Salt Lake Magazine

Every year the list is different. We don’t do categories, we don’t fill in forms, we don’t count votes. We just pick our brains and everyone else’s for the coolest, newest and unexpected superlatives in the Beehive State. Every year we surprise ourselves and are delighted at the discoveries. You too will be surprised and delighted. And, no doubt, disgruntled. Because we left out one of your favorites. Let us know.

Make Salt Lake Co-working spaces are all the rage but Make Salt Lake is different—it offers you tools, space and instruction so you can make it yourself—anything from woodworking to metal craft to electronics to welding. Make yourself the master.
makesaltlake.org

Best Tacos Down South, Daniel’s – The concept of a taco: Small enough to eat out of hand. Simple enough to sell for cheap. Flavorful enough that small is big enough. Daniel’s tacos are all this and don’t need to be more, but they are. They’re fresh, for one thing. Plus you can order oysters, horchata and beer. 1017 N. 900 West, SLC, 801-521-9404. tacosdanielutah.com

Best Way to Live a Happy Life, Order in from Happy Dumpling – All dumplings, all the time and if you like dumplings like we like dumplings, these will make you very happy indeed, just like the logo promises. It’s so easy! Go to the website, check the maps to make sure you’re in the zone and place your order. They take weekend orders up until Thursday mornings. 3359 S. Main St., 801-635-4818, happydumplingslc.com

Best Excuse to Buy a Sari, Salt City Studios Bollywood Dance Class – How do they swivel their hips like that?? The gorgeous, sinuous dance used in Bollywood films is a style unto itself—a combination of belly-dancing, Indian folk dancing and modern jazz. The point is though, when you add it all up into a five-week workshop at Salt City Studio, you’ve had an amazing workout. You don’t need prior dance experience or a partner, just the urge to take some exercise that makes you happy. 1321 E. 3300 South, SLC, 801-699-6809, saltcitystudio.com/bollywood-slc

Best Thing to do in a Brewpub Besides Drink Beer, TF Brewing’s Game Night – Beer is not enough anymore. Brewpubs must have entertainment and while the Big Game of the moment is draw enough for some, there are those of us who are tired of balls—be they thrown, kicked or bounced. And we are certainly Trivia’d out. The questions are too culture specific, or too stupid. TF Brewery offers an alternative pastime to go with with your ale. Actually, several of them. A game sommelier brings a whole menu of board games so you can settle in, sip and learn how to do something new and pointless. 936 South 300 West, SLC, 385-270-5972, tfbrewing.com

Check out more of our Best of the Beehive winners here.

Every year the list is different. We don’t do categories, we don’t fill in forms, we don’t count votes. We just pick our brains and everyone else’s for the coolest, newest and unexpected superlatives in the Beehive State. Every year we surprise ourselves and are delighted at the discoveries. You too will be surprised and delighted. And, no doubt, disgruntled. Because we left out one of your favorites. Let us know.

Best Unexpected Dessert, Strawberry Nachos at Last Course – It’s really tough to ruin nachos, but it’s also a challenge to up the ante and create a new type of nacho. Last Course does it with their incredible Strawberry Nachos. Dip white, milk, and dark chocolate “chips” into decadent strawberry “salsa” and officially put nachos in both the savory and sweet columns of your food brain. 835 W. East Promontory, Farmington, 801-410-4708, lastcourse.com

Hive Winery Raspberry, Honey Wine – Ah, mead. The drink of ancient warriors and those who lived before modern booze making provided us with limitless options. The Hive Winery is resurrecting honey-wine and giving it new life. Stop by their tasting room and sample the award-winning, and mouth-watering, Raspberry Honey Wine before the secret gets out. 1220 W. 450 North, Layton, 801-546-1997, thehivewinery.com

Best Savory Waffle, Honey Chipotle Pastrami at Waffled – The savory waffle is a divisive food, but Waffled, an innocuous booth in the middle of Station Park, can mend the relationships of savory waffle lovers and sweet waffle purists. The Honey Chipotle Pastrami Waffle brings out the dense heartiness of the liege waffle while melding flavors so good you’ll run back for seconds. Believe it. 25 N. East Promontory, Farmington, 801-447-9175, waffledeats.com

Best Sensory Overload, Allegiant Nonstop – Clearfield is stepping up their entertainment game with new additions to the newly named Allegiant Nonstop, formerly G4CE. Their 100,000 square foot building features go-karts, laser tag, arcade games, virtual reality, bowling, mini golf, escape rooms, play zones, a restaurant, snack bar, soda bar and frozen yogurt station. Our heads started spinning just listing all they offer. 1400 E. 700 South, Clearfield, 801-416-2388, playnonstop.com

Best Way to Lose Your Voice, Cannibal Roller Coaster – Adrenaline junkies, rejoice! While many lament the absence of a Six Flags in Utah, Lagoon has one major entry into the roller coaster hall of fame. Featuring the steepest vertical drop in North America, Cannibal also holds the world record for tallest beyond-vertical drop on any coaster. Prep your pipes and enjoy the ride. 375 Lagoon Dr., Farmington, 801-451-8000, lagoonpark.com

For more of our Best of the Beehive winners click here. 

