This perpetually under construction and continually on the verge of greatness hot spot, will “any day now” be one of Salt Lake’s best neighborhoods. Anchored by a new(ish) development of bars and restaurants on the corner of 900 South and Jefferson Street (more of an alley) and expanding every which way (up, mostly) with four-story condo and apartment buildings and plenty of other “coming soon” businesses, we put this burgeoning hood in the “you’ll want to live here someday and wish you’d moved in during its painful metamorphosis” file.
Who Lives There?
Median household income: $53,926
Median age: 40.1
White: 77.07%
Hispanic/Latinx: 15.58%
Black/African American: 5.61%
American Indian/Alaskan Native: 2.24%
Asian: 5.70%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.89%
Some other race: 3.67%
2+ Races: 4.81%
What’s the Rent?
Median home price: $575,000
Median rent for one bedroom: $1,250
Where Do You Eat?
Nohm, a Korean word that means “people,” is not a Japanese-Korean restaurant. It is both, concurrently. Its fastidious owner David Chon emphatically wants you to know that his labor of love is not a “fusion” restaurant. This means your tabletop could see a steaming hot bowl of Japanese oden, a brothy stew of fish cakes, stuffed shiitake, marinated egg and braised daikon, alongside a selection of meats on skewers prepared the traditional Korean way.
Where Do You Drink?
The Witchers, as we call them, are a dark cabal of cocktail diviners who continue to sling some of the most inventive and potent potables in town. Their deliberately small bar (Water Witch) is a neighborhood anchor that draws a hip (sometimes tragically so) crowd who come to see and be seen and enjoy the Witchers’ magic.
Where Do You Play?
Smith’s Ballpark is such a nice place that you don’t even have to care about baseball to enjoy an evening or an afternoon there. And if you do care about baseball, the Bees don’t stink. The team’s roster is chock full of the Los Angeles Angels’ top young prospects who play their guts out hoping for their ticket to The Show.
Where Do You Shop?
Although a bit east of the main construction site, Randy’s Records is spiritually aligned with the hipster spirit willing this area into existence. The store goes back to 1978 and, well, its interior looks exactly like 1978, down to the wooden paneling and fritzy fluorescent lighting. Its eponymous Randy (Randy Stinson) retired in 2018 but his son Sam still holds court behind the cash wrap, employing an endless supply of college-aged kids who innately know working in a record store is the job to guarantee they are, in fact, way cooler than their friends.
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