Category Archives: Food & Restaurants

STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT ORGANIC FARMING FOR LOVE YOUR BODY WEEK

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by Andrew S. Jones

SALT LAKE CITY – A local organic-certified farmer stressed food quality and color when considering nutrition to a group of students at the University of Utah annex building Tuesday, Feb. 28 in commemoration of Love Your Body week.

David Bell is the co-owner of Bell Organic, a local organic farm that has been situated in Draper, Utah for the last fourteen years. Wearing a light dress hat and exposing his chest through an opened plaid shirt, Bell shared how his lifestyle and food appetites have changed since being a famer and the impact simple things can have on students.

Bell was invited as a keynote speaker in a week’s worth of events called Love Your Body, Love Your Land week, presented by a student committee that collectively identifies themselves as SPEAK. SPEAK is an acronym that stands for Students Promoting Eating Disorder Awareness and Knowledge.

“Guess what, fresh-everything tastes better,” Bell said while passing around a tray of two large Spanish tortillas made only of freshly-grown produce from his farm. He said his rule-of-thumb centers around fresh ingredients and that freshness equates to better nutrition and taste.

While the ambient sounds of crunching and hearty swallows filled the room, Bell spoke openly about his experience becoming a farmer and the impact it has played on his and his family’s lives. What started out as a small 4-by-8 foot all organic garden in the backyard of Bell’s Sugar House area home, turned into a half-acre plot he and his wife Jill purchased when they decided to go into the business of farming together. The plot used to be an old dairy farm in Draper, Utah. These decisions came about while Bell was between jobs and without any prior farming experience.

“I had heard that a half billion people in China were being fed by one-half acre farms,” Bell said, before explaining how he felt Salt Lake County could sustain something similar just fine with the available resources, population, and perceived demand. The venture has since become a success. Now just over 25 acres in size, the farm also hosts a community supported agriculture program (CSA) that feeds more than 150 households every week during the farming season, all while following federal regulations to maintain an all-organic crop.

Bell also shared that there are plenty of side benefits to farming that he enjoys besides just the fresh food. He particularly enjoys being in shape and staying tan throughout the season while admitting that his weight fluctuates by as much as 20 pounds offseason.

“In the offseason I work as a real estate agent,” Bell said, just before jokingly stating “I have both the most overcompensated and undercompensated jobs in America.”

“While SPEAK is focused on body, this year we also wanted to include your land; hence the title and Mr. Bell,” said Brittany Badger, a graduate student studying health promotion and education under Reel. This is Badger’s third year being involved with SPEAK and Love Your Body week. While taking a sigh of relief after the day’s event and presentation, when asked what she thought of the tortilla, there was no hesitation. “It was amazing,” she said, “It may have been the best thing I’ve eaten.”

“This is the tenth anniversary of SPEAK and Love Your Body week,” said SPEAK founder and faculty advisor Justine Reel, Ph.D and assistant professor in the Department of Health at the University of Utah. “It started off with just four students who wanted to get involved,” she said while elaborating on how she feels the endeavor has evolved into a successful medium to reach out to students struggling with eating disorders. Reel also explained that the Love your body, love your land events share the same week as the National Eating Disorders Awareness week and therefore makes the events even more significant and in-line with the group’s mission.

According to the SPEAK homepage, the group is made up of many diverse students who promote self-esteem, self-efficacy, healthy body image, and healthy eating habits. Their mission is to promote awareness of eating disorders and body image issues through educating diverse populations, developing strategies for prevention, providing resources for treatment, and conducting relevant research.

For more information about SPEAK, visit http://web.utah.edu/speak.html

City Creek Center Helping Small Businesses Downtown

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By Erica Hartmann

SALT LAKE CITY- The doors of the new 700,000 square-foot mall, City Creek Center, have been open for about a month now, but the traffic hasn’t seemed to slow down yet! City Creek seems to be the “face-lift” that downtown Salt Lake City needed. The hoards of people excited to see the new center have made City Creek’s grand-opening a success and have also helped the existing stores and restaurants in the area.

