SLC: Home of tasty hoagies, lung-friendly oxygen and an 'underachieving team?'
The Utah Jazz are in Boston for tonight’s game against the Celtics, but I read about another Utah-Boston connection – with an additional San Antonio tie – that piqued my interest on the Internet today.
Turns out, Spurs forward Matt Bonner is quite the fan of the sandwich scene in Salt Lake City. Especially the Boston Deli in downtown.
I’ve seen the sign for this sandwich shop a bunch of times, but have never wandered down the stairs and tried it out. According to Bonner, a self-proclaimed “Sandwich Hunter,” it’d be worth the trip. He talked up the place – and the bevy of good delis in SLC – <a href="http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/sandwich_hunter.html?rss=true
” target=”_blank”>in a funny blog he wrote called “The Quest for the Hoagie Grail.”
He started by playing a word association game with teammates, asking them to tell him what comes to mind when he said “Salt Lake City.”
Fortunately the words “multiple desperate housewives,” “lots and lots and lots of wins against the local NBA team” and “lime-flavored gelatin” did not exit their mouths.
Rather, Tim Duncan and Dejuan Blair simply said “Utah,” Keith Bogans thought of “The Mormon Church,” Manu Ginobili mentioned “Mountains …. full of caves with bats to smack around (or at least he said the first word)” and Richard Jefferson declared “Open Space.” (Guessing Jefferson has seen all the vacancies on Main Street or something.)
Bonner’s response: “Great Sandwiches.”
“When you think about Salt Lake City, you might picture mountains, skiing, the Utah Jazz, Mormon churches, and snow,” he wrote. “But I picture all the great sandwich shops in town. It’s amazing. Options galore. Everywhere you look is a different spot. A possibility. A chance to find the great American sandwich.”
The New England native was particularly pleased when by serendipity he discovered Boston Deli. He loved the decor and raved about the Turkey Ranch Sandwich, a concoction of fresh sourdough bread, oven-roasted turkey breast (like Thanksgiving), lettuce, tomato, melted provolone cheese, ranch sauce and marinated and sauteed mushrooms.
It sits atop his Hoagie Grail leaderboard for now.
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Bonner wasn’t the only non-Jazz player to speak highly of Salt Lake City to the cyberworld.
Jon Brockman gushed about the city’s coolness and clean air during his recent visit.
To answer your first question, Brockman is a Sacramento Kings rookie forward from Washington.
To answer your other question, yes, he really did tweet highly of those things. From his Twitter account on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:31 a.m.: “Just finished shoot around in Utah. Salt lake city is a really cool place. I am loving the crisp, clean, clear air.”
The realist in me can’t verify that he was being sincere or cynical.
If he really was being complimentary of the city, I can’t guarantee he’ll enjoy the same clean-air experience if the nasty inversion is invading our air space when his Kings return on Jan. 29.
The Jazz would probably prefer if he and the rest of the Kings don’t enjoy their next trip here quite so much as well.
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Not everyone is praising Utah – or at least not the basketball team.
Hoopshype.com’s Spain-based editor Jorge Sierra recently tweeted this after the loss to the Kings: “Utah looking like your typical talented, underachieving team.”
Hey, but at least the Jazz live in a city with good sandwiches and fresh air, right?