Northern Utah Restaurants That Closed in 2025
If you’re wondering why one of your favorite restaurants closed last year, chances are you can blame higher food costs, staffing issues, higher rent, an uncertain economy, and slower customer traffic. Also, food trends come and go, and once-popular places can lose their appeal as newer restaurants pop up. And, I’ve seen instances where an eager new owner takes over a long-standing restaurant, only to find more challenges than they realized.
Here are some places who called it quits in 2025.
WINDY’S SUKIYAKI, Ogden
For more than 50 years, Windy’s Sukiyaki’s private tea rooms were the site of prom dates, marriage proposals, anniversary dinners, and more. Windy’s Facebook closure announcement on Sept. 26 had dozens of heartbroken commenters sharing their memories. (I have a history, too, as my husband and I went on one of our first dates at Windy’s back in 1981.)
The closure announcement said, “The decision didn’t come easily, but due to a challenging economic environment, we can no longer continue operations.”
I interviewed Stacey Marsh in Oct. 2024, after she bought the restaurant from long-time owner Steve Farnsworth. She had spent two months training with Farnsworth, working every position from washing dishes, working the fryer, rolling sushi and hosting, to give her some nuts-and-bolts experience in running the place.
Marsh who had been coming to Windy’s since she was a child, wanted to keep the same menu that long-time customers enjoyed for so many years.
Her goal was to preserve Windy’s historic legacy, while upgrading factors that would keep it viable. She expanded the hours, which had been cut during Covid. She obtained a full liquor license, invested in updating the building, and upgraded the point-of-sale system so customers could pay table-side.
But apparently it wasn’t to be.
IDLE ISLE CAFE, Brigham City
After 104 years in business, Utah’s oldest restaurant suddenly closed in May. Owners Jonathan and Corinna Harris announced on social media that they were selling the Idle Isle Cafe’s building on Brigham City’s Main Street, but taking the name and recipes to open in other cities. Controversy soon erupted. Former staffers posted comments on the Box Elder News & Info Facebook page claiming a hostile work environment and unpaid wages. Then Box Elder News & Journal reported that nearly $54,000 in tax liens had been filed against the café and its owners, according to 2nd District Court records.
Idle Isle was opened in 1921 by Percy and Verabel Knudson. The Knudson/Call families ran both Idle Isle Cafe and Idle Isle Candy until 1994. The Knudson’s grandson, Richard VanDyke, sold the café to the Kim and Ann Jeppsen family, and kept the candy business. Idle Isle Cafe and Idle Isle Candy have been separate separate businesses, with separate owners, ever since. The candy shop is located across the street from the cafe.
The Jeppsens ran the cafe as a family enterprise. In 2015, their daughter Jana and her husband, Travis Porter, became the owners. Jonathan and Corinna Harris bought it from them in 2022.
It’s ironic that on May 14, 2025, Governor Spencer Cox helped celebrate the Idle Isle’s 104th birthday, lauding it as a “gathering place where history, hospitality and home-cooked meals come together.” About a week later, staffers and customers found the doors locked; a sign said “closed for building maintenance and vacation.”
When I reached Corinna Harris by phone last summer, she said the restaurant was sold to an “undisclosed” buyer, along with the “Idle Isle Café” name and its recipes.
The Box Elder News & Journal reported that a Harrisville real estate company bought it, listing the property at 24 S. Main for $475,000.
Hopefully, someone will buy it and re-open it with the historic Idle Isle name. But it technically can’t reclaim its title of “Utah’s oldest continually operating restaurant,” because of the time that it’s spent closed.
S’GHETTI TO GO, Layton
S’ghetti To Go is gone. The Layton eatery’s name told you everything — takeout spaghetti with a choice of four different sauces. Owner Tina Parker chose a simple, easy-to-execute concept.
“I didn’t want a complicated menu where customers might have a hard time deciding what they want, and I’d have to carry a lot of product,” said Parker.
Opened in December 2022 in a strip mall near the Layton Winco, S’Ghetti To Go, closed without much warning. There was even a Facebook ad in August that it was hiring staff. But it closed soon after that, without any official announcement. The space, which still has its S’Ghetti To Go sign, is currently empty.
