A lover of old things, and a keeper of weird Utah lore, Ken Sanders is opening his eponymous Rare Books store to the downtown SLC museum.
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You know how sometimes you’ve never heard about something and then, once you hear about it, you see and hear about it everywhere? Carl Jung called this phenomenon “synchronicity” and we’ve got some serious synchronicity going on here with freeze-dried candy. Yes. It’s a thing we just heard about and now it’s everywhere we look. And, of course, Utah is all about it.
See, Utah is into food storage, canning, preserving and setting aside a sizeable food supply for, well, the “latter days.” Yes, it’s a Mormon thing, but it’s also just plain practical. And practical is our jam (or preserve?). About 10 years ago, a Utah company called Harvest Right rolled out a consumer-grade freeze dryer that went over like gangbusters here in the home of the well-stocked pantry.
Commercial freeze dryers cost a bundle but, suddenly, the same technology that brought us astronaut ice cream, Dippin’ Dots and gourmet backpacking meals appeared in homes. These devices were purchased under the guise of dutiful food storing and healthy meal preparation but it was obviously not long before somebody was like, “Hey, what happens when I put some Skittles in this thing?”
What happens is magic. Freeze drying removes moisture and skittles puff up (like popped kernels) and burst into a whole new way to “taste the rainbow.” And it’s not just Skittles, although they are popular, says Harvest Right owner Matt Neville.
“Freeze dryers alter the candy into a new kind of fizzy, crunchy thing,” he says, “People are trying Jolly Ranchers, gummy bears, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, everything.”
There are dozens of YouTube videos dedicated to the practice and, Neville says, it has also sparked new home-based businesses and other entrepreneurial efforts. For example, Richerd Clark, who, along with his wife, owns the American Fork location of Jack’s Donuts, started selling freeze-dried candy in the shop, online and wholesale to grocery stores under the name Salt City Treats.
“The pandemic gave us a reason to try it and, frankly, now we do more candy sales than our bakery products,” Clark says. “People want their sugar.”
Jack’s Donuts
456 E. State St., American Fork
801-208-9900
Harvest Right
95 N. Foxboro Dr., North Salt Lake
800-700-5508
It’s a melting pot, they always say of America—immigrants crossing seas (and these days, guarded borders) to meld tradition and culture into an increasingly complicated stew, now simmering into its third century. So how is it that one of Utah’s best examples of the great American experiment is a quarter-pound patty of char-grilled hamburger topped with a wad of thin-sliced pastrami?
The Pastrami Burger is quite the genealogical riddle. The mind boggles when you discover its Utah prominence can be laid at the feet of a Greek immigrant who learned to make it from a Turk in California, where Hebrew delicatessen food had found its way into a few burger stands.
Utah’s community of Greek immigrants has deep roots. Following the western mining boom that came with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, these settlers arrived in Utah beginning in the late 1890s. A Greektown sprang up near where the rail spur entered the city, and by 1911, it was one of SLC’s liveliest districts, lined with coffeehouses and saloons, and filled with merchants selling olive oil, figs, octopus and dates.
Greektown is no more. Its most lasting physical remnant is the Greek Orthodox Church on 300 West. But the immigrants had children, and those children opened burger joints, with mythical names like Apollo Burger and Olympus Burgers and not-so-mythical names like B&D Burgers and, the most royal of all, Crown Burgers.
It was Crown Burgers’ founder Manuel Katsanevas from whose head, like Athena from Zeus’, sprang the Pastrami Burger, fully formed and ready for battle. Katsanevas learned of the mythical pairing of pastrami and burger from his late brother James, who had picked up the combo in California, from the aforementioned anonymous Turk. But Katsanevas doesn’t like to admit that. Turks and Greeks don’t get along as well as pastrami and ground beef.
The resultant creation is served at almost every Greek originated burger spot. In the Socratic tradition, the essential burger is the logos and each restaurant imparts its particular impression. At the Apollo it is dubbed the Apollo Burger. At Olympus Burgers they call it the Olympus Burger. At Crown Burgers it is the Crown Burger, and so forth. The combination and the unique whole it creates informs them all. The paprika-spicy pastrami melds with the smoky char-grilled beef to create a pile of salty flavor, designed, it seems, by the old gods to make your mouth water. In Utah, it’s all Greek to us.
