Ruth’s Diner: A Cabaret Singer, a Trolley Car and Nearly a Century of Biscuits in Emigration Canyon

Drive a few miles up Emigration Canyon from Salt Lake City and you’ll find a restaurant built around an old trolley car, with pink flamingos on the sign and a basket of enormous biscuits on every table. That’s Ruth’s Diner, and its founder was one of the great characters in Salt Lake City history.

The singer who opened a burger joint

Before she was a restaurateur, Ruth Evans was a well-known cabaret singer in downtown Salt Lake bars in the 1910s. In 1930 she opened Ruth’s Hamburgers at 120 East 200 South, in the Meredith Building downtown.

Ruth did things her own way. She smoked unfiltered cigarettes, swore freely, wore flowered sundresses and kept her little dogs close, and by local legend those dogs didn’t hesitate to nip customers she didn’t care for. She also looked out for the women who worked at a brothel across the street, making sure they were fed. As Wasatch Magazine put it, “Ruth only ever respected her own law.”

A trolley car up the canyon

In 1946, the Meredith Building was sold to be torn down. Ruth bought a retired trolley car and set up shop on North Temple instead. She didn’t like it there. So in 1949 she had the trolley hauled up Emigration Canyon to its current spot, and built an apartment onto it that later became part of the dining room and kitchen.

Through the 1950s and ’60s, Ruth’s became a favorite of University of Utah fraternity students, who came for the burgers and, legend has it, the relaxed ID checks. Ruth died in 1989 at 94.

Keeping Ruth’s spirit alive

After Ruth, the diner passed to new owners, and eventually to Erik and Tracy Nelson, who had met while working at Ruth’s in the 1980s. Between 2007 and 2009, they put nearly $1 million into a major remodel, quadrupling the tiny kitchen and adding a big patio. They were careful to keep what mattered: the trolley car, the jukebox and Ruth’s flamingos, which found a new home on the diner’s neon sign.

Tracy Nelson died in March 2026, at 67, after decades of helping carry Ruth’s legacy forward.

Mile-high biscuits

The diner calls itself the second-oldest restaurant in Utah. It’s best known for its Mile High Biscuits, which arrive with raspberry jam alongside every meal. Breakfast is the big draw, with biscuits and gravy, banana walnut French toast, migas and corned beef hash, but the lunch and dinner menu has its fans too, including Grandma Claire’s Baked Mac and Cheese, which was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Look for the pink flamingo on the menu, which marks Ruth’s own favorites.

How to do Ruth’s right

• Come hungry for breakfast. It’s served until 4 p.m., and the biscuits alone are worth the drive.
• Sit on the patio. In warm months it fills up with live music and canyon air.
• Order a flamingo item. Those are Ruth’s favorites, like the Meat Loaf Burger.
• Check the days. Ruth’s is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Ruth Evans never cared much for anybody’s rules but her own. Nearly a century later, the diner she willed into existence, trolley car and all, is still one of the most beloved places to eat in the Salt Lake Valley.

Explore more Salt Lake County stories. And if you run a local business with a story worth telling, apply to be featured. It’s always free.

This spotlight draws on reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, KSL, City Cast Salt Lake, Wasatch Magazine and the Daily Utah Chronicle. Photos are illustrative and were not taken at Ruth’s. Top photo: jeffreyw, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.