SYDNEY’S PLACE in Preston
It seemed that Sydney’s Place found a great home when it moved from Mantua, Utah to Preston, Idaho In February 2024. In fact, owner Denise Hardy said that within a few weeks of opening on 101 N. State, the restaurant was doing more business than it had on its best days in Mantua.
But it wasn’t enough. Hardy posted on Facebook that Sydney’s would close Nov. 15, 2025.
“Unfortunately, business is not consistent enough for me to make a living,” she wrote. “I have a special needs son that I need to take care of for the rest of his life, and I am just not cutting it. I am not getting any younger and while I still can, I need to do a better job of contributing to my family,” she wrote.
It’s a sad ending to a place I’ve been watching since 2021, when I did a Standard-Examiner story on Sydney’s. The Mantua restaurant gained a reputation for its Old West atmosphere and its “comfort food on steroids.”
But winters were slow, with less traffic traveling through Sardine Canyon. So Hardy found a spot in Preston. Business was better, and Hardy was closer to her Idaho home. But it didn’t work out.
RED BARN CHICKEN, Farmington
Farmington’s Red Barn Chicken (previously known as Sticky Bird) was shuttered last February. It was run by Red Barn Academy, a life skills program to help men recover from addiction. It started out as Sticky Bird, and partnered with Winger’s restaurants. Students at Red Barn Academy used it as a training ground to learn food prep and customer service skills to prepare them for future jobs. The specialty was crispy tender chicken, bathed in Winger’s Amazing Sauce.
In 2024, the partnership with Winger’s ended, and the restaurant was re-branded as Red Barn Chicken.
In February 2025, the Academy closed and was eventually taken over by John Volken Academy. But the chicken restaurant remains closed.
VIETOPIA, Station Park, Farmington location.
Vietopia Bistro’s Farmington location closed, but its Taylorsville and West Jordan locations are apparently still open, according to the website.
When I interviewed owner Kvin (yes, he said that’s how he spells his name) Doan in 2023, his goal was to spread the love for his native Vietnam.
“I love the food, and I want to let everyone get to know Vietnamese food and make it popular,” he said.
Maybe the location offered less customer visibility — Station Park/Farmington Vietopia was on a side street, next to shops like Bath & Bodyworks. The Vietopia website now lists two locations – one in Taylorsville City at 5308 S Redwood Rd, Taylorsville UT 84123, and the other in West Jordan at 1407 W 9000 S, West Jordan UT 84088. Although the website also talks about a Draper location, Yelp! lists it as permanently closed too.
SLAPFISH in Lehi, Farmington, Sandy and Park City.
The “fast casual” seafood restaurant chain at one point had four locations — Lehji (opened in 2017), Station Park in Farmington, Park City (Kimball Junction), and Sandy.
The idea was high-quality, sustainably sourced seafood — including lobster rolls, Clobster grilled cheese, and a poke bowl — in a fast casual format. Quite a challenge to pull off, but every Slapfish I visited seemed to do it well. In 2022, founder Andrew Gruel sold the chain to Mac Haik Enterprises, a Houston-based investment company that’s also been involved with Egg & I and First Watch brands.
The new owners made some menu changes, adding choose-your-own ingredients bowls and salads. And then, the next thing you know, the Slapfish building in Farmington is now a hot chicken restaurant.
CURRENT FISH & OYSTER, Salt Lake City
Maybe the cost of quality seafood is a hardship for restaurants these days, as Current Fish & Oyster also called it quits in November 2025. Compared to Slapfish, Current was on the high end of the seafood spectrum, giving a sophisticated twist on classic dishes like crab cakes and seafood Cobb salad.
I visited Current soon after it opened in 2015, when it created quite a lot of buzz in the dining community. The overall renovation of its historic building at 279 E. 300 South was pretty cool too.
I’ve not seen any word from the owners on why they closed it, as well as the bar below, Undercurrent.
If you’d like to talk about any other restaurants that closed in 2025, please leave me a comment.