Sweet Home Chicago Pizzeria

Somewhere in the depths of this blog is an entry about a new (at the time) pizza place I had read about and wanted to try.  I wrote added that entry back in September of 2006.  Believe it or not I finally made it to this place.  I guess there is something to be said for a pizza place that has the staying power to still be in business over 3 years later.

I went there with my brother, who tends to the person that is most often with me when trying out new places, especially pizza places.  He was adamant that we get their stuffed crust pizza.  Lucky for us it was a Tuesday night and the Tuesday night special was buy one pizza, get one free.  Pizza one: stuffed crust with sausage and onions.  Pizza two: thin crust with 1/2 pepperoni and 1/2 cheese.

The pizza wasn’t anything that made me put it on my list to get back to anytime soon.  First up was the stuffed crust.  And based on the difficulty of even finding it on their menu board, obviously it is an after thought. A couple layers of their standard crust and some of their standard pizza sauce slathered across the top.  And really heavy.  The toppings were hard to discern in the gobs of cheese on it. My expectations weren’t high on the stuffed crust to begin with and this met them.

While we were eating my brother brought up a good point.  If you go to a Chicago pizza place anywhere outside of Chicago, what kind of pizza do you expect to get?  Not sure about the rest of you, but I definitely expect deep dish.  So either you are a Chicago-style pizza place serving deep dish or you are a pizza place with some really good thin crust pizza.  Why confuse customers by claiming a tie to Chicago and then pushing your speciality as thin crust pizza?   Doesn’t make any sense.  Seems to me that one of the fundamental rules of business is to not do anything that will confuse your customers any more than necessary.  If you are pizza place and you have to justify, on your menu, why your speciality is thin crust pizza because your name has Chicago in it, then change the name.

The thin crust did have some merit.  A cracker-y crust with some straight up sauce and toppings.  If I go back I will stick with that and stay away from the stuffed crust.

Sweet Home Chicago Pizzeria
1442 E. Draper Parkway
Draper, UT 84020
801-545-0455
web: http://www.sweethomechicagopizzeria.com/
on Google maps

And another Rubios

I work up in American Fork, which was the first city in Utah County to get not only an El Pollo Loco, but also a Rubio’s.  There must be something about mexican chains and American Fork being the first place to test the waters around here.  And the waters must be good for Rubio’s as they are getting ready to open another location, this time in Orem.  Kind of across the street from the new In-N-Out and a couple doors down from the new Smashburger.  No indication when they will actually open, but when I snapped this picture a couple days ago, work was going on inside so it can’t be long.

Smashburger coming to Orem

Another entry in the what seems to be never-ending stream of burger places opening lately. Add Smashburger to your list. I haven’t ever eaten at one, but this is not their first location in Utah so someone must be eating there.  Sorry about the picture quality.  Taken with my iPhone.  If you want to visit:

Smashburger
542 East University Parkway
Orem, UT 84097
on Google Maps

Brothers at the Bear Paw

There are three brothers in my family. Two of which celebrate birthdays in June and one in August. This year we planned a brothers only trip Southern Utah. The original inspiration was to make a run to the only In-N-Out Burger in Utah down near St. George in Washington, UT. Since the original purpose of the trip centered around food, it’s only fitting that the some of the highlights were, of course, the food.

It ended up being a one day trip. Drive down, sleep overnight, drive home. With lots of stops along the way both going down and coming home. For the one and only breakfast, the youngest brother had been raving for months about the Bear Paw Cafe in downtown St. George. And it was good. Everything you could hope in a breakfast place and which you can’t find anything like, unfortunately, where I live in Provo.

I was torn, as I often am, between something sweet along the lines of pancakes, waffles, sweet rolls, etc, and something not so sweet, like eggs benedict or an omelette. This time I went down the sweet hole and ordered their cinnamon apple stuffed french toast. It turned out to be a good choice. Cinnamon-y, apple-y, sugar-y apples sandwiched between a couple pieces of bread and then french toasted. The other brothers licked off their plates and downed their hot cocoas in an admirable fashion. It’s good that we got there a bit early in the morning. We still needed plenty of time for breakfast to digest before we headed to In-N-Out for lunch.

Carol’s Pastry Shop

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

Best Eclairs in Utah?

