It’s funny how sometimes you forget about a restaurant. For some reason, it stops being in your “so where do you want to go tonight” list, and pretty soon it slides to the back of your consciousness. I find this to be a strange phenomenon in Salt Lake though, since not too long ago we had about four decent places to eat (yep, I remember those days). But now there are so many downright delicious restaurants here that sometimes a good one falls of my radar. Recently, I was reminded about a very good one; Faustina.

I’ve always liked Faustina, and we actually did a review in August of 2008 shortly after they opened, but for some reason I haven’t been there in quite a while. However, a couple of weeks ago GastronomicSLC was invited to a summer menu preview and I got to go see what Executive Chef Billy Sotelo and General Manager Hillary Merrill are up to. And let me just cut to the chase, they are up to YUM.

From the first bite of the Lamb Chop appetizer to the last sip of the Dow Tawny Port (served with a perfectly made Panna Cotta) my taste buds were rapidly replacing about half of the other restaurants on my “regular” list with Faustina’s name.

Served with parmesan polenta and stewed peppers, the lamb was tender and delicious (Hillary paired this with a Crios Rose of Malbec – divine!).

Next was a wonderful summer salad of watermelon, arugula, pink peppercorns, cashews, and goat cheese with a watermelon vinaigrette. So light and fresh, and the watermelon was perfectly ripe. I might have left off the cashews, but then I’m not big on cashews. Paired with a lovely Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc this lasted about two minutes.

The next course was an asiago crusted scallop dish with cappellini in a saffron broth. This has been on the menu since we reviewed Faustina last time and I can see why. Very tasty.

Next came a really interesting stuffed chicken breast (I bet you weren’t expecting interesting and chicken to be in the same breath there). Served in a chorizo broth with polenta and asparagus, that broth made the dish unique and very satisfying. p.s. they really know polenta at Faustina. Soooo good.

Finally we had that vanilla bean panna cotta I mentioned earlier. Like a dope, I ate mine before remembering to get a picture, but seriously folks, panna cotta is hard to make right. It walks the razor’s edge between scrambled eggs and a weird jell-o concoction, but this baby was perfect. Just the right amount of jiggle, and a full rich creaminess you’ll crave. Delicious with balsamic strawberries and toasted pistachios. Oh, and don’t forget that port. Just right.

Everything we were served was excellent (and all of the dishes we tried are on the menu – they range from $6.00 for the watermelon salad to $23.00 for the scallops), and the servers were friendly, efficient, and very knowledgeable. And although we didn’t sit out on the patio, I was reminded of how nice it is as we walked inside. I’m seriously annoyed with myself for letting Faustina slide off my go-to list, and after the warm reception we received (even when they didn’t know we were there for the media dinner), it’s will definitely be in heavy rotation from now on.

Disclaimer: Gastronomic SLC was invited by Faustina to sample their summer menu, and did not pay for this meal.

Website: www.faustinaslc.com

Les Madeleines

I knew Salt Lake had finally grown up when Les Madeleins opened in December 2003. This is a baker’s bakery, a pastry chef’s patisserie, and a Willy Wonka store for grown-ups. Romina Rasmussen has somehow opened a portal from France to Utah, and although her attention to detail and dedication to quality does not come cheap, her cookies are worth every penny.

From the sweet little macaroon buttons (the ones pictured here are raspberry, pistachio, hazelnut and coffee), to the amazing shortbreads, these cookies are little bundles of heaven. My favorite cookie ever is the butter toffee shortbread (next to the top of the Eiffel Tower on the right in the picture). I can’t get enough of the luscious, buttery things, and luckily one or two is plenty.

Prices range from 90cents to to $2.25 per cookie (the large carrot cake cookie on the center left in the picture was $3.25).

Ruby Snap

RubySnap (formerly My Dough Girl) is hands down my favorite cookie spot in Salt Lake. There are several close seconds in town, but the gems produced here definitely hit all my cookie buttons (one of them even has melted lemonheads in it!). They are big, chewy, and so full of flavor your first bite can induce swooning.

