Ty Burrell wrote a love letter to Salt Lake City

Ty Burrell is head over heels for Salt Lake City. He even wrote this jewel of a love letter.

The actor, best known as the lovable and clueless Phil Dunphy on "Modern Family," explained how the city's beauty, outdoors and diverse culture won him over in a column posted to the Huffington Post's Love Letters section Wednesday. He and his wife moved to Salt Lake City, and he recently helped open a new bar — the succinctly named Beer Bar — on Broadway.

And Burrell suspects this gem along the Wasatch Mountains will not stay a secret for long.

"I'm fairly certain that you're about to explode onto the national scene in the way that some other smaller cities have in the past 10 years," Burrell wrote in the Huffington Post letter. "I will try to keep my jealousies at bay as people move here."

A native of Oregon, Burrell was introduced to Utah after performing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, playing small roles in plays including "Henry V" and "Hamlet." Now he spends half of the year in Los Angeles filming the show and the other half in Salt Lake City, which he calls home.

— Michael McFall

Twitter: @mikeypanda