File this one under terrible loss – as the week wraps up, so news comes in that SLC Eatery is to shut its doors at the end of September. The SLC restaurant was (1017 S Main St) easily one of the most creative and aspirational chef-driven projects in the city. Sadly, you’ve now got just a few weeks to sample the talents of chef-owners Paul Chamberlain and Logen Crew. Taking to Instagram, the restaurant posted the following farewell this Friday (August 23rd):
. . .
It is terribly sad for us to say, we will be CLOSING our doors at the end of September (our last night of service will be scheduled soon). We tried hard to keep it open for you wonderful people but couldn’t do it. This was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.
We wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that dined with us and worked with us. Our patrons are so awesome and we are really sad to not be able to see you anymore. A special thank you to our frequent diners, you know who you are. You hold a special place in our hearts!
To the best staff an owner could have, to those that are still with us and the ones that have flown the coop to bigger and better places, you all made this restaurant so fun and incredible to be a part of. I can’t thank you enough! Speaking of our staff, we will REMAIN OPEN for one more month to allow them to find new opportunities and to see your wonderful faces again! We hope you will come in and support us one last time to eat chef logen’s James beard award winning food, be taken care of by our amazing service staff and to have delicious beverages from our bar.
Come support this amazing team one last time! Our hours may change a bit but you can always give us a call and we will keep our voicemail updated. You can message us here and we will get back to you as soon as possible. This Sunday brunch the 25th will likely be our last brunch. We will have fewer tables and ask that you make reservations as we will have a smaller team and want to make sure we can give you the best last service.
What happens next you ask? We hope to keep doing private events, supper clubs, pop ups and maybe even some lunch at this location. So keep following us here if you want to be in the know. This has been an absolute pleasure to feed you and be a part of such a wonderful food scene here in Salt lake. We hope you will frequent the places you love as we know most independent restaurants are struggling hard, even if they don’t seem like it. Hit the chains a little less. We love you to death and hope to feed you again in some other way! Thank you! We love you!
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Opening in 2019 (yep, a year before good old C19), the restaurant’s generic moniker flew proudly in stark contrast to a frenetically creative menu that could change week to week, day to day. Local writers (myself included) lapped up the inventive kitchen – the restaurant winning pretty much every local award out there. The culmination of those five years of toil and praise was undoubtedly a 2023 James Beard nod for Messrs Chamberlain and Crew in the best chef Mountain region. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.
Should there be any doubt about the caliber of the duo, take note of that mention of not pulling the overnight rug trick; something we see all too often here in Utah, waitstaff usually given zero warning that the lights are going out. Not here. Fabulous chefs and humans alike. I hope they return.
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Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC. I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.
I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV. Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.
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I find it interesting that we, as a society, do not care about loyalty or caring in general.
This world is so transfixed on a “Me,Me,Me”, basis that it sucks.
This restaurant is great and the people are loyal and greet their customers.
Hell, everyone goes to fast food restaurants and they still cry about prices.
I know times are tough , but why we can’t just go to a good place and have a good meal with good people in a good surrounding, blows my mind.
We need to save the good restaurants with real people that care.
Fast food is going nowhere, they will stay.
When a great place goes out of business, we are losing our culture and the time to connect over a meal with friends and family.
And our fine citizens of our cities that make it their dream to open a non-fastfood restaurant to provide smile and service to people that appreciate life.
SLC Eatery’s announcement is a classy way to close. Despite their own disappointment, they are thinking of their customers. And especially, staying open for a month to give their staffers time to find another gig. More often, we hear about staff coming to work and finding a note posted at the door that “sorry, we’re closed for good.” I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but I’ve no doubt Chamberlain & Crewe have a good culinary future. They deserve it.
We were big fans of SLC Eatery over the years. We attended a couple of wine dinners there and had dinner there many times. I think the real problem they had was the location. It was not in a great area and we sometimes felt unsafe walking to the car after dark. I really wish they would relocate to an area with more traffic instead of just closing their doors, but of course its not my call. This is a big loss for the SLC dining scene.