On Tuesday, Sept. 23, we celebrated the summer's last warm, dry night, enjoying Melissa Etheridge and Keb’ Mo’ at Red Butte season finale.
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Although I don’t really believe anyone who claims they have grown tired of bacon the way they’ve tired other food trends like quinoa or cauliflower, I am a little weary of chef’s substituting for a more inventive way of adding pizzazz to a dish. It’s an easy solution, I know—bacon does make everything taste better. But after awhile you can become bacon blase—it’s delicious but it doesn’t knock your palate back the way it did a few years ago when the health police decided it was okay to eat and people started getting all hot about apple-smoked and so on. So I was surprised when the high point of a lunch at Spencer’s Steak & Chops was one of the restaurant’s menu standouts: The Millionare’s Bacon.
One strip of bacon was presented as an appetizer. But the bacon was from Daily’s. It was cut a third of an inch thick. This delicious strip was braised until a significant amount of the fat had been rendered, then broiled with blue cheese and figs. You had to eat it with a steak knife and fork. It is the best bacon strip I’ve ever had and I’ve had a few. Stop in the bar at Spencer’s, order some bourbon or a big red wine and a piece of bacon and prove to yourself—once again, I hope—simple delights are the best.
This story was originally published in May of 2018 on saltlakemagazine.com. But the bacon is still delicious.
Steaming bowls of pho and ramen are ideal cold comforts. Here's where to get these noodle dishes in Utah.
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Sugar House 2.0 is a new spot for a great bar crawl, with enough watering holes in close range to make for a proper piss-up.
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Salt Lake City’s FanX is back this week, taking over the Salt Palace Convention Center. It’s Utah’s biggest pop culture convention and, by attendance, one of the biggest in the country. No matter the size, every comic convention is a little bit different and comes in its own unique flavor. The particular flavor can be a little difficult to identify unless you’ve been to other comic cons to compare it to. So, how does FanX taste compared to other large conventions in the region?
FanX
Location: Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
Dates: Three-day show (Thurs.-Sat.); September 22-24, 2022
Size: FanX organizers say average attendance is around 125,000
Flavor: The hardcore geeks, nerds and fans in Utah make FanX what it is. Every year, attendees show up in stellar cosplay with money to burn on clever celebrity photo-ops and signings. For animation and book buffs (especially of the fantasy persuasion), the con brings in some fan-favorite voice actors and authors like Brandon Sanderson. Celebrities, particularly TV actors and performers, dominate the guest list. With Utah’s penchant for big families, FanX shows some love to its Kid Con and all-ages programming, and the craftiness of the local populace means you’ll find some interesting wildcards among the vendor and exhibitor tables. As far as actual comics go, there likely won’t be many comic exhibitors, and attendees get to know very well the local creators who turn out every year.
Tickets: fanxsaltlake.com
Sister Shows: Tampa Bay Comic Con, Indiana Comic Con, ATL Comic Con
See our video from Fan X Day One featuring the Q&A session with Anthony Micheal Hall
Emerald City Comic Con
Location: Washington State Convention Center, Seattle
Dates: Four-day show; March 2-5, 2023
Size: Estimated attendance of 100,000
Flavor: The floorplan of this con is huge, in large part due to a vast and dense Artist Alley. It’s the place to make friends with comic creators, and some comics publishers have official booths at Emerald City where artists and writers will do signings. Big celebrity guests and packed panels are abundant. Whole sections of the floor are devoted to literature and cosplay guests, interactive exhibitions and vendors selling some cool con exclusives. March weather in Seattle is not always ideal for post-con hangouts, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from keeping the party going around town. And, you can always find a good cup of coffee.
Sister Shows: In addition to ECCC, ReedPop puts on New York Comic Con and C2E2 in Chicago
Fan Expo Denver
Location: Denver Convention Center, Denver, Co.