At $2.50 a pop they are a bit pricey, but the prices do go down when you buy more (and why wouldn’t you?). That said, you really don’t need to eat more than one (or two) to get your cookie fix. I like to buy a selection and then cut them into quarters to share with friends. That way I don’t miss out on any of the great flavors.

I’ve also heard RubySnap has frozen cookie dough you can buy, but I’m going to stay in a state of denial about that. I don’t need any more opportunities to increase my consumption of these divine little darlings.

Tulie Bakery

Tulie Bakery doesn’t have a big selection of cookies, but I couldn’t pass up talking about them because they have my favorite gingersnap/gingerbread cookie in the city. In the picture you can see the lightly glazed, dense and zingy ginger “tile” in the upper left corner.

Clockwise from there is Tuile’s classic and amazingly flaky palmier, then their chocolate chip, frosted sugar, and oatmeal. The chocolate chip and oatmeal were surprisingly crisp on the outside, but dense and chewy on the inside. I spent $10.56 on the five cookies.

Tulie Bakery
863 East 700 South Salt Lake City, UT 84102-3416
(801) 883-9741
Website: www.tuliebakery.com

Glaus Bakery

Glaus Bakery is one of Salt Lake’s old-time bakeries and has a huge selection of cookies. Some of these were better than others, although my friends who tried the macaroons raved that these were the best they ever had. My complaint was that the few I sampled were a bit dry, but then I’m a chewy cookie fan. The really amazing thing was that all 17 of these cookies only cost $8.74.

Glaus Bakery
3100 Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84106-3021
(801) 486-5908
Website: www.glausbakery.com

Sweet Tooth Fairy

The picture shows from the top: chocolate truffle, black and white, iced sugar cookie snowman, chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate, iced oatmeal and in the middle the gingersnap.

I got turned on to Sweet Tooth Fairy through a Groupon advertisement, and when I arrived their selection of cookies was a little slim. Cookies are only part of what they offer and they have a big selection of frosted cookies. Holy cow these things are good, but very cakey in texture. The gingersnap was one of the best I’ve had. $1.00 for each of the round cookies, and $2.00 for the larger ones.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy
1334 Foothill Drive (Foothill Village), Salt Lake City
(801) 582-9703
Website: www.thesweettoothfairy.com

I don’t know if it’s the looming New Year’s Resolution season or not, but I recently decided to stop eating cake. Don’t get me wrong, there are several varieties that I’ll probably still break down and eat (carrot cake of course, or anything made by Jennifer Hill at www.saltcakecity.com), but for the most part there just isn’t enough bang for my flavor buck for the calorie trade-off in cake. Cupcakes don’t fool me either. I feel decidedly different about cookies.

In case you haven’t noticed, Salt Lake has had an explosion of really great bakeries recently, and lucky me, some of them are creating cookie heaven. In this installment of Sampling SLC I’m going to show you pictures of a variety of cookies from different bakeries since I didn’t think showing you 10 pictures of oatmeal cookies made much sense (besides you might not like raisins), and I’ll tell you a little bit about the cookies themselves.

Smart Cookie
7710 S Union Park Avenue, Midvale, UT 84047
(801) 561-1840
Website: www.smartcookiecompany.com

Smart Cookie has a big variety of cookies. Here I’ve got (starting from the top) a snickerdoodle, gingersnap, chocolate mint, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, triple chocolate chip, double chocolate fudge, and semi-sweet chocolate chip. In the center is just a sample of their amazing sugar cookies – this one is cinnamon.

Smart Cookies, despite their name, aren’t healthier cookies. Nope. These big as your hand treats are very sweet, very buttery, and the chocolate they use is top notch. The oatmeal raisin was delicious with my morning coffee. I got 8 regular cookies for $5.50 and the iced cookie was $2.00.

Rio Grande Café

Sweetness Factor: Great
Size: Way too small
Price: Cheap!

I really liked the margarita at Rio Grande, but wow it was small. Two drinks and it was gone, but at $4.25 a drink, you could order two and it’d be fine. It had a good combination of tequila and sweet, and even after this one drink I could tell I’d had a drink. Nice (stu note: they do pitchers too for groups!).

