If one were to drive around on Friday evenings in the Salt Lake City area in search of a dining experience, you'd hardly suspect that the current economy is keeping Utahans huddled in their homes at night protecting their pocketbooks.
Our search for a dinner spot during the weekend is not unlike those we've had over the past few weeks since arriving in SLC. We decide we'd like to go out, we don't know exactly where to go so we end up driving around strange, uncharted neighborhoods with the hope of seredipitously discovering a decent restaurant. When we find one, it is packed to the gills with as much as a two-hour wait for a party of two! We hit the road again, and an hour later, we're hungry and our luck seems to have run out. We take a gamble and stop at a place before starving to death, and it is usually good food.
So it was last night, after stopping at five different restaurants that were far too crowded, and doing skeptical drive-bys or walkouts from a number of others, we found ourselves jumping back on the freeway and heading north into the SLC downtown, weary and desperate (while still discriminating).
Once in downtown SLC, we found that our usual safe haven, Red Rock Brewing Co., which has a very delicious steak salad and good drinks that satisify, meant suffering a wait of 40 minutes with no room at the bar. Dejected, we walked down to a popular pizzaria next door that had a two-hour wait, and finally we ended up at Buca di Beppo on the corner that supposedly had a thirty-minute wait.
Fifty minutes later, we were finally seated, and the food was wonderful (though very long in coming, as crowded as it was). Scott and I had the "small" serving of the baked chicken cannelloni. I can't remember who told me about Buca, but I remember it being a good review (Kesha, was that you?).
Our dining adventure ended nearly four hours later, and the moral of the story is...there are good places to eat in SLC area, but just be sure you know exactly where they are and that you make reservations (and allow 30 minutes for getting lost on the crazy numerical street system they have here that doesn't make sense even when you have directions).
Driving around hoping to find a place is not the best way to experience SLC dining, though occassionally it works (start before you're hungry). And when in doubt, avoid heading south for the hunt, head north toward the urban hub where your chances of finding foodie fare are far better than none!