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All I can say is, “Yeah, I get it. I’m a whale stuck in a traffic circle in Salt Utah.”
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From his dad's hotel in Idaho to big names in Utah, Bruce Fery has spent his whole career in the hotel scene. Meet the man behind Salt Lake's landmark hotel.
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A few years ago, we were wondering how to tell a joke. “Well,” we asked. “Who do we know who’s funny?” We found Andy Farnsworth, a local comic who describes himself as “born in Chicago, styled in Los Angeles, toughened in New York City, and battle-tested in a casino five miles outside of Butte, Mont.” In our quest, Andy was pretty much no help. “You can’t know what’s funny until you get up there,” he told us.
Andy has been “getting up there” for a while now and on April 29, 2022 he’ll return to The State Room to record his second stand-up comedy special. (His current album “Between Haircuts” was a SiriusXM Raw Dog Comedy Top 10 Standup Album of 2020, he’ll have you know). Get your hair done, put your makeup on, and come be a part of Salt Lake City comedy history.
Along with his standup, Andy’s Wandering the Aisles podcast is quickly gaining note among comedy fans and hardcore podcast enthusiasts alike. Described as “Impulse buys with commentary from Earth’s most interesting regular people,” the show was created in 2014 as an out-in-the-world documentary happening that explored New York City on foot. Collaborative curiosity and emotional explorations guided these journeys to places such as the Staten Island Ferry, Central and Prospect Parks, Alpha Donuts in Queens, the Union Square subway station, and a Brooklyn Barber Shop.
You kind of have to see Andy’s act to understand what we mean when we call it a “fun meltdown.” Basically, if we were therapists, Andy Farnsworth would for sure be our favorite client. (C’mon, you know therapists pick their favorites.) Here are a couple of clips on Instagram (“Things are Going to Be Fine” and “Bed Bath & Beyond“) so you can see what we mean. Anyway, you don’t have to be an LCSW to show up at the State Room and get your laughs onto the video and audio. Tickets are $20. Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Visit stateroompresents.com for more.
Every day some finance bro on an expense account discovers there’s something other to drink than Bud Light and Jägermeister and has to tell me about it. Yeah. Bro. Say “the angel’s share” again and order the table another round of $75 Pappy Van Winkle shots. Thanks. I’ve had more ounces of whiskey than days this 25-year-old Goldman Sachs account exec has been alive and there’s not enough of it in the world to tolerate listening to him saying “notes of leather” one more time. Would ordering a shot of Beam drive him away?
Bro. Forget Pappy. Japanese whisky (no “E”) is the new, although not new, thing and one Salt Lake bar is ahead of the curve. Post Office Place has always had Nipponese leanings, being the next-door sibling of Takashi. But POP General Manager Rich Romney and Beverage Director Crystal Daniels have taken that inclination to the next level and built out a full library of Japanese juice. They back it up with a deep knowledge of the intricacies of booze from a country 5,000 miles away.
Daniels found her passion for Japanese whisky and rice whisky (more on that in a minute) when, like all of us, her palate finally grew up. “When I was young I drank a lot of Scotch because I thought it was badass.” What she discovered with Japanese spirits, however, was a wide spectrum that ranges from delicate to intense. “I used to think I needed something that would punch me in the face, but now I enjoy spirits that whisper to me.”
Daniels didn’t stray that far from her youth, actually. See, the roots of Japanese whisky come from Scotland. In the 1920s, Japan was one of the biggest markets for Scotland’s famous spirits and two men, Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru, set out to make Japanese whisky. Taketsuru traveled to Scotland to learn from the masters and brought back the knowledge that would meld Scottish technique with Japanese fastidiousness at Japan’s first distillery, the Yamazaki Distillery.
“Eventually, Japanese whisky would taste more in common with Irish whiskey than Scotch,” Romney says. “The Japanese like to consume whiskey with food and the early distillers learned to make their own spirits more nuanced, less aggressive.”
