Blogs

Dining

Arts & Events

Travel & Visitors

Party People

Best of the Beehive

Shopping & Style

Home & Real Estate

Archives

Blogs / On the Table / June 2009 / Say hello, Gracie's

Say hello, Gracie's

Say hello, Gracie.

Today at 11:00 am was the opening of the last club in Utah required to get a club license: we paid the $1 membership fee from a pocket full of change—Utah's club membership requirements go the way of the dodo in one month—and checked it out for what turned out to be lunch.

Gracie's is a restaurant. Who knew?

This being SLC, of course, I have never received a press notice of any kind about Gracie’s opening, even though, judging by the menu, this place is far more than a bar. Salt Lake magazine's man-about-town, my cohort Dan Nailen, the magazine’s bar expert, mentioned it to me and I was walking in Dan’s shoes, I thought, on this first visit.

But when I saw the menu—featuring lemon-steamed halibut or grilled trout for $23, a rib-eye for $25 and filet mignon for $28—I realized Gracie’s was on my beat.

The wine list, too, which is not quite finalized according to our server, looks like more than a bar. In fact, with its Adami prosecco and organic wines from Mendocino, the list has wine broker Francis Fecteau’s fingerprints all over it, and sure enough, the owner confirmed that Fecteau was his adviser. A wise move, in my opinion.

Gracie’s is brought to you by Deno, former proprietor of the late Port o' Call. He says yes, it’s a little spooky opening a restaurant in the middle of a recession, but no, he’s not afraid of the karma that seems to have jinxed this location (formerly Club Naked) in its last few incarnations.

The opening is emphasized as “soft”, which is good because when we asked for a dry white wine to go with our snow pea-avocado-purple cabbage slaw, the server brought a Riesling. Deno says Fecteau has not trained the staff about the wine list yet. We also ordered a margarita, “up,” and received a sweet drink one on the rocks. So maybe the bartender hasn’t been trained yet either.

The salad was excellent; the nachos were a bit a dry, but even I would never fully judge a restaurant on the first meal it’s ever served. The chef has done stints at Trio and Faustina and I expect the food (and the service) will even out. I'll be back.

Gracie’s is a pretty space—cool green walls, dark wood, tile floor and a few deco touches like glass bricks and a flapper mural. Right now the views to the east are nice, but the north outlook is somewhat spoiled by the parking lot construction next door, which involves a gravel-spewing machine that would make Mike Mulligan's steam shovel weep.

There’s a big front patio and a big upstairs patio, and there should be room for Gracie's to function as a bar and a restaurant. We’ll see how they balance the televisions and the noise factor with an atmosphere that suits the finer dining prices.

Anyway, hello, Gracie.