Table talk: Special events at Utah eateries

The Sun and Moon Cafe in Emigration Canyon is offering a Saturday morning breakfast special through January. Buy one breakfast and get the second breakfast for half price if you mention this announcement when ordering. The restaurant is also offering a blues night with John Lee Hooker Jr. on Jan. 25, 7-10 p.m. Tickets are $22, with dinner sold separately. Reservations required (801-583-8331 or www.thesunandmooncafe.com).

Market Street's annual crab festival takes place through February, offering five kinds of crab served at least a dozen different ways, at all Market Street locations.

Diners can enter a prize drawing for a "Catch-Your-Own-Dungeness-Crab Weekend" for two to Newport, Ore., that includes air travel, meals and accommodations.

This year marked an above-average catch of Oregon Dungeness crab and plentiful Alaska King crab. The festival menu includes crab ravioli, Maryland lump crab cakes, Alaska red king crab legs, and king crab Oscar.

The Painted Pony, 1 W. St. George Blvd. in St. George, now has Ladies Night on Wednesday, where women can eat for half-price. The restaurant's new lunch menu includes barbecue pork sliders, fried chicken dumplings, beef brisket Panini, rosemary chicken breast sandwich, chopped garden salad and crawfish po-boy (www.painted-pony.com or 435-634-1700).

The El Pollo Loco chain is offering a free large chicken tortilla soup with the purchase of any nine- or 14- piece family meal. The offer is good through Jan. 24, as a celebration of National Soup Month.

Lugano, 3364 S. 2300 East, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a series of special prix-fixe Italian dinners. The first dinner is Jan. 20, with guest chef Maurizio Albarello of Antica La Torre in Chianti, and wine maker Aldo Vacca from Produttori del Barbaresco. Cost of the six-course dinner is $59 per person; optional wine pairing $45 (801-412-9994 or www.LuganoRestaurant.com.

Sweet Cake Bake Shop has opened at 237 W. 200 North,Kaysville. The bakery specializes in gluten-free cookies and brownies, and it also sells gluten-free flour blends for take-home baking. The shop hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (801-444-3288 or www.sweetcakebakeshop.com).

e-mail: vphillips@desnews.com