Pour one out for Salt Lake City's By the Bucket restaurant and Millcreek's Big O Tires mural.
Small Lake City
By Bryant Heath
With the seasonal change from the brightly colored leaves of fall to the barrenness and monochromatic coloring that winter brings, I'm reminded of all the changes Salt Lake City has experienced this past year. So let's take a moment to reminisce about some of the recognizable Salt Lake sights that recently bid adieu (cue the Sarah McLachlan music for this oddball "in memoriam," as it's about to get quite emotional).
First on the list has to be the passing of By the Bucket: Hot Spaghetti to Go. Pour some marinara out on the curbside for this fast-casual restaurant that, despite only existing for two years, left quite the impression—both online through some controversial customer comments and in person through their still-standing signage depicting a quintessential caricature of an Italian person.
Where will fans of milquetoast pasta go to get their fix now?
Well, I'm happy to report that Fazoli's is making a return to Utah in the coming years—delizioso!
Keeping with the restaurant theme, the Sugar House Sizzler getting demolished was also a major touchpoint for the city in 2024. This buffet, like most communal eateries where germ transmission ran rampant, was an unfortunate casualty of COVID-19. But the building remained in place until this past spring, when crews wiped it from existence in what seemed like the snap of a finger.
I will always remember the makeshift graffiti—spray-painted briefly in the summer of 2022—that now serves as an immortal epitaph to this place: "Surf and Turf fo Life, #RipSizz"
But without a doubt, the biggest loss for me personally was the renovation of the Big O Tires on 3300 South and 2000 East in Millcreek (photo above). By the looks of the standard, unadorned building nowadays, a current passerby wouldn't register the epicness lost at this location. Real historical heads know what the former spray-painted scene meant to the valley.
Although the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization—yes, that is a real thing—does not include Utah as a preeminent Sasquatch sighting state, this mural begged to differ.
What will fade come this time next year? I'm not trying to instigate a riot, but if the original 2022 press release for the 9th and 9th whale is to be believed, it's due for a repainting by April 2025. Nothing gold—or, I guess, multicolored—can stay.
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