            Many things have attracted shoppers to the new center. An impressive retractable roof (something entirely new to the United States, the only other exists in Dubai), a brand new sky bridge that crosses overtop Main Street, as well as a handful of new stores to the Salt Lake area (Michael Kors, Brooks Brothers, Pandora, Porsche Design, and Tiffany & Co. just to name a few).

            The stores have made money like they couldn’t believe. Kaleb Larsen, an employee in the men’s department of Nordstrom said, “It’s been non-stop busy. The first day we opened we made our entire day’s sales goal in the first hour, and it hasn’t seemed to slow down much from opening weekend. It’s been great for me since I work on commission.”

            It’s been a similar story at the smaller stores in the center as well. Suke Wilkins, one of the managers at Banana Republic said, “On an average Saturday we’ll have 2,700 people in the store, that’s more than we did at Gateway in an entire week. It’s been crazy, but a good crazy.” Wilkins also said, “We’ve hired on about five more people since opening the new store, we need more coverage and are making the money to be able to hire more people. It’s great!”

            Everyone is excited to see the new mall and the shoppers seem to be willing to spend the money needed to at these high-end stores. Many people questioned whether or not the higher price-point stores would do well in a market like Salt Lake, but so far, they seem to be fairing very well. Jenn Smith, a sales associate at Tiffany & Co. said, “most days we have to form a line outside the store because so many people want to come in. A lot of people are just curious and look around, but there have been a lot of buyers as well. Business is good so far.”

            With the new mall placed smack-dab in downtown, questions were raised about how the locally-owned and smaller business on Main Street would be affected. William Lewis, an employee of the sandwich shop Gandolfos, located on Main Street a few blocks south of City Creek said, “We’ve always been busy with the all the businesses and high-rises located so close to us, and City Creek definitely hasn’t hurt business. We’ve seen an increase on Saturdays.” He also stated, “The food court is nice at City Creek, but it’s always so crowded, I’ve heard a lot of people come in saying they had to get away from all the people.”

            Eva’s, a popular restaurant on Main Street has also seen an increase since City Creek opened. Nicole Wallace a waitress at Eva’s stated, “We’ve seen a lot of shoppers come down here for a bite to eat. I think the Cheesecake Factory is really the only sit-down dinning option for shoppers over there, and I’ve heard there’s always over an hour wait. We have much better, locally-grown food than the Cheesecake Factory, and we can usually seat people right away.”

            There is one other restaurant besides The Cheesecake Factory located at City Creek, called Texas de Brazil, but you’ll have to spend much more money to dine there than you would at most restaurants located on Main Street (and most likely the food will be better and you won’t have to wait at the restaurants on Main).

            City Creek is a new and exciting place to come visit and it seems to be helping all the small businesses around this enormous new mall. Luckily for the small, delicious restaurants located on Main Street, the eating options at the mall are limited and super crowded, causing shoppers to venture a few blocks south for a bite to eat.

            So come down and spend some money (most likely a lot considering the price-points at most stores) while also supporting the older, smaller shops and restaurants on Main Street. Downtown Salt Lake is definitely becoming a place to visit with many different things to offer!

