Breakfast at the Blue Plate Diner

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I've eaten at The Blue Plate Diner several times since it opened in 2000, but I never knew how or where owners John Bouzek and Tamrika Khvtisiashvili got their retro green and yellow Formica countertop.

More than a decade ago the couple was on a road trip and stopped in Salina. They happened to peek into the window of a boarded up drugstore. They saw the counter and its 18 matching stools and decided they had to have it.

Now it's the centerpiece of their Salt Lake City restaurant which serves breakfast all day long.

Read more about the restaurant, the famous counter, and its customers in this week's issue of American Profile, a supplement to The Salt Lake Tribune. There are even a few Blue Plate recipes including the Utah Omelet, pictured above.