It’s been barely six months since James Beard nominee SLC Eatery announced its closure – a tremendous loss for the SLC food scene. News breaking in the last 24 hours, underlines the struggles of another acclaimed name. Since receiving a prestigious final placing in the 2024 JBF cycle, Mazza owner Ali Sabbah took to GoFundMe this week, to hopefully secure the future of his award-winning Lebanese restaurant. After twenty-five years of routinely being recognized as one of the best dining destinations in the state, the restaurant now faces the risk of closure. “This is an impossible situation that will continue to doom us to financial failure, leading to the closure of Mazza if we don’t do something drastic”, explains Sabbah.
The detailed fundraising post by Sabbah (picture top left alongside Nick Zocco at the JBF awards last year) explains the financial reality of the business and seeks to raise $500,000 the address those challenges.
As many might remember, post-COVID, Mazza shrank from three locations to the original 15th and 15th spot. In turn the number of covers reduced tenfold – dramatically affecting the cash flow of the business. While the remaining Mazza remains profitable, Sabbah’s posting explains this alone is not enough to sustain the debt load incurred from years past. Sabbah’s GoFundMe post explains:
“Our attempt to reopen Sandy was costly and unsuccessful. We decided to cut our losses and sell the building at a significant loss. Grasping for straws, we went for a couple of SBA loans made available for businesses. Some were forgivable, but most were not. We started with 3 restaurants and 350 seats and exited the pandemic with one small location with under 28 seats. Our remaining location, while financially healthy on its own, is now shouldering the burden for all remaining debt incurred for all 3 locations. This is an impossible situation that will continue to doom us to financial failure, leading to the closure of Mazza if we don’t do something drastic. We spent all of 2024 pursuing negotiations with the SBA to reach a workable solution to no avail. There are simply no avenues or programs to help small businesses with this growing problem.”
If successful the campaign seeks to directly address the fiscal situation faced by the business, not least conduct necessary facility upgrades and assist staff. The full post and fundraising page can be found here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-mazza
Image credit, Heather L. King.
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”.
Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.
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