But wait, there is more. It’s called “rice whisky” and paradoxically you can only get it in the United States—Takashi even has its own label. Rice whisky is made from shochu, a distilled rice (or grain) spirit made in Japan, but in Japan, there are rules about what shochu can be and it can’t be whisky, even though it can. An enterprising importer saw that shochu makers were trying new things, aging the spirit in various casks for example, but couldn’t sell their variations in Japan, and thus “rice whisky” arrived in America as a whole new category of spirit.
And all of this, a new frontier of whisky, is waiting for you at Post Office Place. A good place to start is POP’s Japanese Whisky Wednesdays when every pour is 20% off. Daniels and Romney will be there as your guides.
“I always ask someone who hasn’t tried a lot of Japanese whiskys what their preference is from bourbon to Scotch, and can help them discover something familiar but entirely new,” Daniels says.
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Our bartender in San Diego scrunched up her face with an incredulous look and asked, “Oceanside? Why are you going there?” This was a common sentiment among citified southern Californians who still hold images of an Oceanside with a reputation for brawling Marines, low-rent car dealerships and sprawling train yards. Human memory is persistent but not always accurate. Oceanside, one hour by train from San Diego, has changed a lot since our bartender last visited. Yes. Oceanside still maintains some of its grit and, unlike other California beach destinations, it has no plans to sand it off. That’s a good thing.
AHEAD, THEN BEHIND
In the days before Southern California was connected and clogged with its vast network of four-lane concrete arteries, there was one road—Highway One. Early car travelers ventured south from Los Angeles, often headed to Mexico for liquor during Prohibition. To make the trip, they would cross the large un-serviced Rancho Santa Margarita before arriving in Oceanside. The little town became an ideal spot to stop and stay in one of the nation’s first “travelers hotels,” or Motels. When WWII broke out, the U.S. Department of the Navy commandeered Rancho Margarita to build Camp Pendleton. Thousands of raw Marine recruits arrived in town along with builders and their families who followed the work to carve out Pendleton. Oceanside boomed. The post-war ascendance of the automobile made Oceanside a destination for car buyers and the town’s new dealerships became the place for the Greatest Generation to buy its shiny Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Fords.
But then, bust. California sprawl and cheaper land elsewhere saw the big dealers move closer to the metro areas, leaving the husks of giant showrooms behind. These shells were occupied by down-market used car dealers. Meanwhile, the rise of malls and megaplexes in the ’60s and ’70s gutted Oceanside’s once-bustling town center. It didn’t help that one of the state’s largest railroad switchyards, built during the war, was a giant eyesore in the middle of town. (The switchyard was moved in the ’90s onto Camp Pendleton, much to town boosters’ relief.)
But these downsides became upsides, says Oceanside historian Kristi Hawthorne. “We were largely overlooked and while everyone else was tearing down old buildings, neighborhoods and architectural treasures, we were left alone.”
THE ONCE- GREAT BECOMES NEXT-GREAT
Hawthorne and her colleagues at the Oceanside Historical Society lead free two-hour walking tours (visitoceanside.org, 760-722-4786) that highlight this “lucky” preservation. She points to neighborhoods filled with charming, stick-built bungalows including, famously, the “Top Gun House,” where Tom Cruise’s Maverick famously bedded Kelly McGillis’ Charlie Blackwood in the 1986 film, and palatial movie theaters featuring beautifully garish neon signs. For example, the Star Theater (402 N. Coast Hwy, startheatreco.com) with its space-age marquee, now bills local musical theater performances. Some of the old car showrooms are being gutted to become restaurants and craft breweries like the Bagby Beer Company (601 S. Coast Highway, bagbybeer. com). The works of architect Irving Gill, the minimalist modern architect who designed with subtle North African flair, are also a point of town pride—see The Americanization School (1210 Division St.), the still operational Fire Station No. 1 (714 Pier View Way), The Blade Tribune
Building (401 Seagaze Dr.) and the original City Hall (300 N. Coast Hwy.).
