Renaissance Makes Salt Lake City A Vibrant Destination

Salt Lake City is maturing, according to this article in the New York Times. Long viewed as the gateway to great ski resorts and national parks, the article says Salt Lake is now becoming a destination in its own right, worth a second look.

The article says the City Creek Center has sparked a renaissance that is attracting new restaurants, shops, other businesses, residents and tourists to the city's downtown area. Below are excerpts.

No one will mistake it for the East Village, but downtown is starting to become a place people actually seek out to eat and play. One fact captured the change as well as any, apparent on a recent visit: Four craft breweries now operate within 10 blocks of Temple Square, the historic center of both downtown and of the teetotaling Mormon world.

City Creek Center (shopcitycreekcenter.com), at 50 South Main Street, is a handsome monument to consumption. There are more than 100 stores, many of them high-end and new to the market — Tiffany, Nordstrom, Coach. The development also has Las Vegas-like fountains (music! jets of flame!), a fully retractable glass roof that closes in inclement weather and a river that runs through it (O.K., a stream; the eponymous, reimagined City Creek, with actual trout).

...This (new TRAX-airport) connection opens up an intriguing possibility for skiers: staying downtown, riding transit to the slopes and never bothering with the expense or trouble of a rental car.

...There’s been an explosion of places to eat in downtown Salt Lake. Some 40 restaurants and other eating establishments have opened since 2010, or are poised to open — from Taste of Red Iguana, the latest outpost of the Mexican mini-empire in the food court of City Creek Center, to the Copper Onion, which Salt Lake magazine recently anointed the city’s best restaurant.

Read the entire article.