, though i’m not sure why she’d want to be in SLC either…)
There is a Red Iguana (736 W. North Temple) and a Blue Iguana (165 S. West Temple). I ate at one a long time ago with you, Bry, so it must have been Red and not Blue. I just remember it being quite tasty.
Yeah, yeah, red iguana — a little overly fond of cheese, but good enough eating for SLC. In Salt Lake City. Some of these are recommendations from Vanessa Chang, food editor for Salt Lake magazine (I haven’t been to Pine or Metropolitan) — if you check out her blog you’ll find other good eateries: http://shecraves.typepad.com — there’s some great Asian restaurant that’s supposed to be fantastic and it’s somewhere on her blog. Also, the New World Cafe is supposed to be good enough and it’s pay what you wish.
Red Rock Brewing Company — great pizza, sandwiches, beer is good, too. Downtown
Lugano (3364 S. 2300 East, (801) 412-9994—Italian Millcreek/Holladay area.
Pine (4760 S. 900 East, (801) 288-2211—From the owners of Lugano. It’s “American” food that ranges from really good ribs and burgers to braised lamb shanks and fresh (sustainable) fish. In Murray.
Squatters Pub (147 W. Broadway(300 South), (801) 566-5474)—A casual brewery, Downtown SLC.
Metropolitan (173 W. Broadway(300 South), (801) 364-3472)— Very posh. Downtown SLC
Martine (22 E. 100 South, (801) 363-9328)—specialize in tapas (generously portioned) but only for dinner — lunch is good, but not tapas. Downtown SLC
Em’s (271 N. Center Street, (801) 596-0566)—Great, again, on the special-night-out side, pricewise. Capitol Hill neighborhood.
that’s all a little yuppified, isn’t it? where do the hippie kids eat? or the punks? red rock made me want to slit my wrists last time i was there.
Those Iguana places are good. I didn’t see much to like a Red Rock. (This was years ago.) There was a weird 1960s fine-dining hamburger place on West 3rd and maybe North Temple that I’d go to sometimes — kind of like a Howard Johnsons. One of those bizarre Utah time warp places.
i wrote a short story once set at bill and nada’s — where is that? over in trolley square? — but i don’t remember anything about the food.
Bill and Nada is no more. They tore it down.
The punks (hippies, stoners and college kids) used to eat at VI (Viilage Inn) at 4th and 9th.
(And once in a while at the one on State Street where they had some really cool waiteresses that would give you free pie.)
If I lived in Salt Lake again I’d do a lot more of the strange, slightly dangerous, places that never attract a following and never will. Like the bars and Mexican joints on State street. Start with Bar X at the top of list and work down.
There are fissures in that town that cut the culture like slot canyons in the Colorado Plateau. If you look for it, it can be a real life David Lynch movie.
>There are fissures in that town that cut the culture like slot canyons in the Colorado Plateau. If you look for it, it can be a real life David Lynch movie.
can anyone say elizabeth smart?
I’m here in salt lake playing music with my cousin will. i’ll be here until august and then we’re going on tour to europe. i just got my plane ticket to paris!! yeah!
i’m just around the corner from smiths and wild oats near trolley square —
i’ve eaten at the new world cafe. ehh. it was cool that i could pay however much i wanted but the food was kind of bland. i passed by the squatters pub today .. i’ll give that a try. thanks for recommendations everyone!
Glad to see you’re alive and well. And more importantly, rocking out more than ever before (or maybe equally as before, you’d really have to be the judge on that I suppose).
New York is getting sticky. What are summers like in Salt Lake? I think the next time I move, it’s going to be for climate. Or love. Whichever one works out best.
93 and drrryyyyyyyyy
yes, and it’s that climate that makes that watery beer they serve so delicious. It’s really more like “beer punch” than real beer.
When will you be in Paris? Brian and I are there Sept. 5-12.
try to take a bus to any of the Savers…department store sized thrift stores in pretty seedy neighborhoods…which is fun in Salt Lake.
I eat at Lone Star Taqueria every time I’m in town. The best fish tacos anywhere (which have, incidentally, been mentioned on TGW in a post by BW approximately in March. Lone Star is on Fort Union Blvd just off Highland drive. It’s worth the trip!
Payday Loans…
thank you!!…