One of my favorite breakfasts spots is now open for dinner.  Desserts, drinks, and a full on dinner are all now available in the evening hours at Eva’s Bakery and now through November they are offering 20% off when you mention #EvasBakery4Dinner. I’m imagining the perfect downtown experience, perhaps tickets to a ballet or a musical, an early dinner at Eva’s Bakery or post performance dessert and drinks.  Their menu changes but a few things you can count on – decadent desserts, reliable wines and the salads and soups that we all enjoy there at lunch time. The entrees I’ve tried were both ones worth returning for, but instead I’ll go back in hopes for new flavors coming from the Eva’s Bakery kitchen.

Pecan Crusted Chicken with Currant Tomato Relish, seasonal veggies and a dijon cream sauce.

Braised Local Pork Roast with Potato Gnocchi.

Chocolate Molten Cake

Locals can now enjoy the winter wonderland of La Caille and not leave with empty pockets.  The beautiful estate now offers a Common Wealth Menu for us commoners, which I’m super thankful for.  Some might describe a dining experience at La Caille as whimsical or even magical and now more people can have that experience!

Not only have the prices altered for those of us who can’t splurge that often on dining, but the food has also seen some changes for the better.  The new chef and new owner’s highest priority is setting the standard for the food at the same quality as the lovely atmosphere it is served in. If you’ve been to La Caille in the past, you know that this hasn’t always been the case.  The new owner, Kevin Fates, decided to continue the legacy of La Caille, instead of diving the estate and making a good amount of cash, and look now towards improving the quality of food.  The focus is now on flavor, including adding some local elements to their menu like Creminelli meats!

We found the improvements in flavor to be true as we sampled our 3 course dinner on the Common Wealth Menu.  This new menu provides you with 3 generous courses for $36 per person. You start with a salad, move onto a delectable entree, and end with a perfect finale of dessert.  Sometimes this pre-fix menus leave you with choices that aren’t as compelling as the regular menu but La Caille made sure to give you lots of tasty options to choose from.

I started my meal with a beat salad, a poached sugar beet medley with toasted walnuts, radish sprouts, montrachet goat cheese, and a herb infused glacé.  Then I moved on with my selection of a vegetarian entree (not because I’m vegetarian but just simply because it sounded so good, The Roasted Borsin Buckwheat Crepes.  These warm crepes come filled with quinoa, and a root vegetable puree, surrounded by a Borsin cheese sauce and black truffle cram, and topped with sautéed spinach and wild mushrooms and fried leek straws.  Not only were the flavors bountiful in this dish with the truffle sauce and wild mushrooms, but the portion was as well.  I had enough to take home some for the next day.  My meal ended with a delicious treat, french beignets lying on a few spoonfuls of rich crème anglaise sauce. They quite literally melted in your mouth, they were that good!!

My charming date went a different direction with his meal, ordering the Coq au Vin.  As big fans of Burgundy wine and near to connoisseurs of Coq au Vin, we tried the first bite with hesitation but decided that La Caille does a fine job preparing this traditional French peasant dish, almost as good as when we had it in France! Their Coq au Vin is served with Creminelli bacon, martini onions,  a wild mushroom medley, and a Burgundy demi glace.

For anyone looking for a magical experience this winter, La Caille is your spot, and now more people can enjoy it too!  I think you’ll find lots of improvements but especially in flavor and spirit at La Caille.

La Caille
9565 South Wasatch Boulevard, Sandy Utah

Les Madeleines is a small unique bakery in the heart of Salt Lake. I had heard delicious rumors about all of their baked goods and had the pleasure of experiencing them myself recently. My first visit was with group of foodies who met up weekend brunch and we tried much of their fare, deciding that their wasn’t a bad choice on the menu. Since then, I’ve been back and tried a few more tasty treats from their menu.

Le Madeleines is most known for their kouing aman pastry, which is layers of buttery, flaky pastry with a crusty sweet exterior. It is beyond description but I will tell you that people order them in advance and they sell them by the box full. We saw rows of them freshly baked and lined up to be sold the or boxed for pre-orders. The Bakery’s website describes the pastry as “A study in opposites: sweet and salty, gooey and crunchy.”

I first tried the Sesame Chicken Salad Wrap, which came wrapped in butter lettuce and a rice wrapper served with a miso dressing and edamame. Sometime I get food envy by checking out what others ordered but in this case I was completly satisfied with my choice. No food envy this trip. Although, I will say that everyone’s food looked tasty.

On my second visit Josh and I split the egg and cheese sandwich, which was also delicious. A fried egg topped with sharp cheddar cheese on whole wheat toast.

From their pastry case I’ve tried the Financier, a brown butter tart with quince fruit. I have recently learned about the beautiful aroma and flavor of browned butter through a Madeleine recipe I found. I enjoyed the tart and will continue to look for recipes and bakeries serving items with brown butter. Their lemon tart was beautiful and a delicious choice as well.

I was also tempted by their chocolate croissants which I noticed were made with Valhorona chocolate, which is now my favorite chocolate, thanks to all of the chocolate learning I’ve been doing recently. I made chocolate souffles with this specialty chocolate and hope to do some more experimental baking with it soon!

In addition, this fun bakery was recently awarded Best Bakery in Salt Lake City by Salt Lake Magazine!

Photos by professional photographer and my beautiful friend Amy Lashelle You can read her blog post about Les Madeleines here.

Le Madeleines Bakery
216 East 500 South
Tuesday thru Friday- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday- 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday and Monday- Closed
twitter: @lesmadeleines

A place I have found myself frequenting is Gourmandise Bakery downtown. Most people just refer to it as The Bakery although its formal name is Gourmandis and its located on 250 South and 300 East.

I looked up the word Gourmandise online to figure just what does this strange word meant: def. unrestrained enjoyment of fine foods, wines, and the like. It can be used as a noun or a verb. Here is the dictionary example of is use as a verb: “You could see the gourmandise shining on his rosy lips” (Glenway Wescott). Well the funny word does give high expectations for this cute inner-city bakery.Let me be the first to tell you that the expectations will be met and even exceeded. I started going here to buy cakes for parties at my work in Deer Valley. Deer Valley folks expect nothing but the best and everyone loved the cakes. I’ve recently gone for Saturday breakfast and enjoyed their homemade yogurt with fresh berries, toasted almonds, and rasberry preserves- amazing! Just the homemade yogurt was enough but then with all of the toppings I was completly in love. And this is just one of many tasty delights at The Bakery. Try a bran muffin or a blueberry scone; take a loaf of cinnamon apple bread home; or endulge in a tasty dessert after a dinner downtown.