PLAY
At its heart, Oceanside is a beach town and thus home of the California Surf Museum (312 Pier View Way, 760-721-6876). The highlight is the shark-bit surfboard and the accompanying story of pro surfer Bethany Hamilton who lost her arm but ultimately survived an encounter with a tiger shark off the coast of Kauai. Good news: There are no tiger sharks off the coast of Oceanside—its beachfront is a wide, perfectly sandy stretch, marked midway by the state’s longest wooden pier (home of an irascible pelican named Charlie). On either side of the pier, the reliable break brings a daily line-up of surfers waiting for sets. Before you paddle out on your own consider a lesson. The family-owned shop Surf Ride (1909 S. Coast Hwy., Oceanside, 760-433-4020, surfride.com) offers lessons three times a week as well as gear rental. Or rent a rod and reel from the pier’s bait shop or a bike or 4-person surrey and cruise the strand.
DINE
Surf towns require breakfast. Oceanside’s go-to is Petite Madeline (223 N. Coast Hwy., 760-231-7300, petitemadelinebakery.com) with house-made pastries and heartier options. But then there is toast. How good can toast be? Find out at Camp Coffee (101 N. Cleveland St., 442-266-2504, campcoffeecompany.com) where cutsey coffee drinks (think S’mores) are served with hearty slices of “camp toast” a panini-style hunk of wonder.
Start a night out with a flight of Santa Barbara wine from Coomber Craft Wines (611 Mission Ave., 760-231-8022, coomberwines.com) on a fantastically chill patio. Up the block is Mission Ave Bar and Grill (711 Mission Ave., 760-637-2222, missionavebarandgrill.com), a whiskey-forward joint (more than 200 tipples in the library) with a meticulously blended Eternal Pour bottle behind the bar.
The phrase “let’s go out for Balinese” is not a thing, yet. But Dija Mara (232 S. Coast Hwy., 760-231-5376, dijamara.com) is well on its way to making it so. For the big meal of your trip, try Master’s Kitchen & Cocktail (208 S. Coast Hwy., 760-231-6278, mastersoceanside.com) where 28-year-old wunderkind Chef Andre Clark has unstuffified the menu. Clark got his start here, left for apprenticeship in some of San Diego’s finest kitchens and has returned with whiz-bang energy. For starters he’s got a thing for albacore. Yes. Ahi’s canned cousin, Clark points out, is caught locally, “Why am I serving tuna from Hawaii when I’m a chef in California?” Why indeed.
STAY:
Part of Oceanside’s rejuvenation has been the renovation of the old traveler hotels like The Fin Boutique Hotel (133 S. Coast Hwy., 760-279-6300, thefinhotel.com). com). Originally opened as the Keisker Hotel in 1927, The Fin preserves the mosaic tile lobby floor, the original grand wooden-rail staircase and the Tiffany windows, but, thankfully, updates the rest. (read: ensuite water closets). OK, it’s a chain but the Oceanside Springhill Suites boasts a rooftop pool with ocean views and is steps from the waterfront. Beachfront Only (beachfrontonly.com) is a vacation rental service offering, as the name says, a selection of on-the-beach properties from cozy cottages to 10-bedroom redoubts for the big reunion (friends, family, whatever).
This article originally appeared in the 2020 January/February edition of Salt Lake magazine and was originally published on saltlakemagazine.com on March 22, 2020
Every year Salt Lake magazine hands out its Dining Awards to standouts in Utah’s dining scene. This year we decided that we wouldn’t decide. Instead, we asked the top names in the city’s food and beverage biz to tell us who they think are the top chefs and restaurants. We discovered a whole lotta love. See, the players in Utah’s dining scene are fighting a lot. They’re fighting Byzantine liquor law and chain competition paired with stubbornly unadventurous Utah palates (more on that in a minute) that opts for quantity over quality. (“The food’s terrible but the portions are amazing!”)
All of this and a bloody pandemic.
But they are not fighting each other.
