Penny Ann's Cafe

Our local restaurant this week is a favorite of your bloggers' team leader; Penny Ann's Cafe, at 1810 South Main in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We went there for our team holiday lunch, an annual tradition for our team.

The cafe is on the bottom floor of a good-sized apartment building.  It is kind of hard to see, unless you look hard. From the outside, nothing stands out.  Inside, there is limited space.  The tables are close together, and there is a packed-in feeling.  I'm sure part of that comes from the fact that our big group was there in the heart of the lunch hour.

The atmosphere was welcoming and had the feel of a mom and pop diner rather than a chain place.  The smells were pleasing to the nose, and the patrons were characters, with collars ranging from blue to white (and even some who look like they've never worn a collar).

Now, to the best part - the food.  The menu was rangy, but not trying too hard.  Rather than order the burger (my usual go-to) I went with egg plant parmesan.  It was a huge portion, and came with pasta on the side with my choice of alfredo or red sauce.  Back to the egg plant parm; it was not over-breaded. The crust was firm, and just right to add a pleasing texture to the whole, with out taking away from the egg plant.  The light crust also let the egg plant speak for itself and it told me a lot, like "I'm yummy, I'm just the right temperature, and I will fill you up."

There were several of the team there, and I was not subtle about looking at other people's plates.  The pasta some went with looked great, the turkey sammys others chose looked wonderful, and I had burger envy after seeing huge and yummy looking burgers on others plates.

I say go eat there.  I want to go back and try breakfast.  It looks like the kind of place that does breakfast right.