Cafe Niche

WHAT I HAD: The 'Dame' - a sandwich on sourdough with goat cheese, grape tomatoes, and arugala.

Address: 779 E 300 S, Salt Lake City

You know those days where you just want something light and fresh and savory? Like a really good sandwich or a garden fresh salad? That seems to be the case for me almost every day during the summer. If I were to create a menu of all the meals I crave, but can't quite picture in my head, it would probably be found at Cafe Niche. Niche has the type of menu that I could not decide what to order only because I wanted every single thing available. Hummus platters, turkey and brie sandwiches, things with arugala on it. All of my favorites, so you can see my predicament. I did finally settle on a goat cheese, tomato, and arugala sandwich. It was divine.

I checked out their dinner menu online thinking I could take ES there someday, but it is pretty slim. Hopefully they have A LOT of specials.

Their patio is okay, if you like a nice view of the street, but it is all in the shade and that is a plus. The inside looks pretty hip, so eat inside if you need the atmosphere to enjoy your meal.

Moochie's

WHAT I GET: Meatball Sub or Philly Cheese, Potato Salad, Bread Pudding

Address: 232 East 800 South, Salt Lake City

Anyone from Salt Lake has probably been to Moochies. They are famous for their Philly Cheese and their Meatball sub. If you watch Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives, you may have seen them on tv. I'm telling you, famous.



I would suggest it's best to get your sub to go, the furniture consists of a card table and some old metal folding chairs. But they are definitely a diamond in the rough. Their potato salad is mysteriously divine. I would love to get my meatball-sticky-hands on that recipe. I think it could easily over-shadow their subs if potato salad could ever do such a thing. The bread pudding is a surprise with a zing of lemon zest and cinnamon. I wouldn't ever think that was a good combination, but dang. I don't even really like bread pudding. It's usually heavy and too sweet. Moochie's bread pudding is light and fluffy like Tiramisu and well, just as good.

Faustina

WHAT I HAD: House Salad, Spinach stuffed chicken with roasted red bell peppers and feta, served over soft polenta, asparagus and a chorizo broth, Crème brûlée and Strawberry Sabayon

Address: 300 South 454 East, Salt Lake City

After trekking several blocks through downtown Salt Lake trying to find a nice outdoor eatery, we finally came across Faustina. They have a lovely covered patio with a tiny waterfall and crisp landscaping. A perfect setting for the wonderful 70 degree evening we wanted to continue to enjoy.

If you have ever done Dine O'Round, you will recognize the flat rate three-course menu Faustina offers. It makes it easy to order and I also didn't mind being obligated to have my own dessert.

The meal premiered with foccacia bread and oil and vinegar. Nothing out of the ordinary for an Italian restaurant. Then I had my house salad with these beet chips and a simple dressing. It was so light and delicious with a nice salty, crunchiness added by the beet chips. It was a perfect start.

I did have a difficult time ordering. The menu isn't too large and nothing really stood out to me. I am a picky eater (one reason why I could never be an effective restaurant critic) and there were quite a few dishes that had seafood, which I don't do, there were a few pasta dishes, but they just sounded too heavy for a summer dinner at the moment, the beef medallions with gorgonzola and mushrooms sounded really good, but ES was ordering that. I finally settled on the Spinach stuffed chicken with feta, roasted red pepper and a chorizo broth with the help of the waiter. I was very surprised at how good that was. I never order chicken at a restaurant. Besides the fact that the chicken came out in the shape of a fallacy, it was moist and flavorful. The sauce was complex with multiple flavors revealing themselves one by one.

There are two desserts that come with the three-course menu, crème brûlée or strawberry sabayon. Other desserts are offered, but with a small price ($3?) to upgrade. ES and I decided to just get one each of the first mentioned. I usually don't order crème brûlée at restaurants because I can just make that at home, but it was very good and even better that I didn't have to make it. The sabayon tasted like anyone could make it. It was just a bowl of berries with a little sauce on it. The sauce was super mild, and not too much flavor. So we hurried and ate that one so we could enjoy the crème brûlée even more.

I think this place had much more to offer than the outdoor patio that brought us there. We will definitely come back, even in the winter.


Addendum:
We've gone back for several more visits and I have managed to contain myself and not eat my meal before I take a picture. Here is a picture of what we were eating the first one is the one that I said was ahm..."shape[ed] of a fallacy".


Spinach stuffed chicken with feta, roasted red pepper and a chorizo broth

Beef medallions with gorgonzola and mushrooms

Bruge's Waffles

WHAT I HAD: Cinnamon Waffle, Fresh Strawberries, Crème fraîche

Address: 336 West Broadway, Salt Lake City


Have you ever had a Belgian waffle? Oh you have a Belgium Waffle Maker you say? Well I'm sorry to say that doesn't mean you've had a Belgian Waffle.