The NBA Lockouts Impact on Salt Lake City Businesses

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By Steven Blomquist

The NBA Lockouts Impact on Salt Lake City Businesses

The labor disagreement between the NBA and its players not only put the NBA season in jeopardy, but also raised concern in many small market areas about potential decline in revenue.
“The NBA lockout is not only affecting the players on the court but Salt Lake City businesses who rely on the Jazz fans for business” said local business and Jazz fan Mark Maybee.
Energy Solutions Arena can hold more than 19,911 fans. With the great influx of people coming downtown, many come early on game night to go to local restaurants, shop at stores and ride TRAX. All of which will see the effects.
Vincent V. Fonua, who has worked for the downtown Crown Burger for 3 years, said, “Crown burger and other restaurants will be for sure be affected by no Jazz season. It’s a usually are busiest part of the year.”
“Around 5 p.m. for about 2 hours we get a major rush,” right before the game starts around the corner from the arena. “It is great business for us. We do very well during Jazz season,” Fonua added.
“I have been a Jazz fan all my life. Going to games is a tradition I have with my brothers. We would always go Crown Burger to eat before the games and since the lockout I haven’t been to there,” said Jazz fan Mike Plant.
It’s not only the restaurants who suffer; it’s all those who rely on people coming downtown for games to make their business go.
Torry Austin, a local cab driver, said, “It’s not just restaurants that are seeing the effects. It’s parking revenue, it’s transportation revenues, it’s taxi cab rides.” Austin who has been a cab driver for over 20 years said, “Jazz season really allows me to make ends meet through the winter.”
Salt Lake is not the only city that has seen the effects of the lockout on the local economy. Fourteen other small market cities such as the Indianapolis, Memphis and Portland have also seen effects.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker was one of 14 mayors in October who sent an open letter to league owners and players pleading their case for a season to take place for the sake of the local economies.
“It has created a huge strain,” Becker said. “I’m sure there are people who these part-time jobs at the arena make a difference in their ability to make end’s meet.” He added, “There are going to be economic casualties.”
On Nov. 26, the NBA and its players agreed on terms of a new collective bargain agreement. After missing all the preseason games and first 6 weeks of 2011-2012 play has been slated to start on Dec. 25.
While the NBA players celebrate their new deal they are not the only ones jumping for joy.  Local businesses also celebrate the end of the lockout, with the hope to make up for the lost profits

City Creek Center Marks the Beginning of a New Salt Lake City

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Story by: Spencer Peters

The long anticipated wait for the opening of City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City is finally in the home stretch. The wait is down to a mere three months until the March grand opening, which will mark a new phase for Salt Lake City economy and its development as a major metropolitan area.
Announced in October of 2006 by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, City Creek Center, will offer over 800,000 square feet of shopping, restaurants and office space over 23-acres in downtown Salt Lake.
In addition, there is an underground parking garage offering 56-hundred parking stalls which has already been open to the public and the residents in the four residential towers which were a focal point of this massive project.
Chase Carpenter, City Creek condominium owner, said, “Having seen this project evolve over the past five years, it’s exciting to see it come together in its final stages.”
To help live up to expectations, Taubman Centers Inc. announced, via press release on Sept.  13, 2011, the first 20 retailers moving into the 800,000 square foot structure – all of whom are new to the market. Along with anchor stores Macy’s and Nordstrom, the shopping center will be opening nationally recognized names, such as Coach, Brooks Brothers and Tiffany & Co.
There are also a slew of unique features on the project, including a fully retractable glass roof, a sky bridge over Main Street and a re-creation of City Creek, the snow-fed stream that once flowed through the city.
Current Nordstrom employee, Ashlin Gunn, said, “They really are pulling out all of the stops to make this new location special…there is a lot of excitement in the air for the potential this new store will bring.”
One interesting fact that stands out significantly about City Creek it’s the only major shopping mall to open in the United States next year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Being able to build through a recession, high unemployment rates, and a diminishing housing market can seem like a daunting task, but not for the LDS Church.
No loans were taken out, nor was any public money sought. The $1.5 billion budget for the development was generated through church-affiliated businesses and years of putting reserves aside, which allowed them to build through a recession, according to Dale Bills, spokesman for City Creek Reserve Inc.
Assistant Dean at the David Eccles School of Business, Brad Vierig, said, “It’s simply amazing what they were able to put together during the recession…City Creek is going to have an extremely positive effect on the Salt Lake City and Utah economy.”
Hundreds of jobs have already been created for construction workers and developers with another 2,000 on the way once the project is completely finished., according to Linda Wardell, retail general manager for the project.  City Creek is estimated to contribute $1 million a day for the local economy.
City Creek Center is only the first piece of the puzzle for the future of Salt Lake City living and the visions of its metropolitan future. The LDS Church and the Salt Lake government have created their “Downtown Rising Project.”
Downtown Rising is a concept that was introduced in 2006 as a way to build off of the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the idea of turning Salt Lake into a “global community.”
In addition to City Creek Center, developers have drawn up plans for various other community buildings, including a Global Exchange Place, Performing Arts Center, Public Market and a Metropolitan Sports and Fitness Center. All of these projects are highly dependent if City Creek lives up to its vaunted hype.
March 22, 2012 will mark the official and highly anticipated grand opening of the new City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Approximately 80 stores and restaurants will be opening their doors to the public. It will mark the dawn of a new economic era for all of Utah.  (660)

