Sam Weller's is somewhat of an institution, but I was sad to see them move out of downtown and over to Trolley Square.
Trolley square is one of those urban/suburban mall projects that always seems to be teetering on the edge. The edge of success, or the edge of failure, depending on your optimism/pessimism scale. You can go there on a summer afternoon and see nary a soul in the place.
The effect of them moving over there is that I now have to _purposely_ go to Sam Weller's, rather than stopping by when doing other things downtown. Couple that with the bookstore being split between the books you can actually buy and the rare-book reading room, and its somehow a incongruous experience.
I love the store and what it represents, but do feel that the move kind of signified the full turnover of downtown SLC from a somewhat bohemian place, with cafe's such as the Atlantic, and tea shops such as the Beehive Tea room, to just a support structure for City Creek Mall, is complete.
Trolley square is one of those urban/suburban mall projects that always seems to be teetering on the edge. The edge of success, or the edge of failure, depending on your optimism/pessimism scale. You can go there on a summer afternoon and see nary a soul in the place.
The effect of them moving over there is that I now have to _purposely_ go to Sam Weller's, rather than stopping by when doing other things downtown. Couple that with the bookstore being split between the books you can actually buy and the rare-book reading room, and its somehow a incongruous experience.
I love the store and what it represents, but do feel that the move kind of signified the full turnover of downtown SLC from a somewhat bohemian place, with cafe's such as the Atlantic, and tea shops such as the Beehive Tea room, to just a support structure for City Creek Mall, is complete.