Just last week I read about Carol's in an article on the Best of Utah 2009 in City Weekly. Surprisingly, I had never even heard of the place. But having been there now I can see why it might have escaped my attention.
The article in City Weekly claimed they have the best eclairs in Utah, so I put it on my list of places to visit when I had the chance. Fortunately, just yesterday we had to take a trip to the doctors office up in this part of Salt Lake and that provided the perfect opportunity to stop and validate City Weekly's claims.
Approaching this place from the street for the first time could leave people wondering if they have the right address. The street (Lincoln St, e.g. 945 East) is a residential street in one of Salt Lake's older neighborhoods (with lots of great bungalow and craftsman style homes).
When you get to the right house number, all that is there is a house. Running along the north side though is an alley way and mounted on the fence is an unobtrusive sign that says "Carol's in rear" with an arrow pointing down the alley.
With some trepidation we started down the alley, and discovered behind house what looks like someone's carport. Except that as you can see in the photo, there is a van parked in the carport that says "Carol's Pastry Shop" on the side. A dead giveaway that a bakery is near.
In this picture (sorry about the quality, all I had with me was my phone) back behind the van in the corner is the actual entrance to this place. At this point I was thinking either I've somehow ended at their wholesale location or if this is the entrance and they've managed to stay in business for the decades they have, there must be something good here.
Turns out this is the entrance. There is a good sized production bakery in this building with a small retail counter and a couple display cases in front.
Our visit was late in the day and when I asked for some eclairs the gentleman helping said they were out for the day. Oh so disappointed. But he followed that disappoint with this, "...unless you want the big ones." It took me about 3 seconds to think, "eclairs = good; bigger = better." And so I said, "I'll take them." All of them, I'm thinking, which turned out to be five. Turns out they had some small lemon ones left as well so I got four of those as well.
I feel bad, because as I was ordering two other guys walked in. One of them even asked if was taking the last of the eclairs. Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your night. The eclairs were good. 1950s era bakery doing old-fashioned style eclairs. Vastly different that the one I had Bouchon Bakery in Yountville several years ago, or from the Bakeri and Eis shop up at Zermatt Resort in Midway, but for what it was, very good. I had another one today, making it a day old. I think there were even better at the end of day two.
I'd like to go back sometime and get there earlier in the day to see what they have and try some of the other things they sell besides eclairs.
Carol's Cake and Pastry Shop
1991 Lincoln Street
Salt Lake City, UT
The article in City Weekly claimed they have the best eclairs in Utah, so I put it on my list of places to visit when I had the chance. Fortunately, just yesterday we had to take a trip to the doctors office up in this part of Salt Lake and that provided the perfect opportunity to stop and validate City Weekly's claims.
Approaching this place from the street for the first time could leave people wondering if they have the right address. The street (Lincoln St, e.g. 945 East) is a residential street in one of Salt Lake's older neighborhoods (with lots of great bungalow and craftsman style homes).
When you get to the right house number, all that is there is a house. Running along the north side though is an alley way and mounted on the fence is an unobtrusive sign that says "Carol's in rear" with an arrow pointing down the alley.
With some trepidation we started down the alley, and discovered behind house what looks like someone's carport. Except that as you can see in the photo, there is a van parked in the carport that says "Carol's Pastry Shop" on the side. A dead giveaway that a bakery is near.
In this picture (sorry about the quality, all I had with me was my phone) back behind the van in the corner is the actual entrance to this place. At this point I was thinking either I've somehow ended at their wholesale location or if this is the entrance and they've managed to stay in business for the decades they have, there must be something good here.
Turns out this is the entrance. There is a good sized production bakery in this building with a small retail counter and a couple display cases in front.
Our visit was late in the day and when I asked for some eclairs the gentleman helping said they were out for the day. Oh so disappointed. But he followed that disappoint with this, "...unless you want the big ones." It took me about 3 seconds to think, "eclairs = good; bigger = better." And so I said, "I'll take them." All of them, I'm thinking, which turned out to be five. Turns out they had some small lemon ones left as well so I got four of those as well.
I feel bad, because as I was ordering two other guys walked in. One of them even asked if was taking the last of the eclairs. Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your night. The eclairs were good. 1950s era bakery doing old-fashioned style eclairs. Vastly different that the one I had Bouchon Bakery in Yountville several years ago, or from the Bakeri and Eis shop up at Zermatt Resort in Midway, but for what it was, very good. I had another one today, making it a day old. I think there were even better at the end of day two.
I'd like to go back sometime and get there earlier in the day to see what they have and try some of the other things they sell besides eclairs.
Carol's Cake and Pastry Shop
1991 Lincoln Street
Salt Lake City, UT
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