Things to Do in The Avenues, Salt Lake City
Explore The Avenues - Saturday mornings here smell like fresh coffee and sound like tote bags thumping against knees. Quietly smug, unhurried—the neighborhood doesn't rush for anyone. Dogs on leashes. Wind chimes by 10pm.
Explore ActivitiesDiscover The Avenues
The Avenues sits northeast of downtown Salt Lake City like a secret locals have decided—somewhat reluctantly—to share. Spread across a grid of numbered avenues and lettered streets climbing toward the Wasatch foothills, it is the kind of neighborhood where century-old Victorian and Craftsman houses lean behind mature maples, and residents know their neighbors' names. The capitol dome glitters at the western edge; City Creek Canyon threads along the north. For a city often dismissed as culturally monolithic, The Avenues draws SLC's more eclectic crowd—artists, academics, aging hippies, young families who wanted a yard but didn't want the suburbs. The neighborhood's character is shaped as much by what it isn't as what it is. No dense commercial strip. No rooftop bar scene. No cluster of chain hotels. What you'll find instead is a human-scaled streetscape where the most exciting discovery might be a beekeeper's hive tucked behind a Queen Anne cottage, or a hand-lettered sign advertising a neighborhood poetry reading. The 2nd Avenue corridor near E and F Streets has a modest collection of cafes and restaurants—enough to sustain a slow morning or a leisurely dinner, not enough to feel like a destination in its own right. For travelers, The Avenues works best as a base rather than a spectacle. You're a 20-minute walk from Temple Square and Gilgal Sculpture Garden, close enough to TRAX to reach the rest of the city without a car, but far enough from downtown to sleep through the night. The elevation gain as you walk east gives you those involuntary mountain views that Salt Lake keeps springing on you—you'll round a corner expecting another bungalow and find the entire Wasatch Range filling your peripheral vision instead.
Why Visit The Avenues?
Atmosphere
Saturday mornings here smell like fresh coffee and sound like tote bags thumping against knees. Quietly smug, unhurried—the neighborhood doesn't rush for anyone. Dogs on leashes. Wind chimes by 10pm.
Price Level
$$
Safety
excellent
Perfect For
The Avenues is ideal for these types of travelers
Top Attractions in The Avenues
Don't miss these The Avenues highlights
Memory Grove Park & City Creek Canyon
The contrast between downtown Salt Lake and canyon quiet—achievable in about ten minutes of walking—is one of the city's better surprises. The park itself is a handsome stretch of lawns, war memorials, and old cottonwoods that locals treat as their collective backyard. Dog walkers, lunch-breakers, the occasional impromptu guitar session. Follow the path north and it transitions into City Creek canyon, a paved and then unpaved trail that climbs into genuine wilderness surprisingly fast. One of the city's better surprises happens in about ten minutes of walking.
Tip: City Creek Canyon bans cars on even days—only walkers and wheels allowed. Odd-numbered calendar days? Drive on up. The difference is night and day: traffic noise drops to zero, birds take over, and you'll have the switchbacks almost to yourself. Check the date before you leave.
Victorian Architecture Walking Tour (Self-Guided)
No ticket—just walk. B Street and C Street between 1st and 5th Avenues serve up a late-19th-century open-air museum. Italianate, Queen Anne, Craftsman, Colonial Revival—styles jam narrow lots like mismatched chess pieces. Some houses gleam after meticulous restorations; others keep their genteel shabbiness like a favorite coat. Mid-block you'll freeze, eyes locked on a turret or wraparound porch longer than you meant.
Tip: Grab the Utah Heritage Foundation's free walking tour PDF before you hit The Avenues—those Victorian porches won't photograph themselves. You'll dodge the scramble for printed copies. At 5pm in summer, late afternoon light slams the west-facing facades and the brick glows like hot copper.
Utah State Capitol
Capitol Hill, not The Avenues proper, squats on the western lip—you can't miss it. A neoclassical dome looms yet somehow waves you in against the mountains. Give the inside 30 minutes: the rotunda's vaulted ceiling is crammed with murals of Utah history, and weekdays you'll share the space with almost no one. Step outside and you'll score what might be the best free panorama of the Salt Lake Valley.
Tip: Free guided tours run weekdays—show up at the information desk by 9am sharp to claim a spot when crowds increase. The south-facing steps become a lunch magnet for state workers around noon. Skip them if you're after a quiet photo.
Bonneville Shoreline Trail Access
Dead-end 11th Avenue. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail starts—singletrack, ancient, impossible. Lake Bonneville's shoreline once lapped here. Climb 200 yards; Salt Lake Valley spreads below like a dare. Geology laughs. Runners and bikers swarm weekends. Weekday mornings? Silence.
Tip: The trailhead at 11th Avenue and Terrace Hills Drive holds maybe six parking spots—don't count on snagging one. Staying in The Avenues? Walk straight uphill; locals do this every single day. Pack twice the water you think you'll need—Utah's elevation and dry air con you into dehydration faster than you'd believe.
The Avenues' Side-Street Wandering
The Avenues rewards genuine aimlessness—worth noting separately from any architecture tour. Lettered streets (A through I, roughly) cross the numbered avenues in a gentle grid. Walk further east. The slope steepens. The noise drops. You'll find community gardens behind chain-link fences. Hand-painted mailboxes. Front-yard produce stands running on honor systems. Residents leave tomatoes with a jar for coins. That is character—actual character, not the marketed kind.
