This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Editor's note • This is Vanessa Chang's last review for The Tribune. She will be leaving to work on other writing projects, including the magazine Edible Wasatch.
Millcreek • If Lazy Day Café had opened in a happening neighborhood where concepts such as "seasonal" and "local" draw a food-conscious crowd, it would be swamped.
Everything on the menu here is under $10. The service is friendly. And most of all, the made-from-scratch food is exceptionally good.
But Lazy Day Café isn't in the hub of the "it" restaurant scene downtown or in the 9th and 9th neighborhood. Instead, it opened quietly at the far end of the Ivy Center Shopping Mall just off 2000 East. The restaurant has a small but steady clientele of locals: more gray hairs than stylish locks or Manic Panic dye.
Diners peer into the glass doors wondering if the restaurant is open — sometimes the owners forget to turn on the neon sign. After a look at the homey décor that's comforting and kitschy, an older gentleman declares the place to be "fancy."
And it's certainly fancier than Village Inn. With exponentially better food, too. Just ask the octogenarian solo diner at the counter, feasting on the first phase of his breakfast of fried eggs, hash browns and toast — part of the Lazy Day Breakfast ($6.50). Once that's polished off and Candice and Cheri (the owners, cooks and only servers in the house) walk by with a refill of coffee, he announces, "I'm ready for my pancakes now." Minutes later, lemon pancakes ($5.25) appear from the kitchen and the diner quietly attends to them with the same hearty attention he paid his protein and hash.
At another table, the elders of a family congregate to plan a celebration of a funeral, hymns and all. When everyone arrives, the matriarch proudly tells grandpa and the uncles that this is the sort of place that used to be around — the food is wholesome and organic and made from scratch. They taste it for themselves in the subsequent rounds: pancakes, eggs, biscuits and gravy ($4.75), and Utah scones ($3).
Here they serve eggs from a small local producer, beef from a rancher outside of Mona and vegetables from an organic greenhouse in the same area. In these Food Network, food porn magazine days, we tend to forget that ingredients need not be gussied up or "gourmet" to be good. They need only to be prepared well and with care.
And that's the case here. The café is open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays (closed Mondays), and brunch on weekends. I'm partial to breakfast items and find weekday breakfasts and brunches are the best time to sample the inexpensive feast that is a Lazy Day meal.
Which isn't to say you should miss the pulled pork sandwich ($5.25) that's messy and wonderful to eat. Not to mention the grilled steak sandwich that uses local beef in tri-tip form. Consider this a less sloppy version of a Philly cheesesteak, one that your mom might have made for you, minding the levels of grease, and where the veg and meat came from.
That's how I would describe Lazy Day fare overall: the type of food you wish your mom had made for you, not intellectually challenging, but true comfort food in simplicity and quality.
The pancakes ($5.25) are griddled — meaning the fork crunches through a thin surface layer, yielding to a light fluffy heart. The quiche ($6), with a crust that flakes and shales with a tender, handmade touch, is served in a generous slice — one quarter of a tart.
When beignets ($3) are on the menu, by all means get them. They aren't what you'd expect to be fed in New Orleans, but are essentially oversized doughnut holes made with whole grains — but it certainly doesn't taste like it. You'll feel like a kid licking the dusting of powdered sugar from your fingers as you eat these light and slightly dense pastries.
To me, this is the future of restaurant food, especially in the Salt Lake area. If we're to expect good food to infiltrate an industrial supply chain and see the return of true, honest-to-goodness flavor, it'll likely happen in the unlikeliest corner of suburbia in food that's considered approachable and delicious enough to be an everyday option.
The yolks on the eggs are rich from good feed. When ordered scrambled, they appear as soft, steaming curds, more custardy than the standard Styrofoam texture we've become accustomed to. Granola ($4) with its toasty notes, is mixed, assembled and baked in house and topped with vanilla yogurt.
Then there are the biscuits ($4.75 as a complete gravy-laden breakfast), which are feather light. Which is a good thing, considering they're served smothered in a sausage gravy. The sausage is made by the ladies to shape into patties as a side or to be crumbled into the gravy that's more a delicious meat medley than a sauce.
When the biscuits appear again on the menu, they have ingeniously reincarnated as French toast ($6.50) soufflé-light and bleeding with fresh blueberries and a homemade buttermilk syrup that puts the high fructose corn syrup, er "corn sugar," to shame.
Biscuits also reappear as a special strata ($6.50), proportionately balanced with bacon and cheese and served with a side of complementary gravy — because Cheri said she has been told by her regulars it's better that way.
To me, the breakfast of champions is the Lazy Day Deluxe ($7.75). The concept is simple, starting with fried chicken atop a biscuit, layered with bacon, then cheddar, and then a fried egg. A heaping mound of made-from-scratch hash browns helps to sop up the remainder of the sausage gravy that smothers the lot.
The sign in front of the door reads "every day is a lazy day." And for those in a hurry, service can seem that way. But bear in mind that this is a two-person operation. One person in the kitchen, one person in the dining room. If you're in a hurry, let them know and they'll try to accommodate. As they'll try to accommodate when the scones came out rather greasy on one occasion, offering a sincere apology but good cheer, despite the big crowds that would put any painfully hip server in a rotten mood during morning service.
My hope is that the owners will recruit someone to help out, as my gut tells me the crowd at Lazy Day Café will become more diverse and plentiful.
HHH
Lazy Day Café
Food • HHH
Mood • HH
Service • HHhj
Noise • b
Made-from-scratch, simple and delicious. Breakfasts such as the Lazy Day Deluxe (fried chicken, sausage gravy, biscuits, bacon and cheese), lemon pancakes, homemade granola, and others are hearty and delicious; as are lunches like the tri-tip steak sandwich. Enjoy beignets when they're on special, as well as the down-to-earth service offered by the owners.
Location • 2020 E. 3300 South, Suite 24, Salt Lake City; 801-953-0311
Online • http://www.lazydaycafe.net
Hours • Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Children's menu • Yes
Prices • $
Liquor • None
Reservations • No
Takeout • Yes
Wheelchair access • Yes
Outdoor dining • No
On-site parking • Yes
Credit cards • All major