VisWeek 2010 local recommendations

Since I’ve spent a little bit of time in Salt Lake, I figure some of you reading this and attending VisWeek might be looking for a few tips. Roughly in increasing distance order from the Grand America, here are some places you should consider eating:

• The Bayou: 200+ types of beers, killer sweet potato fries and alligator cheesecake. Sometimes they have good live music. Gets crowded.
• Acme Burger: Ostrich burgers! It is meant to be a gourmet burger place, and it’s pretty good.

They closed! Sad.

• Settebello: Great thin-style pizza. Their diavolo is awesome, you should go if only to try that.
• Biaggi’s: Yeah, it’s a chain, but it’s affordable, nonthreatening, tasty Italian on the Gateway (the local “mall”). Their butternut squash ravioli is to die for, along with the Creme Brulée, which is cheap but easily beats many tens-of-dollars Creme Brulées we’ve had in fancier places.
• The Counter: Another good burger place, lots of customization possibilities (you make your own, essentially). This is an example.

Wow, closed too. No one in Salt Lake likes burgers…

• Red Iguana: Mexican place which specializes in moles. If you like spicy food, go for the mole amarillo made with habaneros. Otherwise, the mole poblano is where it’s at. This is the best Mexican I’ve ever had (and the place itself has a great hole-in-the-wall vibe), but be prepared for hour-long lines if you get there past 7:00PM.

The two non-food places you should not miss are the Salt Lake Public Library (fantastic architecture if you’re at all into this type of stuff) and Sam Weller’s, a great used and rare bookstore close by. They had the first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species last time we went. Pretty great stuff!

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