Tip: Walk east past Virginia Street on 7th or 8th Avenue. The traffic drops off fast—residential quiet takes over almost completely past that point.
Gilgal Sculpture Garden (nearby)
Technically this is Capitol Hill, not The Avenues, but it is a 15-minute walk south and it channels the same eccentric, independent streak. Retired stonemason Thomas Child spent decades chiseling surreal LDS-themed sculptures, then planted them in a private garden he later opened to the public. The sphinx wearing Joseph Smith's face is either bizarre or bizarrely moving—maybe both.
Tip: Google Maps will get you there—signage won't. The garden shuts at dusk and hides on a quiet block; most walkers walk past.
Where to Eat in The Avenues
Taste the best of The Avenues's culinary scene
Avenues Proper
American gastropub
Specialty: The burger—$16-18—owns this town. Locals queue for it, and the tap list tilts hard toward Utah craft: grab a Red Rock or Uinta you won't see back home. Weekend brunch packs the sidewalks. Avocado toast won't change your life, but the house Bloody Mary will.
Avenues Bistro on Third
Wine bar and small plates
Specialty: $10-14 small plates—built for forks to collide over—mean charcuterie boards, roasted vegetables, seasonal tartines. The wine list is smart, not scary, and the room glows low enough to trick any Tuesday into Friday. Locals duck in here just to dodge downtown.
Cup of Joe
Neighborhood coffee shop
Specialty: Espresso drinks run $4-6, pastries rotate from whichever local bakery delivered that dawn. Corner seats vanish by 9 a.m. on Saturdays—claimed by regulars whose orders the barista finishes before they reach the counter. Scratches on the tables, reliable in the cup. Simple. Worth the early alarm.
Publik Coffee Roasters (9th Ave location)
Specialty coffee roaster
Specialty: Single-origin pour-overs ($5-7) from beans roasted right here—this is the most serious coffee game in SLC. The 9th Avenue shop is smaller, quieter than the others; it matches the neighborhood pulse. Pay the extra dollar. You’ll taste why.
Siegfried's Delicatessen (nearby, 69 W 300 S)
German deli
Specialty: Downtown in name only—this place feels like a portal. Reuben sandwiches ($12-14) arrive stacked, rye grilled to a crunch, kraut still snapping. Imported German mustards bite back. The deli case? A museum of sausages and European cheeses you won't duplicate anywhere else in the city. Cash is preferred. The vibe is wonderfully no-frills.
The Beehive Tea Room
Afternoon tea and light fare
Specialty: $25-35 per person buys the full afternoon tea—finger sandwiches, scones, seasonal sweets—tiered and towering. Weekends? Reservations aren't polite; they're mandatory. The room channels Victorian-parlor cozy, slightly precious. Inside The Avenues, that affectation lands as natural, not forced.
The Avenues After Dark
Experience the nightlife scene
Avenues Bistro on Third
After 8pm, The Avenues finally wakes up. The wine bar fills—never loud, never chaotic, just alive. Regulars cluster in their 30s and up, neighborhood residents who've claimed the corner stools. Graduate students drift in from the university. An off-duty chef nurses a glass at the far end. You can hear every word at normal volume. Rarer than it should be.
Mellow locals, natural wine energy
Avenues Proper (bar side)
Once the dinner rush fades, the bar area mutates. It becomes a solid neighborhood tavern—no gimmicks. Good draft beer lines the taps. A game flickers on TV when there's one. You'll order another round. Suddenly it is 11:30. The crowd skews younger than the bistro side. Still, the room stays calm. By most cities' standards, that is rare.
Craft beer, unpretentious, neighborhood regulars
Bar X / Beer Bar (nearby, 155 E 200 S)
Ten minutes south—car or Uber—drops you downtown proper. Worth it. Avenues-based visitors who want more energy should make the trip. Bar X nails the curated dive vibe—strong cocktails, zero velvet-rope nonsense, a crowd that skews creative-industry SLC. Beer Bar next door is exactly what it sounds like, with an impressive tap wall.
Creative locals, cocktail-forward, downtown energy
Getting Around The Avenues
TRAX is close—but not close enough. The Avenues sits just far enough from the light rail that you'll walk 20-25 minutes to Arena Station downtown. UTA buses serve the area; the 200 and 205 routes run along 2nd Avenue and connect to downtown, though service frequency drops significantly in the evenings. Honestly, most visitors staying in The Avenues will explore the neighborhood on foot. Downtown is a pleasant 15-minute downhill walk on B or C Street. For the rest of the city—the University of Utah, Sugar House, or airport—a rideshare or rental car is the practical option. The neighborhood's street grid is logical and easy to navigate once you understand that avenues run east-west (1st Ave, 2nd Ave, etc.) and the lettered streets run north-south (A Street, B Street, etc., moving east). Drivers will find parking generally available without much difficulty, though street parking on the western blocks near the capitol can tighten up during legislative sessions.
Where to Stay in The Avenues
Recommended accommodations in the area
Ellerbeck Mansion Bed & Breakfast
Boutique B&B
$130-200
Armstrong Mansion
Boutique B&B
$120-185
The Peery Hotel (nearby, downtown)
Mid-range boutique
$110-170
Airbnb rentals (B and C Streets)
Self-catering
$85-160
Hotel RL Salt Lake City (nearby, downtown)
Budget-mid
$75-130
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From Memory Grove Park & City Creek Canyon to hidden gems, The Avenues offers something for everyone. Book your activities now and experience the best of this district.
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