Greek City Grill

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Story by Rachel Thomas

If you’re in the mood for authentic Greek food at an affordable price, Greek City Grill is the place for you.  Bob Daskalakis opened the restaurant in 2009 and can usually be found at the restaurant energetically turning out orders.
Although the restaurant may be small, the menu is anything but lacking with traditional food from gyros, spanakopita and souvlaki, to the not so traditional pastrami topped burger and halibut and chips. However, you can confidently order anything from the menu and not be disappointed.
To get this great tasting food you may have to look twice.  The restaurant is located on the corner of a small strip mall right off the freeway. Most Greek restaurants are noticeable by their blue and white colors representing the Greek flag.  Greek City Grill has no traditional Greek markings and is in turn often missed. Don’t let its location stop you from going, because once you get there the food is well worth the confusion.
Greek City Grill may be most famous for their gyros. In 2009 they were selected “Best of the Best” Gyros by the Salt Lake Tribune. Not only is Greek City Grill getting recognition by Utah food critics, it’s also caught the attention of some prominent figures in the community.  Dereon Williams, the former Utah Jazz player, is a big fan of the restaurant and even has a gyro named after him, the D-Will special. The D-Will was customarily created by Williams himself, and if you’re in the mood for something not on the menu just ask and the cooks are usually willing to put together just about anything.
The meat at Greek City Grill is freshly carved, perfectly seasoned and unbelievably moist.  One of the best parts about the restaurant is that the kitchen is so close you can watch your meal being prepared right before your eyes. Although the meaty gyros and souvlaki are considered the stars of the restaurant, the sides deserve to be spotlighted as well.
Greek City Grill offers you a variety of sides with your large portioned entrees. The sides you can chose from are fries, lemon rice, traditional Greek salad, fresh cooked zucchini and a cup of flavorful hummus. Each side is a delicious additive to an already perfect meal, but the standout of them all has to be the lemon rice.  People often return to Greek City Grill just to get an order of this fluffy strong lemon-flavored rice.
If the food descriptions haven’t convinced you, maybe the pricing will.  A gyro itself costs less than $5.00, and the largest combo meal costs less than $9.00.  If you’re looking for big flavor and low prices go check out Greek City Grill located on 6165 Highland Dr Salt Lake City, UT 84121.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Spaghetti Sauce: The Nature of Choice and Happiness

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Story by Laura Qualey

Many consumers rarely take a second thought to wonder why one product may have so many variations. Malcolm Gladwell, a New Yorker staff writer, popular blogger and author of four books, has been known to expose the understanding of many things that often remain unknown to the public. What was exposed today? The story of one man’s pursuit to change the way the food industry approaches creating foods that will please the general public.

Gladwell retold the story of renowned psychophysicist Howard Moskowitz this morning and his major contribution to the food industry: the reinvention of spaghetti sauce.

Moskowitz, throughout his career had been approached by companies who asked him to help create a better (or different) product to satisfy their customers.

Moskowitz shattered the assumption that asking a consumer what he or she prefers is the best path to creating a great product. After conducting experiments with perplexing data, Moskowitz discovered that the best way to make the consumers happy was to “group data into clusters.” Gladwell concluded that Moskowitz saved Campbell’s by grouping people’s taste preferences into three categories: plain, spicy and chunky.

After Moskowitz advised Campbell’s to create three new Prego sauces to satisfy its customers, it was reported that over ten years Campbell’s made $600 million in profits off the extra chunky sauce alone. Gladwell’s main point during his presentation: “When we pursue universal principles in food, we don’t just make an error, we do ourselves a disservice.” In short, embracing the diversity of human beings finds a sure way to happiness.

