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Dining Out: At Cannella's, Quality Has Been Its Bond for Nearly 25 Years | |
| BY
NANCY HOBBS SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE |
02/14/2003 | |
| If a restaurant survives consumer whims, business trends and roller-coaster economies for more than a couple of decades, it becomes an institution, a place where loyal customers find comfort and new customers are influenced by its staying power. In Salt Lake City, restaurants that have attained "institutional" status would certainly include Lamb's, a landmark on Main Street for 84 years; Little America's Coffee Shop, which has been part of the hotel's tower for 26 years, but served diners for several previous decades in the same spot; and the New Yorker, which many credit with jump-starting the Wasatch Front's entree into the "fine dining" arena a quarter of a century ago. Less well-known, but just as venerable, is Cannella's, a small Italian eatery crowded at lunchtime with school board and library employees, attorneys and judges, and diners who carpool from distant offices for a tasty, reasonably priced meal. Joe Cannella, who also owns Dewey's Bail Bonds a couple of doors to the east, opened the restaurant 25 years ago next May. From the start, its exterior has beckoned with green cloth awnings striped in red and white, suggestive of the Italian flag that forms a background for Cannella's sign. The decor is modern and casual -- tile-topped tables and walls hung with local artists' work, available for purchase. There aren't many tables, however: The place seats only four dozen. During the noon hour (weekdays only), seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, but turnover is quick and most diners at larger tables don't mind sharing the extra space, if necessary. Customers order and pay at the counter, then find a seat where the meals are promptly delivered. The fare is basic Italian, from minestrone to lasagna, with nothing too fancy and no surprises. An order of cappelini, with either marinara or garlic butter sauce, is served with a large, delicious meatball or, for a little more, a spicy Italian sausage made by Colosimo Market in Magna -- another food institution. At lunch, the pasta of choice (besides cappelini, there is spaghetti, rigatoni, manicotti or lasagna) is served with a generous salad and slice of garlic bread for $6.50 to $7.50. The lunch menu also offers sandwiches, from a tasty meatball or sausage version ($6.50 and $7, respectively) to a cheeseburger, reuben or turkey, all $6.25 with salad and garlic bread. Six-dollar lunch specials are offered daily, generally a choice of pasta dish or sandwich. Also popular is Cannella's pasta salad with Italian sausage ($7), easily a meal and a half. If the staff -- many of whom are family members, including cashier and co-owner Missy Cannella -- are doing several things at once, as they often seem to be, help yourself to one of the take-home boxes on the counter. Dinner, served only Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, is more leisurely and generally not as crowded. The menu changes quite a bit, with only a few sandwiches, including the meatball and sausage, all of the pastas, and "specialties" that include chicken parmesan ($11) or a choice New York steak ($14). Most nights there also is a fish special, the choice of many Cannella's regulars. Cannella's homemade dessert specialty is dark, moist and delicious chocolate beet cake ($3.50). The restaurant also usually has at least one kind of cheesecake, and sometimes tiramisu, all made in-house. Because Cannella's was always across the street from Salt Lake City's Main Library, a liquor license has been out of the question. With the library's move further north, it is now more than the state's required 600-foot distance for serving alcohol, so Cannella said he has applied for a license to serve beer and wine. Until then, he still is in the vice business with an espresso bar that gets things rolling at the cafe every weekday morning. That enterprise might face some competition from the new library's coffee bar, but still the close proximity of the grand edifice, which Cannella toured on opening day and says is "absolutely incredible," will undoubtedly keep his bookish regulars, and then some, visiting for lunch and dinner. Hunting for a MealFalcon's Ledge, a sporting lodge for fly-fishers, hunters and falconers, is joining forces with Log Haven chef David Jones to offer a weekend epicurean adventure next month. The lodge, in Altamont, at the foot of the high Uintas near Duchesne, has engaged Jones to prepare a seven-course dinner featuring trout, duck and pheasant for guests on March 8. But that is just the highlight event. Earlier that day, guests can watch a falconry demonstration
and later, an informal demonstration on cooking wild game
by Jones,
who is an
avid hunter
and fisherman
himself. Guests will attend a hosted reception before dinner,
then stay overnight at the lodge, waking to a breakfast
buffet prepared
by Jones
and the lodge's
kitchen crew. In between, the lodge offers snowshoeing,
bird watching, relaxing by the fire, or, for an extra charge,
hunting pheasant
with a Falcon Ledge
guide for Saturday night's dinner. Nancy Hobbs is The Tribune's restaurant reviewer. The newspaper covers the cost of meals at restaurants reviewed and there is no connection between reviews and restaurant advertising. Hobbs welcomes food and wine news, comments and suggestions at nhobbs@xmission.com Cannella's
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