Stories
The people and businesses of Utah
Business spotlights, founder stories and local history from across the state.
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Ruth’s Diner: A Cabaret Singer, a Trolley Car and Nearly a Century of Biscuits in Emigration Canyon
In 1930, a former cabaret singer named Ruth Evans opened a hamburger joint downtown. When her building was torn down, she bought a trolley…
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Lagoon: How the Freed Family Kept Utah’s Favorite Amusement Park Spinning for Three Generations
Lagoon started as a lakeside railroad resort in the 1880s and survived a receding lake, a world war and a devastating fire. Since 1946…
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Hell’s Backbone Grill: Two River Cooks, One Remote Town and a Farm-to-Table Legend on Highway 12
Blake Spalding and Jen Castle learned to cook on river trips, then opened a restaurant in one of the most remote towns in America.…
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Milt’s Stop & Eat: Moab’s Oldest Restaurant Has Been Flipping Burgers Since the Uranium Boom
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…
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Sweet Candy Company: Five Generations of Taffy, Cinnamon Bears and Orange Sticks in Salt Lake City
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…
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Last Call at the Top of Main: How Utah’s First Brewpub Changed Park City and Utah Beer
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…
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Gossner Foods: The Swiss Immigrant Who Turned Cache Valley Into Utah’s Cheese Country
Ed Gossner left a Swiss farm with no money and no English, and found his “Little Switzerland of the Rockies” in Cache Valley. Four…
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Ruby’s Inn: The Syrett Family Has Welcomed Bryce Canyon Visitors for More Than 100 Years
In 1916, a rancher named Ruby Syrett took a Sunday ride to the rim of a canyon his neighbors called Bryce. More than a…
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Brick Oven: Provo’s 70-Year-Old Pizza Parlor, Famous for Root Beer and First Dates
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…
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Crown Burgers: How a Greek Family From Crete Gave Salt Lake City Its 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…