Salt Lake’s ‘Little Chocolatiers’ take many steps toward a successful business

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Story and slideshow by CARLY SZEMEREY

“I think there are some similarities with us and Steve Jobs,” Steve Hatch said in a phone interview. “We are both very picky about our businesses.”

Hatch, 41, is one of the owners and founders of Hatch Family Chocolates. Along with his wife Katie Masterson, 41, they are working hard to make their business successful.

After Masterson and Hatch were married, they knew they wanted to start a business at some point. However, these two didn’t know what kind of store they wanted. They weren’t sure if they wanted to open a coffee shop, a bakery or something else.

With a bit of background in chocolate-dipping, Hatch thought a chocolate factory might be a good option.

“My family dipped chocolates all their lives,” Hatch said. His grandmother dipped chocolates and taught his father, who then went on to continue this tradition for many years. He would do it as a hobby and give these chocolates to friends and neighbors. Then, after he retired he began selling his specialty treats at boutiques.

With this experience and tradition, Hatch and Masterson felt confident that this was the business they wanted to go into. So they got to work.

First, Hatch and Masterson searched for a suitable location. They toured several buildings before finding the right space to start their business. “It just fell into place,” Hatch said.

The next step was to prepare for the business aspect of the company since Masterson, who received her culinary degree at CHIC — Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago — had the baking side covered. Hatch enrolled in some business classes at Utah State University and the University of Utah to aid him in this preparation.

They opened their shop, Hatch Family Chocolates, on April 19, 2003. The shop at 390 E. 4th Ave. was small, because they didn’t know if their business was going to be successful.

To boost their business, Hatch and Masterson starred in their own TV series on TLC called the “Little Chocolatiers.”

The series followed Hatch and Masterson through their days at work and described the effort that is put into their products and creations.

After just 12 episodes the couple found themselves with a growing business.

“[The national coverage from TLC] absolutely helped,” Hatch said. “[It] brought in new faces from all over the country.”

With the boost in customers came an increase in sales, which led to some new complications. After four years their 4th Ave. location was beginning to become too cramped. The need for more space, combined with the fact that Hatch and Masterson didn’t own the building, led to their decision that it was time to move.

They began looking for another store, searching from Sugar House to Pioneer Park. The couple didn’t know what to do because they “loved the mom-and-pop shops in the big-city feeling” that the Avenues neighborhood offered them, Hatch said.

Fortunately for them, a grocery store located at 376 E. 8th Ave. was for sale. They felt that this was the perfect location, so they bought the property.

“It helped moving to a bigger shop but was also scary,” Hatch said. With the move came increasing costs, the process of starting all over again and a loss of customers. Moving caused some customers to think that Hatch Family Chocolates had gone out of business, since Hatch and Masterson relied only on word-of-mouth advertising.

“I was convinced that the store had just went out of business,” said Vickie Edmunds, a customer of Hatch Family Chocolates. “I was overjoyed when someone finally told me that they had just moved locations.”

Megan Murdock, a regular customer, said, “I prefer the new location. It’s a lot bigger, which is nice for loitering afterwards.”

Relocating allowed them to refocus their efforts on their business and continue dipping all of their products by hand every day. The freshness is now one of the main attractions of Hatch Family Chocolates and keeps customers coming back.

Not many shops hand dip or make their candy from scratch anymore, Hatch said, but that is exactly what Hatch and Masterson do and will continue to do.

“We want to keep the high quality of our [hand dipped] chocolate and products,” Hatch said. So changing to machinery is not in the cards at the moment.

Aside from their delicious and fresh products, the owners of Hatch Family Chocolates are also known for their great customer service.

“People walking into the doors are the most important thing,” Hatch said.

“My employees probably think that I am picky and strict because I can be in the middle of a personal conversation and if someone walks into the shop I will drop the conversation and turn all my attention to the customer,” he said.

This attention to service has worked well for Hatch and Masterson.

“The customer service there is great and I always feel well attended, especially when the owners are present,” said Murdock, who loves Hatch’s chocolate-dipped bananas with peanuts.