Rio Grande Café
270 South Rio Grande Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1104
(801) 364-3302

I am a travel magazine addict. I love perusing the pages, pouring over every detail of the shiny places the world has to offer, and dreaming about the amazing food those cities have waiting for me. Recently though, it became absolutely apparent to me that I’ve been ignoring one of the hot spots, and it’s in my own backyard.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to take a tour and sample the food at the new St. Regis Hotel in Deer Valley (opened in Fall 2009).  After a quick ride up the comfy gondola-like contraption called a funicular, we were ushered out onto the terrace and treated to a champagne sabering (honestly, we weren’t special, they do this every night at each St. Regis).

After a tour of the hotel (which is beautiful) we got to the real reason I was there, the food at the Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, the J&G Grill. I’ve eaten at many high-end restaurants and have sometimes been impressed, and sometimes not. However, I wasn’t sure to expect at my first Jean-Georges restaurant. There is so much buzz around Jean-Georges these days (even out here in the wild west), that I wondered if it could live up to the hype. I didn’t need to worry.

From the first bite it was apparent I was on my way into a food coma. Before long I was chatting away with my dinner companions, gushing over the great food, and completely forgetting to take notes. Luckily, the charming and excellent Chef Matt Harris later provided me the descriptions of what we ate.

We started with the Rice Cracker Crusted Tuna: A rectangle of sushi grade tuna is crusted in egg whites and crushed rice crackers then fried and served rare with citrus chili sauce and sliced scallions.

Next we tried Matt’s own Trotter Charcuterie: Made from a whole Berkshire pig from the Christiansen Family Farm in Vernon, Utah. The loins/belly were used for salumi, terrines & sausages. The trotter was cured in house and served with spicy radish greens from High Star Farms, Grilled Organic Sourdough toast points from Crumb Brothers and house-made, whole-grain mustard made with Polygamy Porter from Wasatch brewery.

Our third dish was Tai Snapper, Nut & Seed Crust, with Sweet & Sour Jus: A 6 oz portion of snapper is crusted with a nut and seed mix then served over mushroom vinaigrette with heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, pearl onions and fava beans.

The final savory dish was Grilled Lamb Chops, Pistachio Pesto and Brussels Sprouts: Lamb chops are grilled and served with basil pistachio pesto and caramelized Brussels sprouts finished with basil.

The desserts were all served together. Crème Fraiche Cheesecake, Roasted Plum & Raspberry Sorbet: A creamy cheesecake with a traditional crust made from house made graham, finished with Raspberry Sorbet and Lavender Flour.

Salted Caramel Sundae: Sundae with Salted Caramel ice cream with caramel Popcorn and Peanuts.

Warm Chocolate Cake, Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream: Chocolate cake is cooked to order and served with a molten center and vanilla ice cream and a lace tuile.

Wow, this food was good. And I promise I’m not saying that because I didn’t pay for it. The highlights for me were the sweet & sour jus with the snapper (deeply and divinely flavored), the lamb chop (perfectly cooked), the Brussels sprouts (because I hate them and I would have asked for seconds of these), the perfected molten chocolate cake, and finally the salted caramel sundae. I’m still craving another serving of that sundae.

Everything we ate (except the trotter) is on the regular menu, so you too can try that sundae (and okay, the Brussels sprouts).

One final note, the St. Regis is offering a prix-fixe meal for $39.00. With prices like that who needs San Francisco?

El Chihuahua Restaurant & Cantina

Sweetness Factor: Pretty sweet
Size: Large
Price: Great

Hands down this margarita is the most well-rounded drink I’ve tried so far.  It’s sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. It has a very nice tequila taste and affect, and for $6.00 you really can’t beat it. My only complaint is that there is celery in the salsa at El Chihuahua, and I’m pretty opposed to that vegetable coming anywhere near my favorite sauce.

I’d also like to deviate a bit here and say that their version of the Low-Rider margarita is less sweet, bigger, and only $8.00. This is my go to marg on Friday nights. Take a designated driver if you are planning to have two.

El Chihuahua Restaurant & Cantina
3926 Highland Drive, Holladay, UT 84124-1615
(801) 272-8091
Website: El Chihuahua Restaurant & Cantina