Dinner at Caffe Molise

If I had to pick a favorite cuisine, it would most definitely be Italian so Caffe Molise is obviously one of my very favorite restaurants downtown!  It features a menu full of traditional dishes from Northern Italy and has an extensive wine list from that region, as well.   Caffe Molise has a simple and casual decor featuring the work of local artists or you can opt for the patio during warmer months.  I like to eat here before seeing productions at Capitol Theatre but it is equally appropriate for a casual dinner after work.

I like just about everything on the menu but I highly recommend the lasagne ($15.95).   It features layers of pasta, Italian sausage, seasoned beef, ricotta, Asiago, and marinara.  It is delicious!

Definitely save some room for dessert (if you can!).  I became a fan of Tiramisu on a trip to Italy several years ago and Caffe Molise has an excellent version but I usually opt for the Dark Chocolate Cake ($6.95).  It is quite possibly the most decadent chocolate cake I have ever had!  It is dense and chocolaty, with just a hint of cinnamon!

Caffe Molise is located in the heart of downtown SLC at 55 West 100 South (near the Salt Lake Convention Center).  It is open Monday - Thursday: 10:30 am - 9:00 pm, Friday - Saturday: 10:30 am - 10:00 pm, and Sunday: 10:30 am - 9:00 pm.  Most entrees are reasonably priced under $30.00.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Last night I had the opportunity to see the Broadway touring company production of A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder at Kingsbury Hall and I loved it.  I have wanted to see it for so long and it was definitely worth the wait!  It is absolutely hilarious and I was laughing out loud all night.  After his mother dies, Monty Navarro (Kevin Massey) learns that she was part of the illustrious D'Ysquith family and was disinherited for marrying his father.  He is really Montague D'Ysquith Navarro and is in line to inherit the earldom (there are only eight family members ahead of him).  When his vain and heartless girlfriend Sibella (Lesley McKinnell) decides to marry the rich and handsome Lionel Hallward, Monty decides to kill all eight family members ahead of him in the succession in order to become the earl and win her back.  Standing in his way are the Reverend Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith (who has an unfortunate fall from a cathedral tower), Asquith D'Ysquith, Jr. (who has a bizarre ice skating accident), Henry D'Ysquith (who is stung by his precious bees), Lady Hyacinth D'Ysquith (who is presumed dead in deepest darkest Africa), Major Lord Bartholomew D'Ysquith (who is decapitated while lifting weights), Lady Salome D'Ysquith Pumphrey (who is killed by prop gun with real bullets during her debut in Hedda Gabbler), Lord Asquith D'Ysquith, Sr. (who is driven to a heart attack), and, finally, Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith, the Earl of Highhurst (who is poisoned).  The entire D'Ysquith family is played by John Rapson and I can't decide who I liked more:  the outragrously flamboyant Henry who thinks everything is "Better with a Man" or the over-the-top Lady Hyacinth who just wants to do some good!  So funny!  Along the way, Monty falls in love with Phoebe D'Ysquith (Adrienne Eller) and marries her to make Sibella jealous.  Eventually, Monty becomes the Earl of Highhurst but is soon after arrested for the murder of Lord Adalbert, the only D'Ysquith death for which he is not actually responsible!  The charges are dismissed when Phoebe and Sibella each give proof that the other one committed the murder ("That Horrible Woman").  However, Monty might not live happily ever after because Chauncey, the next in line to the earldom, is lurking.  I can't say enough about this production!  Massey, McKinnell (who is the understudy), and Eller have incredible voices and Rapson could not be funnier.  The set is also a lot of fun!  There is an elaborate stage, reminiscent of an old music hall, with projections on a giant screen behind it.  The projections are particularly clever in all of the death scenes, especially when Ezekial falls to his death.  I certainly enjoyed this delightful comedy and I highly recommend that you see it during its SLC run (through March 6).  Go here to purchase tickets.

Note:  Broadway in Utah has changed its name to Broadway at the Eccles in celebration of the 2016-2017 season in the new state-of-the-art Eccles Theatre, which will be complete in the fall.  The shows were announced last night and I couldn't be more excited!  I have already renewed my season tickets and I am particularly looking forward to Kinky Boots.  Go here for more information about the shows and how to purchase tickets.

