The latest buzz amongst the craft beer brewers and bolsters of the beehive state is now at Salt City Brew Supply in Midvale. What progressed from an online off-roading interest forum to a home brewing website, to a brick-and-mortar home brew supply store front, now carries hard-to-find local craft beer for off premise consumers. With over 200 different beers to choose from, … [Read more...]
A Whole New World
From School teacher to Distiller, The Story of Ashley Cross In 2013, after teaching High School English for 23 years, Ashely Cross told her husband Chris she didn’t want to go back for year 24. Her plan was to turn their hobby into a business, and New World Distillery was born. Ashley and Chris both enjoyed traveling, and their trips often involved experiencing the local … [Read more...]
Electric Porsche in Salt Lake: Current Exchange Converts Classic Roadsters to Electric Collectibles
The Porsche 911. A driver eases behind the wheel of this classic 1980s sports car. While shifting gears, the engine roars its approval. At the Current Exchange in Salt Lake City, it is the same clean-lined Porsche, but with an electric engine that will purr its approval. Martin Prouty and Kyle Palmer started The Current Exchange to convert Porsche roadsters into electric … [Read more...]
MAIN STREET SALT LAKE: Open Drug Use is Hurting Local Businesses
Downtown Salt Lake City: Main Street — Three homeless men sit in the former business entrance to the Off-Broadway Theater and distribute rations of spice or possibly weed. In broad daylight on the busy thoroughfare, they roll joints and watch the passers-by. Around the corner, acrid plumes of blue smoke fill the air. The SLCPD, like most metro Police departments, have … [Read more...]
How Main Street is Being Traded for Wall Street
Ask anybody how they define their community and they will inevitably mention the local businesses: the local grocery store; the shoe repair shop; the hardware store; the watch repair shop, and of course restaurants, bars, and the local farmers markets. It’s cliche, but it’s true: locally-owned businesses are the backbone of communities and Main Street. In the past two … [Read more...]
At the Market Street Broiler: Great Lessons for Every Teenager that Can Only Be Taught in School of the Real World
At seventeen years old, I was already something of a veteran in Salt Lake’s restaurant industry (or so I thought) after three dishwasher positions and bussing at Marie Callender's. The most humiliating time was my single evening working at Hot Rod Hundley’s Restaurant, where after just one hour, I was determined “unqualified” to wash dishes. That hurt. My longest stint had … [Read more...]
Running a Restaurant in a Pandemic — Spoiler: It’s Not All Bad News
Restaurants worldwide are facing huge challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands and thousands have closed permanently and many more are hanging by a thread. Others are doing better but have had to adjust the way they do business significantly in order to survive. Whoever thought Log Haven, for example, would be doing takeout curbside meals? Sadly, in SLC … [Read more...]
Reparadise: Cranking Out Off-The-Grid Rigs
For more than eight years, Brandon Zinninger and his team at Reparadise in West Valley City have been turning camper trailers — usually vintage Airstreams — into high-tech custom homes on wheels. But as the market has fluctuated — as well as the interests of Zinninger and his crew — Reparadise has found themselves spending more time in the shop crafting unique … [Read more...]
Utah’s COVID Conundrum: When to Reopen Critical “Essential” Local Businesses?
The Slippery Slope of Denying Businesses and Consumers Free Market Access Utah needs to allow restaurants and bars to operate under the same conditions in which they allow big-box stores and state liquor stores to operate. Nobody can dispute that the government measures regarding containment of the COVID-19 virus over the past month were completely necessary. Perhaps … [Read more...]
Referendum Organizers Cheer Repeal of Utah Tax Reform Law
Opponents of a tax reform bill that was approved by the Utah Legislature and signed into law by Governor Gary Herbert hoped to repeal the legislation at the polls this November. Instead, they won the fight without a single vote from the public. The governor and legislative leaders threw in the towel after organizers of the Tax Restructuring Revisions Referendum campaign said … [Read more...]