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Latest restaurant closures around Salt Lake City

Matchstick Bar & Grill - interior and seating

Matchstick Bar & Grill

It was roughly this time last year that I wrote about this Chinese restaurant in West Valley City. Opening in the space (2000 W 3500th S) once home to names like El Pariente, Noodle & Chopsticks, and Pho Green Papay. OMO Korean BBQ was the most recent restaurant to star prior.

Sadly, the business seems to have closed. As I drove past a couple of days ago, I spied for lease signs on the exterior, Google also lists the business as permanently closed; while Yelp reviewers echo the fact.

I was a big fan of the restaurant and will miss their piece de resistance – Chinese BBQ skewers – arriving tableside coated in a slightly embering spice blend. Tin foil tofu was another standout, an eminently affordable dish at the ten-dollar mark, arriving at the table exactly as described. A foil tub packing a wriggling and jiggling morass of tofu and glass noodles.

Cancun Cafe – Fort Union

I can’t find a formal confirmation of this one, so file it under possibly for now. A reader recently dropped me a note about the closure of the Fort Union location of CC. Again while I can find no official announcement, the Google profile for this location is marked as permanently closed. The listed phone number for the business is inactive and the online ordering too, is currently unavailable. If the closure is indeed permanent, fans of the Mexican restaurant can still enjoy their cuisine from the venerable Millcreek/Murray location (885 E 3900 S).

City Creek

It’s all change at the City Creek food court. Bocata, the popular sandwich shop, and sister restaurant to the equally popular Settebello appears to have closed. Discussions on the local reddit indicate a return somewhere else in the city might be on the cards.

Zimbu is another Reddit spot. Fans of the restaurant’s Nepali and Indian cuisine shouldn’t be too downhearted though. A location remains in Sandy (9710 State St). Sbarro looks to taking over the spot, with their previous space set to be the new home for a downtown shake shack.

Cajun Boil Seafood

This downtown seafood spot (618 E 400 S) began life under an all-you-can-eat concept, before eventually transitioning to an ala carte model. Per this photo snapped at the store – it appears that the restaurant closed its doors on December 13th last year.

Joe’s Crab Shack

Another seafood spot leaving these shores, the national chain that operated in Utah out of Sandy’s (65 E 9400 S) Jordan Commons has now gone. The business’s website no longer lists a Utah outpost, and Google lists the restaurant as permanently closed.

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5 thoughts on “Latest restaurant closures around Salt Lake City”

  1. I noticed the Joe’s Crabshack closure a few weeks ago, when I was trying to plan a birthday dinner. It’s a bummer – the last of the Jordan Commons restaurants, and the sole holdout for years. Maybe they’ll finally just tear that whole area down next to the movie theater and throw up apartments or something like that.

    I went to Matchstick last year. It was fine, although the skewers were a bit overcooked. The restaurant was a ghost town, though, in the middle of the lunch period.

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