This article is excerpted from the Utah Eats newsletter. To get the full newsletter every Wednesday, subscribe at sltrib.com/newsletters.
Hello, Eaters! Since The Salt Lake Tribune moved into offices just off Salt Lake City’s Main Street a couple months ago, going to lunch has been a new adventure. Depending on what direction you go from our little side street, you can walk a block or two to get burgers, a poke bowl, Korean BBQ, shawarma, sushi, ramen, Thai and several other options.
One of the newer downtown lunch spots is Italian Olive, a pizza and pasta place at 270 Main St.
The entrance, tucked in next to a mini-mart and stairs to a basement vape shop on the left, almost has a New York City street vibe. This is appropriate, because the restaurant’s owner and operator, Besir Bushi, serves a lot of New York-style pizza.
“Other places sell slices, but it’s not New York-style,” Bushi said, adding that his partner is from New York. Bushi makes the crust thin, and “we get the water from there to mix the dough.” All the pizzas and pastas are made in-house, he said.
Bushi is originally from Kosovo, and came to Utah in 1998 as a war refugee — along with his parents, his brother and four sisters. Why did the family get sent to Utah? “My assumption is it’s because my parents had six kids,” he said. Until recently, Bushi ran a Balkan restaurant in West Valley City that served dishes from his native region.
Inside Italian Olive, the look is clean and simple, with a long display case with a variety of pizzas on the left, tables and chairs on the right, and a big-screen TV at the end. (At least once, I’ve walked in to find people watching a European soccer match, a treat for this footy fan.)
At Italian Olive, the menu is also simple. The pizza by the slice choices ($6 each, or $7.95 with a drink included) include the supreme (lots of meat), the veggie, a regular cheese, and a beef prosciutto. There are also salads, huge calzones, ($13) strombolis ($15), and pasta — four varieties to mix and match with four sauces ($14.95; add $4 for chicken or meatballs). Read down to the “Dish of the Week” entry to see what I ordered.
Italian Olive is open for lunch, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., then reopens at 5 p.m. for dinner. On Fridays and Saturdays, Bushi said, the restaurant stays open until 2 a.m., for people who want a bite while bar-hopping.
Live deliciously,
Sean
P.S. A belated introduction — I’m Sean P. Means, deputy enterprise editor at The Salt Lake Tribune. The Tribune’s Utah Eats reporter, Kolbie Peterson, announced here last week that I’ll be filling in on the newsletter while she’s on maternity leave. If you have food or drink tips for me, send them to spmeans@sltrib.com.
Food News
• Spencer’s Steaks & Chops, inside the Hilton Salt Lake City Center at 255 S. West Temple, is continuing its Dinner Pairing Series with a curated five-course meal and wine pairing featuring Paul Hobbs Winery. It happens next Wednesday, Oct. 15, starting at 6:30 p.m. Price is $100 for dinner, $150 for dinner and wine. Book in advance at spencersslc.com/events.
Openings:
• Smoothie King, a national chain known for health-conscious drinks in a blender, just opened its first Utah location — in Southern Utah, at 740 W. Telegraph St., Washington. The franchise owners say they are planning a grand opening later this month.
Closings:
• In this space in July, Kolbie Peterson wrote about Pizza Bar on Regent, which Scott Evans’ Pago Restaurant Group launched in downtown Salt Lake City (at 126 S. Regent St., on the site behind the Eccles Theater that was previously another Pago restaurant, Finca Pintxos Bar). On Sept. 27, Pizza Bar shut down, our friends at Gastronomic SLC reported.
• A Utah Eats reader tipped us that the owners of Cafe Niche, at 773 E. 300 South, put up a notice last week saying the brunch spot was closing permanently after 15 years. “It has been an honor to be part of this community, and we will truly miss being your go-to spot for delicious food and warm conversations,” the notice reads.
• Ballard’s Iceberg, a drive-in restaurant that’s been operating for 65 years in Draper, ABC4 reported. Founded by Alice Mae and Allen Ballard in 1960, the drive-in’s current owner is their son, Don Ballard, who’s 75 and ready to retire. The drive-in’s last day was Saturday, Oct. 4.
• Windy’s Sukiyaki at 3809 Riverdale Road in Ogden, which billed itself as “Utah’s oldest Japanese restaurant,” announced on Facebook that it closed on Sept. 26 after 51 years in business. “The decision didn’t come easily, but due to a challenging economic environment we can no longer continue operations,” the post reads.
• Tandoor Indian Grill announced on Facebook that it closed its Millcreek location, 729 E. 3300 South, after Sept. 28. The Indian restaurant, in business since 2007, will remain at 4828 S. Highland Dr., Holladay. (There’s also Tandoor Indian Grill at 1600 N. Freedom Blvd. in Provo.)
• Pier 49 Pizza has lost its lease for its longtime Draper location, at 1178 E. Draper Parkway, the pizzeria reported on its Facebook page. The family that owns the franchise has a GoFundMe campaign running as they seek another storefront. (There also are Pier 49 franchises in Murray, American Fork, Springville, Provo and Providence.)
Dish of the Week
When I’ve ventured over to Italian Olive for lunch, I often bring back a bowl of pasta ($14.95), which is hearty and delicious — and the portions are enormous.
On this visit, I asked Bushi what he does best and he hesitated. “I don’t know. Everything is good,” he said. So I asked what’s been popular since he opened the restaurant, and he pointed to the lasagna pizza (pictured above).
As the name suggests, this pizza puts the tastes of a lasagna — dollops of meat sauce and ricotta — on a thin New York crust. And it works, as the creamy ricotta and the savory bits of ground meat in the thick tomato-y sauce alternate with each bite, with the thin crust a tasty substitute for the usual noodles.
One bit of advice: Eat the lasagna pizza at the restaurant. I took mine to go, and it was a bit difficult to navigate while walking. Also, you may want a fork to mix the sauce and ricotta together, to get more even distribution in each bite.