Eddie the Eagle

The second movie in our Saturday night double feature was Eddie the Eagle, yet another feel-good true story about the Olympics.  To be sure, this is a formulaic underdog sports movie full of cliches (there is a training montage to "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oats) but I think I liked it for the same reason I cheered for Eddie at the 1988 Calgary Olympics despite the fact that he came in last:  Eddie is so irrepressibly endearing you just can't help liking him!  The movie tells the story (with much poetic license) of how a young boy who wore leg braces dreamed of being an Olympian.  Eddie (Taron Egerton) actually becomes a good downhill skier but narrowly misses making the Olympic team in 1984.  He decides to switch to ski jumping because Great Britain doesn't have a team and, if he competes in one event, he will automatically qualify.  Despite the fact that he has never jumped before, he moves to Germany to train and meets Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), an alcoholic snow plow driver who happens to be a former ski jumper with his own inner demons.  Eddie convinces Peary to train him because of his sheer determination to succeed.  After overcoming many obstacles, Eddie finally has the chance to be an Olympian and Peary proves to his former mentor (a comatose Christopher Walken) that he takes ski jumping seriously.  Egerton perfectly captures Eddie's goofiness and Jackman just looks great (my favorite scene is when Peary jumps the 90m hill with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth).  As I mentioned, the screenplay takes many liberties with Eddie's story (Bronson Peary is a fictional character based on several of his coaches and he trained in Lake Placid rather than Germany) but, no matter!  I literally cheered out loud, like I did in 1988, when Eddie landed his 90m jump and I definitely enjoyed watching his story.  I suspect that anyone who remembers watching the 1988 Olympics will enjoy it, as well!  It is a bit of fun and I recommend it as such.

Race

A weekend spent watching movies is always a good idea so Marilyn and I decided on a double feature last night.  Our first movie was Race, the true story of Jesse Owens and his four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  It begins when Owens (Stephan James) arrives at Ohio State to train with Coach Snyder (an excellent Jason Sudeikis), a former Olympic athlete trying to make a name for himself as a coach.  Despite many obstacles, such as being treated unfairly by other athletes at Ohio State, most notably the football team, needing to work constantly to support his out-of-work father and his girlfriend and their daughter, and clashing with his coach, he begins winning race after race.  When he qualifies for the Olympics, he is approached by the NAACP to boycott the Olympics in protest of Hitler's racial policies.  Ultimately, he decides to participate to show Hitler that his policies are unsound, particularly when he competes head to head in the long jump against Hitler's poster boy for Aryan superiority, Carl "Luz" Long (David Kross).  The movie ends, not with his stunning victories in Berlin, but with Owens and his wife being made to use the servant's entry to the hotel where a dinner is being given in his honor.  It is a powerful portrait of bigotry that is particularly salient in these troubling times.  I love inspirational sports movies and this is a pretty good one.  The scenes during the Olympics are epic (they reminded me of the Olympic scenes in Unbroken) and, even though I knew the outcome of every race, I was holding my breath and willing him to win!  James gives a very earnest portrayal of Owens and I felt totally invested in his story.  Where the movie bogs down is in its telling of other stories such as Snyder's failed opportunities at the Olympics, the long protracted debate between American Olympic Committee members about whether to boycott the Olympics (lots of speeches), and the efforts by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Hounten) to make a propaganda film about the athletic superiority of Germany.   These subplots somewhat detract from the power of Owens' story (it is compelling enough) and make the movie much longer than it needs to be.  However, I really did love it and highly recommend it!

The Witch

The Witch premiered at Sundance last year to much acclaim, even winning the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic category.  Several of my friends, whose opinions I hold in high regard, saw it at Sundance and absolutely raved about it so I have been looking forward to its wide release.  I saw it last night and it is the real deal!  I like to be genuinely scared by a horror movie rather than shocked and, let me tell you, I was scared by The Witch.  In 17th century New England, a farmer (Ralph Ineson), his wife (Kate Dickie), and his family are expelled from a plantation for heresy.  They settle in a remote area on the edge of a dark and foreboding forest.  When a tragedy befalls the family, who are isolated and in the grip of religious hysteria, they begin to suspect that their oldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is involved in witchcraft.  It is brilliant!  The cast is absolutely perfect and the production design is so full of period verisimilitude that it sometimes feels like watching a documentary about Puritan life.  The historical setting makes the events seem so plausible (in fact, the script is based on the folklore of the period) that I doubt I will be able to sleep in the foreseeable future.  It is atmospheric, shot in muted gray and sepia tones; intense, to say the least; suspenseful, almost to the point of being unbearable; and scary, more for what you don't see than for what you do.  I highly recommend it.