Lofte's Pizzaria and Coffee

What: Lofte's Pizzaria and Coffee
Where: 2110 W North Temple St. Salt Lake City -See Map-
When: March 29th, 2008
Food: Italian, pizza from a brick oven, pasta and sandwiches
Service: Incredibly attentive
Price: More than the golden arches, but less than Olive Garden

Lofte's is exactly the kind of place that I love to go, and that I especially love to share with my friends. It is completely unpretentious, and lacks all of the polish, and corporate feel of most of the chain restaurants. One gets the feeling that all of the people involved in the venture are kind of flying by the seat of their pants and doing what feels right. The menu was created by people who like food, and like to experiment with things they think taste good. there were no focus group studies done, and no careful calculation as to what item would appeal to the largest number of people. One feels that the things on the menu, are all things that the chef and the proprietors genuinely like to eat.
The same feeling pervades concerning the decor. Think a combination between sportsbar, and upscale pizzaria. The wooden floors, and two large fireplaces give a modicum of class, but the two big screen TV's constantly tuned to ESPN shows that they don't take themselves too seriously. One feels like this is a place where you could go for a quick bite to eat, or a protracted stay to watch the game.

The food consists of standard Americo-Italian Cuisine. All of the pizza's and flat breads are cooked in an onsite brick oven, and are excellent. They use great ingredients and seem to have an intuitive knowledge of what goes well toghether. The salads were superb. All of the vegetables were remarkably fresh, and served with an excellent dressing on the side. The BBQ chicken Pizza is an excellent combination of soft crust, with just the right amount of cheweyness, tangy zip from the bbq sauce, and moist and flavorful chicken. All of their Pizza's consist of the same crust, which as noted, is the perfect combination between soft and chewy. At our recent visit we were prompted to order the Rosmary flatbread. I am not entirely sure that I could taste much rosemary, but the combination between garlic, balsamic vinagar, and carmelized onions was enough to make me break my diet!

I also had the Italian Stallion sandwich. This consisted of three different kinds of deli meats (I forget which) provolone cheese, peppers, and balsamic vinagar. The sandwich was good, and I left satisfied, but I can't help but think that this sandwich lacked much depth. It was hard to overcome the intense flavors of the meats.

The service at Lofte's was excellent. If you expect a certain formality, and sense of experience in your wait staff, Lofte's is not the place to go. The people that work there seem to do so because they like to. Kevin the Chef, and Kyle the manager both made a successful effort to come and visit us to make recomendations and to see how the food were. The both seemed pleased when we were.

All in all, Lofte's is exactly the kind of place that I like to visit. The food is unpretentious, but delicious. The venture is locally owned and operated, and the pride in the business shows in the personal attention given to customers. The price is less than the comparable chain-italian restaurants, and the experience better!

Coachmans, A step back to the past, a step forward in inexpensive dining.

What: Coachmans Dinner and Pancake House
Where: 1301 S State StSalt Lake City, UT 84115
When: November 27th, 2006
Food: American diner fare.
Service: Great!!
Price: More food than you should probably eat in one sitting for less than the price of two movie tickets.

When you walk into Coachman's Dinner and Pancake House, you get the distinct feel that you might have stepped through a time warp. Coachmans has been a staple of Salt Lake City Cuisine since at least the 70's. The decor hasn't been changed since. You walk into a lobby decorated by stained glass skylights, and plants that give the impression they are impersonating silk.

The booths are made from the finest naugahyde, and are illuminated by state of the art (circa 1975) red stained glass hanging lamps, and the focal point of the dining room was a giant star of david shaped chandelier made of black painted wood, and the same red glass lights.

In short....... I loved the decor. It was delightfully Kitschy, and completely comfortable.

Immediately upon entering I could tell that most of the patrons were regular visitors. The waitresses bantered with some of them with a jovialty that comes only after repeated contact. Upon tasting the food, and seeing the prices, I could see why so many have chosen to make Coachmans a regular staple

I ordered the Chicken fried beef steak at the suggestion of our server, Leah. She asked me if I would like Navy bean soup, or tomato juice. ........ Tomato juice? I was thrown off guard by this unexpected question, so reflexively I responded with the less odd of the two options. Soup. She then asked me what type of salad Dressing? Type of potato? Oh, the Choices!

After good, but not life-alteringly good, soup. The salad arrived. According to my wife's Ranch-O-Meter. Coachman's ranch rated a 9 out of a possible 10. This coming from the woman who would buy ranch dressing by the gallon on a weekly basis to satiate her pregnancy cravings. She certainly is a conossiour.

One taste of the chicken fried steak eliminated all doubt as to why so many of the patrons appear to be regulars. The crust was wonderful. Buttery, flakey, and utterly delicious.

All in all, I think that I'm going to become one of the regular diners. Perhaps not every other day, as some appear to have been, but at least every few months. The food is good. The decor is so old it's becoming new again, and the price could not be beat.

Welcome to Salt Lake Epicurean

I'm just an average guy, with an average income, but with above average tastes in food.

There is just something fullfilling in a well grilled burger, or something exciting in a night out at a nice restaurant.

I don't have any qualifications, No experience in the food industry, just a taste for good food, and a habit of spending all too much of my disposable income on going out to eat.

This blog will be a somewhat informal attempt to catalog my epicurean adventures. I hope to classify restaurants by price type of food, service, quality, and ultimately the Value factor...

More to come