Every year the list is different. We don’t do categories, we don’t fill in forms, we don’t count votes. We just pick our brains and everyone else’s for the coolest, newest and unexpected superlatives in the Beehive State. Every year we surprise ourselves and are delighted at the discoveries. You too will be surprised and delighted. And, no doubt, disgruntled. Because we left out one of your favorites. Let us know. 

Best Kitty Fix, Cache Humane Society Cat Cabana – What if we told you that you could cuddle kittens and help a charity? The Cache Humane Society’s Cat Cabana lets visitors sign in to play and cuddle the kitties so they can socialize before finding their furever homes. Or, be an even cooler person and adopt one of these fluff balls for yourself. 2370 W. 200 North, Logan, 435-792-3920, cachehumane.org 

Best Sugar Rush, Temptation Cupcake – If you want one of the best cupcakes you’ve ever had, you need to head up to Logan ASAP. Known for their buttercream frostings, Temptation Cupcakes are so sinfully good, they put it in the name. Bring your gluten-free friends with you, their GF offerings are just as tasty as their regular flavors. 1010 N. Main St., Logan, 435-787-8272, temptationcupcake.com

Best Rejection, Pepperidge Farm Factory Cookies – All those Pepperidge Farm cookies you gaze longingly at in the store are manufactured up in their Richmond factory. But, when the cookies come off the line looking less than perfect, they end up in the on-site store where their loss is your gain. Bring the kiddos and buy rejected cookies still as good as their flawless counterparts. 901 US-91, Richmond, 435-258-2491

Best Pancake the Size of Your Head, Cinnamon Swirl at Herm’s – The only thing that could possibly make a great pancake better is more of it, and Herm’s has that down. Tucked away off a back road, Herm’s Inn is serving up pancakes the size of your head and then covering them with frosting, caramel and cinnamon sugar. It’s not a waffle, but we think Leslie Knope would approve. 1435 Canyon Rd., Logan, 435-792-4321, hermsinn.com

Best Glimpse of the Future, Martian Tomatoes. Yes. Martian Tomatoes. – You can’t grow tomatoes in outer space—little water, lots of CO2 and not much nitrogen. And there’s no take out on Mars. That’s a problem for future Mars inhabitants or explorers. They’re going to have to grow their own. USU biochemist Lance Seefeldt and botanist Bruce Bugbee have been trying to solve this future problem for 30 years. This year, NASA tapped them to start a $15 million, five-year project, Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space or CUBES. (Space types love their acronyms.) Caesar salad on Mars can’t be that far away.

Butcher’s Bunches – Liz Butcher has been jammin since 2010, starting in her own kitchen and selling at farmers’ markets and now distributing their jams and jellies nationwide—thousands of jars a year. Based on local fruit and partnering with other local food producers like Amano Choccolate and High West Whiskey. butchersbunches.com

For more of our Best of the Beehive winners click here. 

Every year the list is different. We don’t do categories, we don’t fill in forms, we don’t count votes. We just pick our brains and everyone else’s for the coolest, newest and unexpected superlatives in the Beehive State. Every year we surprise ourselves and are delighted at the discoveries. You too will be surprised and delighted. And, no doubt, disgruntled. Because we left out one of your favorites. Let us know. 

Best New Beer Idea, Rooster’s B Street Taproom – Rooster’s laid the cornerstone for hip Ogden when they opened their brewpub on Historic 25th Street. After that, the cool places sprang up like houses on a Monopoly board. Now, they’re doing it again: With the opening of the B-Street Taproom, across the bridge from downtown Ogden, Rooster’s is breaking in another new concept. This one is, gasp, for adults only. The menu echoes downtown, the brew-friendly munchies of the original and the beer is made right there. 2325 B. Ave., Ogden, 801-689-2879, roostersbrewingco.com

Best Vegan Anything, Lavender Kitchen’s Brookie – Half brownie, half cookie, zero animal products, 100 percent delicious. Lavender Kitchen is disrupting Ogden’s food scene by churning out incredible, fully-vegan deliciousness on a daily basis. Check out their signature brookie or any one of their unbelievably vegan goods. We seriously can’t believe there’s no butter. 2276 Washington Blvd., Ogden, 801-628-1576, thelavkitchen.com

