ChrisPund.com

A local favorite for lunch, if you’re in Salt Lake City, you need to make a stop to Moochie’s! This place was popular and crowded way before Guy Fieri and the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives crew ever came to town. However, that’s exactly how I learned about it and decided we needed to check it out.

A small little place, Moochie’s features take-out (and eat in) homemade Italian food and Philly cheesesteaks. Moochie’s is setup in what used to be a pottery gift shop for more than 30 years but in 1987 was renovated to add in Moochies. While there, it only seemed necessary to try to do items – the meatball sub and the Philly. That’s all you need to know – thanks for coming! But seriously, the food is great.

Moochie’s is run by a lady named Joanna and she had wanted to open a place that served an authentic Philly cheesesteaks. Many other places throughout the city claim to make an “authentic” Philly, but Joanna, being from Philly, new she had what to took to make it right – and she did. If you’re familiar with the cheesesteak scene in Philly, you’ve probably heard of “Tony Luke’s”, well that’s Moochie’s cousin, so good cheesesteaks run in the family.

Honestly, I don’t even know what else was on the menu. We went two separate times in the course of 4 days and I didn’t look any further than the meatball sub and the cheesesteak. If the rest of their food is as good as these two, then you won’t be disappointed. On our first trip, I got the meatball sub, 12 inch and it was just too big. The bread is great and the meatballs are large. You’ll have the option to make it a Moochie Meal meaning adding two sides if you want, but I just recommend a soda and fries.

The second time around, Courtney and I both went for the cheesesteak. Courtney got one with extra provolone and I went for the cheese whiz. Who get’s provolone cheese on a cheesesteak? Amateur move. Anyway, the cheesestake was great. The bread was good, still nice and stiff and not soggy like you get at some places. The whiz was definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab a picture of it for the blog but I’m sure you know what a cheesesteak looks like!

The food was great, the atmosphere was good, and the service was good. If you’re going to go during lunch, go early or late.  We went to go back for our second time during lunch, right around 12:15 and the place was packed with a line out the door in the middle of winter in Salt Lake City. So we waited until the next day to go before noon. Even at 11:30 it was crowded and a consistent line by the time we left. There is not much seating inside, maybe 10 tables, so you’ll either have to wait for a spot to sit or take it to go. But, definitely worth it!

Check out Moochie’s online for full hours, menus, and directions.

Moochie’s Meatballs and More
232 East 800 South, Salt Lake City, Utah
(801) 596-1350 or (801) 364-0232
Mon-Sat 10:30 am to 7:30 pm
Closed Sunday
http://www.moochiesmeatballs.com/

It’s almost time to head back to Salt Lake City, UT for another installation of the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, this time the Winter Market which features mostly winter sports equipment (think skis, snowboards, winter clothing, etc) but also many lines of camping and outdoor gear. One of the things we are doing different this time around than when we were in SLC in August is looking for more deals.

Unfortunately, going out to eat and restaurants and spending money is a part of traveling.  In August while in SLC, we relied on many recommendations for places to eat – whether it came from the guy behind the hotel desk, Twitter, or other tradeshow attendees. Now that we’ve got a better feel for the atmosphere and restaurant scene, I’ve been looking for deals online for restaurants or services in the area. This is a great way to save some cash in the pocket.

For our upcoming trip, I picked up two deals from Living Social. But I also watched Groupon and did random searches for deals in the area. Many of them were service related and things we were not looking for, but a few times restaurants popped up.

The first deal I picked up was for the SugarHouse Barbeque Company. With a wide selection of barbeque treats, this $10 for $20 worth of food will be great for dinner one night and save us a few bucks while at it.

The second deal I picked up was from the UPS Store. Crazy right? Since we’ll be at a tradeshow most of them time there, I’m going to be accumulating catalogues, swag, and sample products. But, we’re flying out there and back, so there’s no way I’m paying extra baggage fees to get the stuff home. So for $15 I got $30 worth of shipping supplies and services from the UPS Store that is right down the street from our hotel. Now I can just ship everything home before we head to the airport and have it in a few days.

Sadly, there were not more restaurant deals that came up on the daily deal sites, otherwise I would have probably gotten some more of them. But, even these 2 deals will save us some money. If you’re planning far ahead in advance enough and know where you will be, subscribing to daily deal sites for that city is a great way to save some cash, try some new places, and have a good time while traveling.

The Planned Route

At the beginning of August we are embarking on a 2 week road trip from Maryland to Utah and back going through 13 different states along the way!