9 Top Tastes of Salt Lake City Food + Drink

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Church Salt Lake City

Salt Lake Temple is the largest Mormon church in Salt Lake City and home to the tabernacle.

Salt Lake City is most famous for mountains and Mormons, but Utah’s state capital is slowly gaining culinary momentum. Here are my 9 Top Tastes of Salt Lake City Food + Drink based on a 2013 visit, listed in alphabetical order.

Banbury Cross Donuts


Donuts Salt Lake City

This Salt Lake City institution packs a rocking horse logo, peaked roof, and racks upon racks of donuts, 97 cents apiece. Strawberry and chocolate glazed, raised beauties join “regular” raised and heartier old fashioned donuts. Banbury Cross also sells rosettes, butterflies and pinwheels glazed with cinnamon.

Copper Onion

Vegetables Salt Lake City

Chef-owner Ryan Lowder runs pan-Asian Plum Alley next door to Copper Onion, his seasonal comfort food emporium. A covered patio at base of an office tower leads to a dining room with copper ceiling,and a communal table with a black and white photo of Fergus Henderson at the head. They make pasta in-house, cure their own beef for Reubens, and feature market fresh vegetables. I’d recommend ordering a trio of Sides, which during my visit, included blistered shishito peppers (some spicy) dressed with olive oil and flakes of Maldon sea salt; spring peas with green garlic sofrito; and roasted carrots folded with crushed green olives and a fluffy house-made cross between ricotta and feta.

Epic Brewing

Beer Salt Lake City

Epic Brewing co-founders David Cole and Peter Erickson recruited head brewer Kevin Crompton to help them produce strong handcrafted ales and lagers south of downtown Salt Lake City. Due to Utah regulations, Epic can’t pour anything above 3.2% ABV on tap, but they do sell fridges full of 750s and bombers…which you can’t legally drink on-site. Confused yet? Me too. Since Epic carries a restaurant license, you have to order an entree to access beer in the tapless taproom. Not a problem considering one of those options involves an Artisan Meat Board featuring Creminelli meats. Bonus: tasters cost only $0.40 to $1 apiece. I enjoyed Imperial IPA with lingering bitterness and Brown Rice Ale brewed with barley and brown rice, but my favorite sips were of Brainless IPA, a balanced Belgian style IPA.

Les Madeleines [CLOSED]

Bakery Salt Lake City

Proprietor Romina Rasmussen serves a Brittany inspired baked good she calls the Kouing Aman (better known as Kouign Amann) in the flats of Salt Lake City, and delivers a thin, crisp coating, and flaky, pull apart layers of concentric pastry that clearly contain butter, but don’t come off as too rich or sweet.

Lucky 13

Hamburger Salt Lake City

This rock and roll bar resides on the south side next to the Salt Lake Bees stadium, a Triple A affiliate for the Angels. When they’ve got a game going, the patio and bar are all packed. Two firefighters (Ron Lay and Jason Stucki) and a beer industry vet (Rob Dutton) took over a dingy VFW and now feature a colorful red tractor out front and a boar head on the wall, along with baseball bats and colorful motorcycle parts. Their menu touts plenty of tempting burgers, including The Breath Enhancer, Pigpen and Celestial Burger. I kept it simple with a juicy, House-Smoked Bacon Cheeseburger ($8.50). I added garlic rosemary fries, crispy, skin on beauties fried in shortening until glistening, then tossed with spice. The sound system ensured I received a complimentary side of “Highway to Hell.”

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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