Best Hike Most People Don’t Do, Frary Peak on Antelope Isle. – Forget the legendary gnats. Ignore the lake stink. Antelope Island is one of the most beautiful places in Utah. The salt-shimmer of the shallow water, the views of the mainland, the sheer other-worldliness of its earthly landscape are best seen from the top of Mt. Frary. After a short but strenuous hike spend some time catching your breath and absorbing the wonder. utah.com/hiking/frary-peak

Best Piano, City Club Bar – All-Beatles all the time—that’s the theme of the City Club bar upstairs in Ogden. From the Fab Four of 1963 to the grizzled seers of their waning days, the faces of John, Paul, George and Ringo (which one was your crush?) are plastered all over the walls, ceiling and—most impressively—this hand painted piano. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Porter Block Building, 264 Historic 25th St., Ogden, 801-392-4447, thecityclubonline.net

Best Way to Indulge Your Prepper Obsession, Smith & Edwards – We know; Doomsday Preppers has got us on a paranoia binge as well. Luckily, Smith & Edwards is a wild place where you can buy insane amounts of prepper gear to make you feel better about the end of the world as we know it. Our advice? Literally just wander around the store—it’s seriously nutter butters. 3936 UT-126, Willard, 801-731-1120, smithandedwards.com

Best Ogden Original, Two Bit Klettersack- Take it from trail to office. This rugged pack has special space for your laptop and add-on camera pouch. ogdenmade.com

Every year the list is different. We don’t do categories, we don’t fill in forms, we don’t count votes. We just pick our brains and everyone else’s for the coolest, newest and unexpected superlatives in the Beehive State. Every year we surprise ourselves and are delighted at the discoveries. You too will be surprised and delighted. And, no doubt, disgruntled. Because we left out one of your favorites. Let us know.

Mountain West Cider – In a valiant effort to break the “cider barrier”—the U.S. idea that apple juice is a sweet drink for kids—Mountain West is making dry, European-style cider perfect for sipping on their new cider garten. 425 N. 400 West, 801-935-4147, mountainwestcider.com

Best Way to Seem Like a Civilized Human, Tabula Rasa – Remember paper before our forest-guzzling paperless society? It’s depressing to think how many reams businesses go through these days, but here’s what we’ve forgotten about: pretty paper. And the nearly lost graciousness of a handwritten note. Or engraved invitation. Tabula Rasa is the only place in town to procure that elusive but still necessary etiquette. 330 Trolley Square, SLC, tabularasastationers.com

Best Hiker, Todd Powelson, Parrot Whisperer – City Creek Canyon is one of Salt Lake’s treasures. But it’s not just the babbling brook, the wildlife, birds and changing foliage that make it so charming—it’s the people you run into. Like Todd Powelson, who hikes City Creek with his parrot in fine weather. Say hello to the hiker with the birdcage on his back. And say hello to Saffron, too.

Best Place for the Naturally Curly, Curl Co. Hair & Beauty Salon – For those who have issues with their hair, which either behaves, or behaves badly–step it forward. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, dreamed or prayed for, those with naturally curly hair have to learn the rules and the issues. Big, dry, frizzy issues. From the team at Curl Co. Hair & Beauty Salon, you’ll get the right cut, learn the basics in curl care techniques and get steered towards the products especially made for your most-epic hair type. You can go full-on natural any day, any weather, with less effort than, well, swiping left on your current dating app. 777 E. Broadway, SLC, 801-359-4288, saltcitycurlco.com

Best Yoga Slumber Party, Schole yoga Can’t bend like a pretzel? – A little rusty on your Sanskrit? Nidra yoga is not about a skill level. You only need a willingness to cooperate and be quiet in a darkish room with other people. It’s been said that an hour of meditation is equals 40 hours of sleep–obviously, this is not your typical seventh-grade slumber party. Expect a calming voice, possibly singing bowls and, of course, patchouli. 824 S. 400 W. SLC, scholeyoga.com/studio

Best New Popup, Little City’s FLEET – FLEET is a new pop-up space in Salt Lake City’s Granary District. Its creators Michael Yount (Yo Coach!) and Tim Sullivan, have created gathering space out of what else? Shipping containers. They’ve taken a small stretch of asphalt on 400 West, along the edge of the old “Fleet” block between 800 and 900 South. Fleet Nights, a rotating set of local brewer tap takeovers, started last May and will continue throughout the summer. But Yount envisions much more than just beer (like that’s not enough). Stay tuned. littlecityinc.com

See all of our 2019 Best of the Beehive winners here.