A few weeks back I had the pleasure of flying out to Salt Lake City for a pair of events (which I will be recapping shortly) and got to kick it with the DJ, homie and promoter James Ramirez who brought me out for a few days to enjoy the city. Utah has been on the bucket list for a minute and we had been trying to make it happen for the last few years but things finally came together to dial it all in. Of course with every trip that I make, I’m always interested in checking out the city and sights, eat great foods and of course get some digging it and SLC didn’t let me down! Once landing, I was expecting the weather to be on the cold side but surprisingly it was rather warm with the sun shining bright.
The food selections were on point, from ramen up in the mountains at Hana Ramen to Vietnamese in the city at The Pearl to tacos downtown, it’s safe to say that Salt Lake is a food city for sure with a great variety and quality. In addition to food, I’m always on the hunt and down for a dig in the dusty parts of the city for records, vintage toys, books and magazines and once again, the homie James knew exactly where to go. And why wouldn’t he? Like myself, he is a connoisseur of all the finer things vintage and rare so we spent a day hitting the shops to find a stack of gems that made the trip event better.
First stop on the trip was hitting up Diabolical Records where I grabbed a few Jazz pieces to add to the collection and mint up on ones that I already had which always makes nice for filing clean copies away. Next stop on the agenda was hitting the old school antique mall which was stocked with vendors serving up just about everything from tin cans to toys. It was interesting to see a few Mattel Shogun Warriors on display (although priced way too high) and other fun things, this is definitely a place that you need to spend a little time in as to not miss anything. Keeping the day moving and probably my favorite dig of the day was hitting the old bookstore that had been in business for 103 years and still owned by the original family, talking about a gold mine! Being in business for 103 years, you can only imaging the degree of dusty digging that can go on. And although extremely dusty, it was well organized by genres, titles, etc. From film books to history, westerns to space, biography to autobiography, this place had it all. But the score of all scores to be found were in the 18 and over section behind the swinging wooden doors which housed a complete vintage porn magazine that looked completely preserved in time and right out of Times Square 42nd Street. Everything bagged and perfectly organized by title and years and it was crazy to find issues in the real world versus buying on eBay. This place should be deemed as a national treasure especially with it’s age. How many businesses especially book stores have lasted this long in America and still functioning!? Another thing that I’m always on the hunt for whenever in a new city is a pinball lounge or barcade which of course, Salt Lake had so it was nice to kick around for a bit, grab a few beers, drop a stock of quarters and play some classic machines.
There’s definitely a pin on my map to make Salt Lake an annual return visit especially during the summer months which I’m sure with all of the scenic views and nature is absolutely amazing.