City Weekly’s gave this the Best Eclairs designation in their 2009 Best of Utah. Since I have a daughter who loves eclairs, putting this one in the queue to try when the time is right and I’m in the neighborhood.

From City Weekly…

Carol’s Cakes

Carol, Schmarol … this hidden-away place in Sugar House is operated by Al, Bob and Jeff Walkenhorst–three guys who know their eclairs. And anyone who’s tried baking them know there is an art to whipping up the perfect pte choux, the pastry shell that has to be baked hot and high so it doesn’t deflate and leave no room for that heavenly filling. So Bob and Jeff have learned a thing or two over the years (the bakery has been around for decades). It’s obvious from looking at all their offerings, they’re perfectionists. But those dang eclairs–they’re impossible to resist.

1991 S. Lincoln St., Salt Lake City, 801-484-3442

Este Pizza – Downtown Salt Lake City, UT

I’ve been to Este before and written about it in the past. But it has been a long time since my last visit and it was at their other location. Recently I took the other brother to this new downtown location. It was his first visit to any Este location and my first visit to this new location.

Purely by coincidence I ended up eating here twice in the last week or so. A dinner during the week and then lunch on Saturday. Este still rates as some of the best pizza that I’ve had here in Utah and even outside of Utah. Highly recommended as a New York-style thin pizza and well worth the visit whether in downtown Salt Lake City or down in Sugarhouse at their location just off 21st South.

156 East 200 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Beyond Glaze Donuts

I read about this place earlier in the week in the Salt Lake City Weekly newspaper that my other brother and I picked up at Moochie’s. It was City Weekly’s annual best of Utah edition and this was in some category related to donuts.

Every donut starts as a glazed donut and then Beyond Glazed adds the toppings to it. In the picture there is a cherry chocolate, key lime pie, cookies and cream, and s’mores.

After cutting these up and letting everyone in my family try a couple bites of each flavor, the consensus was that key lime was the most flavorful. For me, the s’more tasted mostly like chocolate. The cherry chocolate was good, although I’d love to try just a plain cherry.

They had a slew of other flavors that I didn’t try on this first visit: pineapple, blueberry, caramel apple, chocolate ganache, one with mango, peanut butter, chocolate and peppermint, and chocolate. They also told me that they use real fruit in all their fruit-flavored toppings. The four I bought came to $1.00 each.

It is definitely worth a return visit when I’m in the neighborhood.

Beyond Glaze
177 West 12300 South
Draper, UT

Moochie’s

Moochie’s
Originally uploaded by ninetreats

Recently covered on the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives. My brother and I went here for the first time last week. It is a small place with a set of sandwiches and salads. They are famous for their philadelphia style cheesesteak and meatball sandwiches.

I went for the classic cheesesteak which included onions, and also added mushrooms and tomatoes. The bread was crusty, the filling was hot and gooey and dripped all over the place, including the front of my shirt. And it was all good. I’d like to go back and try their pizza cheesesteak which includes pepperoni and mozzarella and housemade marinara sauce. It is definitely worth a return visit.

Moochie’s Meatballs & More!
232 East 800 South
Salt Lake City, UT

http://www.moochiesmeatballs.com/

Macrina Bakery, Seattle, WA

Macrina Bakery, Seattle, WA
Originally uploaded by ninetreats

On a recent trip to Seattle I did some research ahead of time and came up with a couple bakeries that I wanted to visit while I was there on business. Fortunately they were both within walking distance of the hotel where I stayed, so each morning I woke up early enough to walk through Seattle and stop by one of the bakeries before I had to head off to meetings for the rest of the day.

Macrina Bakery has made the requisite appearances on the Food Network and has a cook book that you can buy.

The morning I stopped I had enough time to sit down and eat several of the goods at the store. It’s always going to be better fresh and sitting down, rather than eating on the run from a bag or later in the day. But I was not that impressed with the things from the bakery. The hot chocolate was weak – watery weak, not just less sweet weak (which can have it’s place). The croissant-based pastries had good flavor, but both were under proofed and under baked. Nice and crisp on the outside and verging on uncooked as you moved towards the middle.

I also brought a couple things home to my family, and though they were a day old by the time we ate them, I don’t think they would’ve been that much better when fresh.

Having worked in a bakery myself, I know consistently producing good things is not easy so I if I can I will give Macrina another shot, but this first time through left a lot of room for improvement.

Macrina Bakery
2408 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA, 98121