Hatch and Masterson are content with the current state of their business. The store is still evolving and things keep changing but, even so, they want to remain a local spot and do not want to lose the neighborhood feel.

They have recently incorporated an online store to their website and in the future they are considering bottling their caramel — one of the customers’ favorite treats at Hatch Family Chocolate — to be available for purchase.

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Park City’s Eating Establishment shares its secret to success

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Story by LAUREN DEANE
Photos by LAUREN DEANE, JULI SALMI, MIRANDA BLAKE AND JORDANNA CHRIS

Juli Salmi, the head manager at the Eating Establishment (EE) in Park City, outlined three essential ingredients for a successful restaurant: great people, a working system and delicious food.

The EE was opened in 1972 and is the oldest full-service restaurant in Park City, Utah. In 2011, it was awarded the achievement of No. 2 best breakfast restaurant in Park City by tasteofparkcity.com.  It was also shown on the Rachael Ray Show, Rachael’s Vacation, on the Food Network Channel and was listed as a local’s favorite by skitownresaurants.com.

According to Salmi, the first vital ingredient for a successful restaurant is to hire hardworking people focused on communication. One of the most indispensable personalities of a restaurant is the owner. The owner has a huge part to play in the success of his or her company.

Salmi said part of the reason why the EE is so successful is because of the effort and heart the owner, Rick Sine, brings to his restaurant.

“He is constantly in and out of the restaurant. He feels it is incredibly important, as the owner, to be around the restaurant daily,” Salmi said. “He works multiple shifts a week as the host and is involved in everything the restaurant does. When he isn’t working he is constantly coming in just to chat with the staff, say hello, thank loyal customers and see if there is anything he can do to help during busy hours.”

Another key personality to any restaurant is in the management position. The EE has two main managers, Salmi and the kitchen manager, Craig Wells. One of the reasons why Salmi and Wells are an effective partnership is because they are in relationship; they have been working side-by-side at the EE and dating for the past seven years.

“We met at the Eating Establishment and soon after started dating. We are both into outdoor sports and started climbing the ranks professionally together,” Salmi said. “He went from the sous chef position, to the head chef and finally the kitchen manager. I went from a waitress, to a manager, to the head manager.”

Miranda Blake, who has been a waitress at the EE for the past six years, said, “We call them ‘the power couple.’ We all know that a lot of the success that has come to the restaurant is because of these two and their integrated work dynamic.”

Salmi appreciates her ability to communicate so easily with Wells. “We always bounce ideas of each other by talking about problems with our staff, the shipping [arrivals and issues] and anything else. It’s easy to communicate with the other manager when you live together,” she said with a laugh.

A successful restaurant also needs great employees in other roles, such as servers and dishwashers. Salmi said that the right employees will create a stable and successful restaurant.

Elizabeth Twilline has worked in the restaurant industry her entire life and has been at the Eating Establishment for the past 10 years. “One thing that I see in the EE that isn’t in other restaurants is the front of the house — the employees that interact with the customers — and the back of the house —the employees that do not interact with the customers — work incredibly together,” she said. “In some of my other waitressing experiences, the kitchen won’t talk to the servers and vice versa. This never creates a good work environment and it also makes it virtually impossible to make customers happy.”

Blake added, “The experience I have had here with the kitchen is completely different than anything else I have ever experienced. We yell, laugh, talk and work with each other.”

The average amount of years that an employee stays at the EE is in double figures, 10 years. Salmi said this statistic is practically unheard of in the restaurant industry. The EE is keeping employees so long they created a retirement program for its employees.

Salmi’s second necessity for a successful restaurant is a working system.

The system at the EE is different from most other restaurants, Wells explained. He said most restaurant systems function by having the kitchen do all the food-related work and the servers do all the customer-support chores. The EE’s system has some of those components with a “special twist.”

At the Eating Establishment, servers prepare items for customers that don’t need to be cooked, such as oatmeal, granola and fruit. Servers also “dress” dishes — they add hollandaise sauce to the eggs benedict and slices of lemon to create balance — before taking plates to customers.

