Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
This article is excerpted from the Utah Eats newsletter. To get the full newsletter every Wednesday, subscribe at sltrib.com/newsletters. Hello, Eaters! There’s been a flowering of street food and pop-up experiences around Salt Lake City recently — enough that the Salt Lake County Health Department recently warned diners to be careful with street carts that may not take all the required health precautions. You can also opt for restaurants that offer the flavors of street food. I recently visited one, Urban Gyro & Chicken at 153 S. Regent St. in downtown Salt Lake City. Owners Shreyas Makam and Suvin Sukesh, who opened the fast-casual restaurant in late July, got their inspiration from the streets — not of their native Bangalore, India, but of New York City. Sukesh said he and his business partner went to New York nearly two years ago to meet a friend, and they encountered a halal cart that was drawing an impressive crowd of eaters. “There were, like, people standing in line for 45, 50 minutes,” Sukesh said. They got in line, too. “We got the chicken platter, and we tasted it, and we’re like, ‘Wow! We have to bring this to Salt Lake City.’ Because Salt Lake doesn’t have [enough] exciting food.” Sukesh said he and Makam graduated from college in India in 2016, with degrees in hotel management. They were looking for somewhere in the United States to apply their skills, and found Utah as an inexpensive alternative to New York and California. “I didn’t know Utah existed,” Sukesh said. But, looking at images of the state, “it kind of reminded me of Colorado, with the mountains and everything.” (Sukesh said he and Makam did a 2014 college internship at a resort in Breckenridge, Colorado.) Urban Gyro & Chicken — UGC for short — is busiest during the lunch hour, Sukesh said, “because we’re surrounded by offices.” They also do well on nights when something’s playing in the Eccles Theater, he said. The menu is halal, meaning the recipes adhere to Muslim dietary standards. The best item, Sukesh said, is the combo platter ($13), which is “basically everything on the menu that we have” — specifically, chicken and the traditional gyro combination of ground beef and lamb. It’s all topped by their “signature” white sauce. For bolder tastes, there’s a red sauce (“five out of five” on the spice chart, Sukesh said), as well as a “medium” spicy green sauce and a sweet sauce. (To read about what I ordered, read down to the “Dish of the Week.”) Street food is “simple food,” Sukesh said. Because of that, he added, “it has to be done right. There’s no place to hide.” Live deliciously, Sean Food News • As the federal government shutdown continues, some Salt Lake City-area restaurants are stepping up with offers of free food to those who are losing out on SNAP benefits. The Tribune’s Carmen Nesbitt talked to the owners of Mumbai House, which operates three Indian restaurants, about their offer of free meals to families. She also has compiled a list of other businesses who are helping out. (If you know of any we’ve missed, email your tip to spmeans@sltrib.com.) Openings: • A new Trader Joe’s opened on Halloween in Holladay, at 1895 E. Rodeo Walk Dr. The grocery store skipped the usual fanfare, like the ribbon cutting with a marching band a week earlier at the Trader Joe’s in Riverdale. People found the Holladay store anyway, as I saw when I went shopping there Sunday morning. This is the seventh Trader Joe’s in Utah; an eighth has been announced for Herriman, but no opening date has been given. • Dave’s Hot Chicken, a national chain that started as a late-night pop-up, is opening its fifth Utah location this weekend, at 4182 W. 13400 South in Riverton. The chain is also located in Midvale, Orem, Logan and in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood. • Gigi Gelati, which calls itself an “elevated gelato concept,” opened last weekend in St. George, at 1255 W. Sunset Blvd. It’s the brainchild of Derek Klein, founder of the Gitano restaurant group, and Matan Sela, who founded the gelato company Otello. It’s the first location for the brand anywhere. • The Sunroom at Homestead, a restaurant in the newly restored Virginia House at Homestead, 700 N. Homestead Dr. in Midway, has recently opened, the inn announced. The restaurant bills itself as “a locally inspired, shared-plate experience.” Dinner service starts daily at 4 p.m., first come, first served. The menu includes such shareable dishes as lemon-and-garlic hummus and wild shrimp gnocchi alla Sorrentina. Closings: • Noodles & Company, the fast-casual chain that serves pasta and noodles of many cultures, closed a Salt Lake City location — at 358 S. 700 East — within the last month. The company announced in August that it was reorganizing and would close up to 32 locations across the chain. Fans of those noodles can find seven other locations in Salt Lake County. Booze (and Drink!) News Members of Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ+ community were surprised on Halloween night when The SunTrapp, often called Utah’s oldest gay bar, abruptly closed its doors. Management posted a notice on the bar’s Instagram account, saying “the financial impact of consistent protests have made it impossible for us to remain open.” The bar’s employees announced in late September that they had formed a union, and they have organized protests outside the bar while they seek an election through the National Labor Relations Board — which, because it’s a federal agency, is closed during the government shutdown. “While we remain hopeful that we can find a path forward for the SunTrapp, right now, I am not certain what that path looks like,” owner Mary Peterson said in the Instagram post. Dish of the Week If you’re vegetarian, like me, you run into a lot of falafel — and usually, the fried balls of chickpeas are served in a pita or a shawarma wrap, with tahini sauce, tomatoes and cucumber. It’s often quite good, but you still sometimes want something different. I saw the falafel Philly on Urban Gyro & Chicken’s menu and was intrigued — first by the alliteration, and then by the concept of making a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with falafel as the protein. It did not disappoint. The falafel pairs well with the grilled peppers and onions, and the traditional American cheese turns out to be, in this context, a welcome surprise. I didn’t order the extra spicy version, but the regular blend had a generous kick anyway. (UGC also serves the Philly with the classic steak, or with either chicken or gyro meat — the familiar ground beef-and-lamb combination.)
