Despite living here for over six months, we had never properly explored Salt Lake City. It’s only an hour and a half away, but our weekends have been filled with football games, gigs and sleeping so far. Our friends Chris and Chilali, who hosted us at Thanksgiving, asked if we wanted to go down with them so they could show us around. They didn’t have to ask us twice.

Meet Chris and Chiali–fellow Midwesterners, fellow food enthusiasts and totally awesome couple.

We have so much in common with them and love our time together. Can’t say enough about them. We actually have a lot of mutual friends and weird coincidences…like, while Chris & Chilali were at Michigan, they played a gig with Joe in a local orchestra and it was the concert where C & C met and started dating. #weird  Chris also is good friends with one of my friends/NWS colleagues, and to top it off, he went to a summer festival with my oldest, dearest friend Bobbie where they nearly died in the ocean. Just plain crazy! The music world is so happily claustrophobic.

Here’s a rundown of our Food Tour of Salt Lake City!

First stop: Pig and a Jelly Jar for brunch.

It’s known for a special family-style “Sunday Supper,” but our brunch was fantastic. I had a homemade veggie burger, Joe had a frittata with bacon, apples, candied walnuts and bleu cheese béchamel, Chilali had the ham hash (after all that week’s turkey!), and Chris had chicken and waffles. Yumm. You can even order PBR cocktails, though we stuck to coffee, tea and water for this trip.

We then drove around to check out some neat neighborhoods and let our stomachs settle. You can’t beat Patagonia and REI outlet stores, tucked in fun little neighborhoods here and there.

Then we checked out Trolley Square. (Side note: Chris was well-versed in all of the SLC serial killers, crime, shootings, etc…so now we know all that too.)

Trolley Square was home to one of our grocery stops (Whole Foods), but first we visited a fun gift and card store and an awesome bookstore called Weller Book Works. I could have spent all day in here. It’s a home for new, used and collectable books, but also had an extensive section of books on The West.

I also fell in love with these Penguin Drop Caps books, which I had seen online, but–my god–they are even more gorgeous in person. Do you hear that? It’s my heart fluttering non-stop over books. #nobigdeal

We made trips to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (with a huge cooler in our trunk), and then went straight to the Italian Market. The most-anticipated stop of the trip for me. We walked in to Tony Caputo’s to the rich aroma of cheese, meats, garlic and tomatoes.  And then, there it was…the Cheese Cave. How can you not love a place with a Cheese Cave?!

We didn’t eat anything at the deli, but I did score some of my favorite cheese on the planet: Prima Donna.

By then, it was time to start the trek back to Logan Canyon to take care of a certain spoiled puppy. But not without one last stop in Ogden (about an hour from Logan) for pizza at Lucky Slice.  Just check out their menu:

I had a slice of “Danimal,” which has a pesto base, mozzarella, feta, parmesan, red onion, fresh tomato, balsamic reduction and lemon. #sold  It was incredible and totally worth the stop.

Thanks to Chris and Chilali, our Utah horizons have been broadened and our stomachs stretched to the point of no return. Here’s to many more outings exploring our new-ish state with new friends.