Hot on the heels of last month’s news that Sugar House BBQ was to close – it appears the neighborhood might have lost yet another stalwart. As best as I can ascertain, the duo of Fiddler’s Elbow / The Locker Room, appear to have closed.
I initially heard about a possible closure via this Instagram post, the Beats From The East sandwich popup canceling plans to open within the facility. In lieu of any formal announcement from the business itself, I have been working to confirm the information directly ever since. At the time of writing, phone lines are out of service for the twinned businesses with websites also offline. I stopped by in person last Friday, greeted by locked doors – albeit no posted info was to be seen.
In the past few days, however, Google and Yelp have updated online listings that indicate a permanent closure – with recent business reviews also pointing to encountering locked doors. The Locker Room’s own Instagram profile now simply reads “CLOSED”.
Fiddler’s Elbow then was the storied neighborhood bar that had operated in the same central Sugar House spot since the 90s. The long-lived bar was one of the most well-known names to transition through the present-day transformation of Sugar House. I’d wager many a Salt Laker has found themselves bellied up to a garlic burger there over the years – yours truly no exception – the bar a perennial personal favorite for World Cup watch alongs. Adjoining the cavernous bar space out back, Salt Lake Pizza and Pasta was the all-ages-friendly restaurant space that fronted 2100 S.
In 2023 the duo was purchased by new owners. Fiddler’s Elbow was renamed as The Locker Room, remaining a 21+ sports bar, this time one with a newfound focus on creating a safe space for SLC’s LGBTQ community. The Fiddler’s Elbow moniker lived on after the change of ownership – Fiddler’s Elbow Roadhouse the new name for the former SLP&P. My colleague Heather L. King wrote the following full story on the update in this piece for Utah Stories.
Should the closure indeed be permanent, this makes for another big loss for veteran names in the area. I’ll wait to hear from the business owners directly (updating this story should I hear more), but one imagines the area’s notorious redevelopments cannot have helped the flow of business to the site; here’s a story I wrote around this time last year looking at that particular issue.
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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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As a long time regular I can confirm that Fiddler’s/TLR is permanently closed. They have sold to the developers of the new Sugar House stackable. Sugar House is essentially unrecognizable and worse for it.
I totally agree with you!
They have not sold to a developer. The original owner is working with new tenants to reopen and plan on applying for a new bar license.
Yes it’s true that they are closed and many more to come. Possibly the Sugarhouse Soup Kitchen will be next for it’s very difficult to run a store without customers able to get to it.
There was a meeting today at the Sugarhouse Soup Kitchen involving the mayor’s office and myself. Not much to say except a medication grant might be coming our way. We’ll be needing more support then this.
Hopefully things turn around soon, but I’m afraid to say it’s too little and it’s too late.
Stuart Aitken
Owner Soup Kitchen Restaurants & Catering
Slcsoup.com
I must be ancient, I remeber when it was The PineCone