Wintry weekend spurs power outages, car crashes, runs on snowblowers

Weather » Utahns cope with crashes, outages — and a run on snowblowers.

< Previous Page

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, there was line out the door for people waiting to order at Sugar House’s Soup Kitchen restaurant.

Employee Lisette LeGendre said snow triggers the hunger for the cafe’s specialty. "Everyone wants soup," she said. "It’s comfort food."

While the eatery offers soups — including split pea with ham, chicken noodle, vegetable beef and sandwiches ranging from the California Sandwich (fried chicken breast, smoked ham, swiss cheese) to the French Dip — the most popular pairing this time of year, Lisette said, is tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwich.

All winter long, once the resorts open, skiers fresh from morning runs arrive at the Soup Kitchen for that classic combo, Lisette said.

—

Kevin Rogers, operations manager of downtown Salt Lake City’s Canyon Sports, said there are two types of winter-sports enthusiasts: those who wait in line when the store opens Sept. 15 after the shop takes the summer off and those who wait until snow falls to get into gear.

This weekend, Canyon Sports and other equipment shops are tending to the second kind.

With the snowstorm, the shop has seen demand spike, especially because last year’s snowfall levels were well below normal, Rogers said. "There’s a lot of pent-up demand."

—

The University of Utah’s annual Battle of the Bands began about 15 minutes late Friday night but that was not the only hiccup in the Associated Students of the University of Utah-sponsored event held at Fort Douglas’ Post Theater.

One of the judges was delayed because it took him an hour to get from Sandy to Fort Douglas. The ASUU’s golf cart got stuck in the snow. And although all 280 tickets for the show had been sold before the event, only 160 people made it to the battle, said Allie Vangeison, ASUU’s assistant manager of concerts.

But for the 160 students and other community members who made it, they were treated to six talented bands facing off: Mess of Me, Hunted Wicked Nothing,Jon Burgoyne, Chasing Chance, Harlem Shuffle and Forever is for Now.

The winner? Harlem Shuffle, with Chasing Chance finishing second.

Obviously, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays rock ’n’ roll.

—

Unlike Presidents Day, which occurs on a different date in February each year, anniversary dates of some things can’t be changed, said Tim Cretsinger, co-owner of the Cedar City independent record store Groovacious Records.

That’s why Groovacious went ahead with its 20th anniversary party Friday night at the store despite weather that Cretsinger described as "cold," "windy" and "grim."

"[The weather] probably kept people away," Cretsinger said of the party, which commemorated the opening of Groovacious on Nov. 9, 1992.

Although not as many people showed up as he expected, Cretsinger was still happy.

On Friday, everything in the store was discounted by 20 percent, and customers braved the weather to take advantage.

Cretsinger still tabulates each sale the old-fashioned way, on a single line on a yellow legal pad next to the cash register. On a typical day, he said, the number of album sales takes up three-quarters of a page. On day’s end Friday, more than four pages of sales were written down, with many customers spending long hours in the shop.

Next Page >

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

About Reader Comments

---

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
See more about comments here.