Don't worry, you don't have to travel all the way over to Belgium to get an authentic waffle, Bruge's Waffles and Frites has some pretty authentic and definitely delicious waffles waiting for you only as far as Broadway.



We stopped by Bruge's on the way to the Farmer's market and enjoyed walking through the market almost as much as our cinnamon waffle, with fresh strawberries and crème fraîche. It was a steep $6 each, but the toppings were worth it. It was made the second I paid for it. They also have freshly made fries (or Frites) with a long list of gourmet toppings like Garlic Aioli, Beef Carbonnade, and of course Fry Sauce. I intended to post a picture of this delectable morning treat, but I ate it faster than I could say "Cheese". Guess I will have to get another one this Saturday!

Addendum: Lovely to have an excuse to get another! The third time I went back for another I finally remembered to take a picture!

Le Nonne

WHAT I LIKE-
App: Carpaccio (and seafood makes me squeamish)
Entree: Ravioli di spinci e burro e salvia
Dessert: Tiramisu

Address: 129 North 100 East, Logan

If you want a restaurant to ruin Italian restaurants for you for life, try Le Nonne. And I mean that as a compliment. Le Nonne is so good, I am now completely bored (and sometimes disgusted) by places like the Olive Garden.

I went to Le Nonne back when it used to be located on Main street in this tiny eight table sized location. Now Le Nonne has grown and is located in this charming old house near the tabernacle in Logan. I've always thought Logan has been overlooked when it comes to Utah cuisine, and that is mostly to the credit of Le Nonne. The Chef is actually from Italy and learned to cook from his Grandmother (or le nonne in Italian).

All meals begin with fresh Crumb Brothers Ciabatta bread and an olive tapenade, which is delicious. I always have to tell myself to stop eating bread and save room for the entree. They always have wonderful specials, but my favorite meal on the menu is the Ravioli di spinci e burro e salvia or Spinach ravioli with a sage butter sauce. He hand makes all his ravioli so they are just light and delicate. And then how can you go wrong with a butter sauce that has sage grown right in the front yard of the restaurant? The tiramisu is amazingly delicious. It even topped the tiramisu I had in Rome.

They have a lovely patio, where on weekends you can hear local live music. My only complaint is the tables are pretty unstable and wobbly. They don't have much of a waiting area, and Logan and get pretty cold to wait outside in. If you get a sat along the benches on the wall the bench sits pretty low. It gets pretty busy so you will most definitely have to make a reservation on weekends.

Fresco Italian Cafe

Address: 1513 S 1500 E, Salt Lake City

ES and I went to dinner to Fresco Italian Cafe the other night for the very first time. It is located near a couple of our other favorite restaurants Mazza and Paris. So we've been meaning to try it sometime. It had the loveliest outdoor patio surrounded by a vines and trees. With cute little birds popping out every now and then. A gorgeous Utah summer night serendipitously added to the ambiance. The service was impeccable, I felt like we were her only table but a little on the stuffy side. She wasn't rude by any means, but she described the food to be "gorgeous" and "brilliant". Which I took note of as I am running out of adjectives for all these blog entries.

The chef, Mikel Trapp, has a seasonal menu, so it might not help to suggest what we had, but I will anyway. ES had the Lamb in this earthy rustic sauce. The lamb was cooked so perfectly and the sauce just complemented it so well. I think I ended up eating all of his. I ordered the strip steak. Me, trying to be more sophisticated, ordered the rarest I could handle, which was a measly medium. So of course that was also cooked perfectly and of course, it then grossed me out. So after eating around all the edges, ES ended up eating the rest of mine.

The dessert seriously was the most 'brilliant' thing I have ever eaten. As usual ES and I just ordered one to share, but I was totally regretting it. It was three small desserts, one was a banana beer budino (italian pudding) with an almond creme sauce, the next was this chocolate cake with candied almonds and a cinnamon cream sauce, and the last (my favorite) was a cinnamon gelato with dark chocolate coffee crumbles. If I wasn't surrounded by all tables occupied by well-bred, higher society, I would have grabbed the cake with both my hands and rammed it in my face, and then lick the whole plate clean. It was that good.

No More Soup for you! - A lesson on buying local

My favorite spot for soup is now closed for good according to Salt Lake Magazine. Although it was a little pricey, they still couldn't keep up with a down turning economy. Let's prevent any more of our favorite restaurants from going under and eat local!

I'm going to miss you Chicken Curry soup!