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Hello, Eaters! If you hear the word “pudding” and immediately think of the dense, bland stuff you’d get with your corn dog and french fries during lunch in elementary school, your idea of pudding needs an update.

That’s why you need to visit Parfé Diem, a cleverly named dessert shop that opened in 2023 in Sugar House, at 2040 S. 1000 East (just north of Millie’s Burgers).

At Parfé Diem, the pudding has a whipped texture that’s something like mousse, and once you have one spoonful, you won’t be able to stop.

Parfé Diem owner and head pastry chef Parker D. Barbee started the sweet venture with his husband, after getting laid off from his job of 15 years. Barbee invented all the recipes used in the business today, and also designed the website, packaging, labels, etc.

Influenced by his grandma — who was from the South and would create the desserts for the family’s Sunday dinners — Barbee doesn’t have a traditional culinary background, “but I know what tastes good,” he said.

As a kid growing up in the Midwest, Barbee loved banana pudding, he said, but his grandma didn’t make it because she was allergic to bananas. So whenever Barbee came across it, he would “go crazy on it,” he said, and it became one of his favorite comfort foods.

When he got older, Barbee would make banana pudding for his friends and family, and eventually branched out and started inventing other flavors.

Now, his pudding parfaits can be experienced at Parfe Diem, along with the glorious OMG Gold Bar and the Diem Good Bar. Barbee said his top seller is the OG Banana pudding, featuring housemade vanilla wafers, fresh bananas and delicately flavored pudding — it was even deemed “Best Comfort Food Dish” by Salt Lake City Weekly in 2024.

He said he’s proud to have changed the minds of pudding doubters.

“This is not the pudding you might be used to, but the pudding you absolutely deserve,” Barbee said.

I sampled a small selection of sweets from Parfé Diem — read about it in the “Treats of the Week” section of this newsletter.

Live deliciously,

Kolbie

Food News

The owners of Hell’s Backbone Grill — a James Beard-nominated restaurant in Boulder, Utah — announced last week that they’ve acquired the Boulder Mountain Lodge property, of which their restaurant is a part. Now that their longtime home belongs to them and their team, Jen Castle and Blake Spalding say they are free to add their flair to every inch of it. One of the changes they plan on implementing is introducing a new food truck, Little Bone, which will be bringing back Hell’s Backbone breakfast as well as serving dinner on the nights when the restaurant is closed. Hell’s Backbone Grill is scheduled to open for its 26th season on March 14.

Openings:

• Tuk Tuks’ new location in the Marmalade District is now open at 535 N. 300 West, Salt Lake City. My dining companion and I got dinner at this Thai/Laotian restaurant last week, and everything we ordered was delicious. I love pad thai, and the version at Tuk Tuks was the best I’ve ever had: a little sweet, a little sour, and perfectly saucy. Tuk Tuks also has locations in Draper (541 E. 12300 South) and West Valley City (2222 W. 3500 South).

• The Goat Head — at 702 S. 300 East in Salt Lake City, where Koko Kitchen used to be — is finally open after months of construction delays, according to an Instagram post. This breakfast and lunch spot is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is serving up breakfast classics, Tex-Mex dishes, sandwiches, sliders and “tidbits.”

• Señor Pollo just opened a new location in Midvale, at 7563 S. Main St., according to an Instagram post. The menu at this local Mexican chain centers on Sinaloa-style chicken.

• Sbarro is reopening in the food court at City Creek Center, next door to its previous spot, confirmed a customer service representative for the mall. No opening date yet.

• National chain McAlister’s Deli is holding a grand opening for its new location in Sandy, at 7810 S. 1300 East, on Monday at 10 a.m. It’s the chain’s first Utah location.

Closures/moves:

• Old Cuss Coffee is closing its location in South Salt Lake while it builds out its new shop in the Pierpont Avenue area in downtown Salt Lake City, according to an Instagram post. In the meantime, Old Cuss Coffee will be opening a coffee trailer at the beginning of March at the corner of Pierpont Avenue and 400 West. If you want to grab a cup of coffee and a vegan breakfast at the old place before the doors close for good, it’s at 2285 S. Main St., open through Sunday.

Treats of the Week

After tasting the banana pudding from Parfé Diem, I’m now a believer. But this chocolate lover’s very favorite pudding flavor is the Brigadeiro, made with chocolate pudding, chocolate caramel sauce, housemade chocolate wafers and chocolate sprinkles. At Parker D. Barbee’s advice, I tried it frozen, and it was absolutely delicious. It had that nostalgic taste of chocolate pudding but with the great whipped texture, and the frozen wafers were delightfully chewy.

Don’t forget the other treats at Parfé Diem. The OMG Gold Bar is wrapped like a stick of butter and is almost that decadent, a “frozen, gooey butter cake pudding sandwich,” the website says. And I loved the Diem Good Bar — made with a sweet filling sandwiched between shortbread cookies — with a cup of coffee.