# Utah Spotlights

> Utah's local businesses, and the people behind them


## Posts

- [Ruth's Diner: A Cabaret Singer, a Trolley Car and Nearly a Century of Biscuits in Emigration Canyon](https://utahspotlights.com/ruths-diner-emigration-canyon-salt-lake-city/): In 1930, a former cabaret singer named Ruth Evans opened a hamburger joint downtown. When her building was torn down, she bought a trolley car and eventually hauled it up Emigration Canyon. Nearly 100 years later, Ruth's Diner is still serving mile-high biscuits there.
- [Lagoon: How the Freed Family Kept Utah's Favorite Amusement Park Spinning for Three Generations](https://utahspotlights.com/lagoon-amusement-park-farmington-freed-family/): Lagoon started as a lakeside railroad resort in the 1880s and survived a receding lake, a world war and a devastating fire. Since 1946 the Freed family has run it, and in 2026, with a new 150-foot swing ride, Utah's hometown amusement park marked 140 years of fun.
- [Hell's Backbone Grill: Two River Cooks, One Remote Town and a Farm-to-Table Legend on Highway 12](https://utahspotlights.com/hells-backbone-grill-boulder-utah/): Blake Spalding and Jen Castle learned to cook on river trips, then opened a restaurant in one of the most remote towns in America. Twenty-seven seasons later, Hell's Backbone Grill grows its own food, has earned repeated James Beard recognition, and still runs on Buddhist principles.
- [Milt's Stop & Eat: Moab's Oldest Restaurant Has Been Flipping Burgers Since the Uranium Boom](https://utahspotlights.com/milts-stop-and-eat-moab-burgers/): Milt and Audrey Galbraith opened a little burger stand in Moab on Labor Day 1954, at the height of the uranium boom. Seventy-plus years later, Milt's still has its original counter, and its grass-fed burgers and milkshakes are a post-ride ritual for Moab's mountain bikers.
- [Sweet Candy Company: Five Generations of Taffy, Cinnamon Bears and Orange Sticks in Salt Lake City](https://utahspotlights.com/sweet-candy-company-salt-lake-city-taffy/): Leon Sweet started selling candy from a horse-drawn wagon in 1892. Today the Sweet family is in its fifth generation of candy making in Salt Lake City, turning out salt water taffy, cinnamon bears and chocolate orange sticks for candy lovers across the country.
- [Last Call at the Top of Main: How Utah's First Brewpub Changed Park City and Utah Beer](https://utahspotlights.com/wasatch-brew-pub-park-city-history/): Greg Schirf moved from Milwaukee, couldn't find a decent beer, and ended up changing Utah law to open the state's first brewpub at the top of Park City's Main Street. After 37 years and one famous billboard fight, that chapter closed in 2026.
- [Gossner Foods: The Swiss Immigrant Who Turned Cache Valley Into Utah's Cheese Country](https://utahspotlights.com/gossner-foods-logan-cheese-curds/): Ed Gossner left a Swiss farm with no money and no English, and found his "Little Switzerland of the Rockies" in Cache Valley. Four generations later, his family's Logan company makes about a fifth of America's Swiss cheese, plus the squeaky curds locals line up for.
- [Ruby's Inn: The Syrett Family Has Welcomed Bryce Canyon Visitors for More Than 100 Years](https://utahspotlights.com/rubys-inn-bryce-canyon-syrett-family/): In 1916, a rancher named Ruby Syrett took a Sunday ride to the rim of a canyon his neighbors called Bryce. More than a century later, his family still runs Ruby's Inn at the park's front door, and their business even became its own town.
- [Brick Oven: Provo's 70-Year-Old Pizza Parlor, Famous for Root Beer and First Dates](https://utahspotlights.com/brick-oven-provo-pizza-root-beer/): Brick Oven started as a corner cafe near BYU in 1956 and became one of Utah's first pizza parlors. Seventy years of homemade root beer, green ranch and couples who met over a pizza later, it's still a Provo rite of passage.
- [Crown Burgers: How a Greek Family From Crete Gave Salt Lake City Its Pastrami Burger](https://utahspotlights.com/crown-burgers-salt-lake-city-pastrami-burger/): Since 1978, Crown Burgers has been piling hot pastrami on cheeseburgers in downtown Salt Lake City. Here's how a Greek immigrant family turned a former hot dog stand into a Utah institution without ever running an ad, and what to order when you go.

## Pages

- [Home](https://utahspotlights.com/): Local stories from Logan to St.
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- [Stories](https://utahspotlights.com/stories/)


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