The nominators in our Chef’s Choice edition of the Salt Lake Magazine Dining Awards each graciously and enthusiastically pointed out one of their peers (technically competitors) for recognition, without hesitation. Because, as Andrew Fuller of Oquirrh Restaurant opined, “I’ll just say it, Utah still has this stigma that nothing is going on in the food scene and the only thing to eat is Café Rio. And that is not the case. We are all fighting together to prove that wrong.”
To a person, each one of the nominators and nominees we talked to create this year’s Dining Awards echoed Fuller’s acknowledgment of this lingering, outdated vision of Utah dining. There is a solidarity among Utah’s food stars who, frankly, have a chip on their shoulders.
“People who travel a lot always tell us,” Fuller continued. “Oquirrh could be in New York or Chicago or this or that place. It’s kind of a back-handed compliment.”
It is.
We have our own thing. We’ve had it for a long time and it keeps getting better and more diverse. So, we’ll keep beating that drum. These chefs deserve your dollars, your time and your curiosity. And, we once again hope our attention will help you discover the greatness in your own backyard.
See the full list of 2022 Salt Lake Magazine Dining Award winners. Subscribe to the magazine for more of life in the Beehive State.
Nominee: Milo Carrier of Arlo Restaurant
Milo Carrier hasn’t stopped cooking since he was 16 years old, his wife Brooke Doner explains. “His mom was very egalitarian with chores,” she says, chuckling. “If Milo cooked he didn’t have to help clean up.” Their restaurant Arlo opened in the space where Em’s used to be on Capitol Hill and has become a city favorite.
“I went to college at the U, floundered around there for a while, before I realized I wanted to pursue culinary school,” Milo says. “I moved to San Francisco and worked there for six years but eventually came back to Salt Lake City with the idea that I wanted to open my own restaurant.”
The couple started in SLC with pop-up events and catering, including a series of “Caterpillar Dinners” in unlikely locations like the foothills of SLC and empty warehouses. At Arlo, Milo gets to explore his ever-changing concept of cuisine, with a seasonal menu that never stays the same from month to month.
“For me, Arlo is non-linear and not stuck in time,” he says. “We’re always looking for new influences and are open to all cuisines. Arlo is whatever it is today and whatever it will be tomorrow, at the same time.”
Dishes not to miss
“It’s maybe a weird concept but our favorite dishes are what are on the menu now,” Brooke says. “It’s always changing based on what’s available locally and how Milo develops a dish. We’ll start out at the beginning of the week with a dish and by the end, he will have tweaked it into something else. In a month, we’re bored of it and it’s on to something else.”
One cool thing
Arlo expanded its patio and heated dining options in a quick response to the pandemic. They’re continuing to expand the terrace and outdoor dining options.
Arlo Restaurant // 271 N. North Center St., SLC, 385-266-8845
Nominated by: Steven Rosenberg of Liberty Heights Fresh
‘Why I love Arlo Restaurant’
“I had heard that Em’s on Capitol Hill had been re-envisioned and opened as Arlo. I was impressed to see the creativity of each dish is exceptional. Ingredients are carefully sourced, of high integrity, and possess flavor and texture that are superb. There is so much thought in each and every plated dish. Now, I eat there two to three times each month. The Cuban pork shoulder on the brunch menu blows me away. I feel like I’m in Miami at a Cuban friend’s house.”
Why does Arlo deserve to be recognized in the 2022 Dining Awards?
“Milo has been developing and growing his repertoire for this opportunity for many years—working in SLC, San Francisco, and many other places to hone his skills. Chef Milo is attentive to every detail in the dining room and terrace. When out of town guests arrive in Utah, we dine at Arlo.” — Steven Rosenberg of Liberty Heights Fresh
Liberty Heights Fresh // 1290 S. 1100 East, SLC, 801-583-7374
This year, we are doing our Dining Awards a little bit differently. In the spirit of Utah’s close-knit and supportive dining industry, we asked some of the top industry professionals to nominatetheir favorite chefs. The 2022 Salt Lake Magazine Dining Awards presents 12 honorees, each paired by their mutual admiration for each other and love of good food. Read the full list of winners. Subscribe for more Salt Lake magazine.