Dates: Three-day show (Fri.-Sun.); June 30-July 2, 2023
Size: Estimated attendance of 115,000
Flavor: Formerly Denver Pop Culture Con, this con has gone through some identity shifts of late, now that it’s been brought under the Fan Expo umbrella. But it remains a standout for attendees in cosplay who want to meet-up and take photos with fellow cosplayers, and some professional and celebrity cosplayers turn out to the con. Big-name comic creators like Jim Lee have been guests at the con in years past, and panels and photo-ops with guests from TV and voice acting are a key selling point. The nightlife around downtown Denver means there are some solid post-show “Bar Con” options. Because of the show’s origins with Pop Culture Classroom, there are educational programs at Fan Expo Denver for parents, teachers and students who want to learn more about creating their own comics and art.
Sister Shows: Fan Expo puts on more than a dozen fan events across the U.S. and Canada
San Diego Comic-Con
Location: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, Ca.
Dates: Four-day show; July 20-23, 2023
Size: Estimated attendance of 150,000
Flavor: It might not be fair to include San Diego in a list of comparisons because there is nothing quite like it. Everyone and everything comes out for this show. At its center is the exhibitor floor, where major film, TV, animation and video game studios, comic and book publishers, toy and collectable makers and sellers all have a presence. The panel programming is overwhelming, the pinnacle of which is the infamous Hall H—where this past year featured star-studded panels and trailer premieres for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the entirety of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s phase five lineup. The con extends far beyond the boundaries of the convention center, taking over a good portion of San Diego’s downtown with large displays, exhibits, meet-ups and parties. The flavor of San Diego Comic-Con is everything flavor. All of the flavors.
Sister Shows: Comic-Con International also puts on Wonder-Con in Anaheim, Ca.
Check out some of the amazing local cosplayers that grace FanX, as well as Salt Lake magazine’s coverage of FanX 2021.
When you walked through the doors into Valter’s Osteria, time froze. Whatever year it was outside, within the restaurant there was no time. You were on “Valter Time” under the spell of the impish Italian, orchestrating his staff like a conductor with a baton of raised eyebrows, quick finger wiggles and, sometimes, stern frowns, to ensure all was well with every table. Amid the service dance, Valter Nassi glided from table to table, doing what he did best: Charm everyone who entered his realm.
Valter died Tuesday, at age 76, and the clocks that kept Valter Time have stopped with him. His death was, in the weird ways of our times, announced on a Tweet from former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert who pointed to Valter’s “larger-than-life personality.”
That personality was born in the small village of Monte San Savino, Italy in 1946. Once grown, Valter blew around the world, like Mary Poppins, working in restaurants in Europe, Africa and New York. (I’d say “North America” but New York is a country unto itself.) In 1996, his feet touched down in Salt Lake City, where he fell in love with the town he gushingly called “My Salt Lake City.”
And it was Valter’s City. He saw us back then, a little shy, a little self-effacing a tad backwoodsy and knew exactly what we needed: tableside carbonara and winking little treats whisked out from the kitchen (which often ended up on the bill). Valter truly became Valter after he launched Cucina Toscana with his partner Ken Milo in the Firestone building at 300 West and 300 South. This Valter was more than a restauranteur, he was an impresario. He impressed at Cucina Toscana until 2012 when he announced his short-lived retirement. He soon thereafter opened his namesake Osteria in the space that had formerly been The Metropolitian on 300 South and created a stage for his incomparable dance of hospitality and care.
Countless awards and accolades have been given to Valter, including a long run of Best Italian and Best Restaurant (period) Dining Awards from Salt Lake magazine, whose then-editor, the late Mary Brown Malouf, wrote of Valter, “he gives us the overriding impression that food is fun and that dining well is an experience to be enjoyed from the tip of your tongue to the depths of your soul.”
That about sums it up, right?
Closing the 2022 Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series, Melissa Etheridge will bring full-throttle, unapologetic rock ‘n’ roll to SLC. Keb' Mo' will open.
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Andy Beerman's ambitious vision for Park City may have hurt his reelection chances in 2021, but he hasn't given up on the city he calls home.
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Pioneer Theatre Company begins its 2022-23 season with a production of Molière's "Scapin" adapted for 2022 audiences by Stephen Wrentmore.
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Briar Handly goes deep on a single dish—a mushroom tomato toast—and explains the local origins of each ingredient.
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