“The kitchen is not responsible for making the food pretty, they make it delicious. The waitresses are in charge of the beauty in a dish,” Blake said.

Wells said it is an exhausting cycle for the servers, but it helps make them in charge of all the services they provide the customer. It also makes sure the kitchen staff is focused on the most important part of their job, the taste and quality of the food they are preparing.

Finally, Salmi believes that a perfect restaurant must have great food.

“The service and the system might be perfect but the most important part is what the public puts into their mouth,” Salmi said. “You need to make sure your food is undeniably the best thing they have ever tasted.”

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From Yugoslavia to America

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Story and photo by MIA MICIC

“It has always been my lifelong dream to open my own deli and market,” Elvir Kohnic said. But those dreams came crashing down when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia.

That war shattered the lives of thousands of people. Many lives were lost, homes were destroyed, families were ripped apart. The war broke out in 1991 because of religious groups, which divided Yugoslavia into three new countries. Today, those countries are known as Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. This war caused many people to leave and move to new places all over the world. Many families moved to the United States. Among those individuals were Elvir and Zeljka Kohnic.

The Kohnic family now calls Salt Lake City home.

Originally from Sarajevo, the couple immigrated to the United States in 1997. When they moved to Salt Lake City, they didn’t know anyone here, and didn’t know a single word of English. But they knew they couldn’t go back home.

“At that point reality sank in and we realized that this was our new home,” Elvir said in his native language, Serbo-Croatian. Even though they were far away from home, Elvir was not going to give up on his goal of owning his own deli and market.

Being in a new place and away from home made Elvir just fight that much more to open his own deli and market.

“The reason why I wanted to open my own market is so that I can share the cuisine and culture of the Mediterranean and Europe with everyone in Salt Lake City,” Elvir said.

Finally, in 2007 Elvir’s dream came true. He opened his own deli and market and named it Mediterra Mercato Deli and Market.

“It was probably one of the best days of my life because I had worked so hard for this all of my life,” Elvir said.

In the end, all of his hard work paid off. “I was so proud of him for achieving his goal,” Zeljka said with a big smile on her face. Being able to open his own market taught Elvir to never give up and to fight for what you want.

Mediterra, located at 3540 S. State St., has a very casual atmosphere that is perfect for dining with friends, family and co-workers. The restaurant offers a lot of authentic Bosnian food such as dolmas (stuffed grape leaves with rice and vegetables), sarma (stuffed cabbage with rice and meat), burek pita, (thin, flaky dough filled with meat), sirnica (thin, flaky dough filled with cheese), and spanakopita (thin, flaky dough filled with cheese and spinach), and also their most popular dessert, baklava. Also available are pizza, paninis, pastries, crepes, salads, soups and coffee.

“I like when I see people come in and enjoy some lunch and coffee with their friends,” Elvir said.

Mediterra sells imported products and ingredients from Eastern and Western European countries, including Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Greece. Customers may purchase different types of cheeses, oils, meats, peppers, soups, dairy products, chocolates, jams, teas, coffee and European drinks.

The interior of Mediterra makes patrons feel like they are in a European country. European music plays in the background and the walls are decorated with images from Europe. The couple try to incorporate as much of their culture as possible in their market.

“As I look back on my life through the years I have learned to never take anything for granted, and I feel very lucky that we got out of Yugoslavia safely and that we were given a fresh start in the United States,” Elvir said.

Elvir and Zeljka’s story proves that with determination many things can be achieved.

“We wish to cherish the past and look forward to the future,” Zeljka said.

Today, Elvir and Zeljka have a 13-year-old daughter, Sara, and live a normal life. He runs the deli and store full time, Monday through Sunday. Zeljka has another job but she comes and helps Elvir after she gets off work. They don’t deny that they have had many struggles to get where they are now, but if anything this has just made them stronger individuals.

“Sometimes I sit and think to myself about everything and can’t believe what people in Yugoslavia had been through and where we are today, and I am just so thankful for this opportunity,” Elvir said. “I got to make my dream come true of opening my own market. Sometimes it is really hard to believe.”