Utah has recently lost several prominent downtown dining institutions, but the damage extends well beyond Salt Lake City’s fine-dining scene.
A 35-year-old Park City restaurant, an inventive handmade-bao business and an award-winning Japanese dessert shop are also now gone.
Main Street Pizza & Noodle in Park City
Main Street Pizza & Noodle closed at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 5, after 35 years at 530 Main Street in Park City.
The restaurant occupied a prime location on historic Main Street and became a dependable option for skiers, families, tourists and local residents looking for an approachable meal. Over its run it served more than eight million guests—by owner Rick Smith’s estimate, upward of 150,000 people a year.
Pizza was the obvious attraction, but the large menu also included pasta, sandwiches, salads and other casual food capable of satisfying groups that could not agree on one thing. It was one of the few genuinely casual dining options left on Main Street.
That accessibility helped the restaurant survive decades of change around it. Park City transformed into an increasingly expensive international destination, but Main Street Pizza & Noodle continued offering the type of familiar food that worked after a day on the mountain.
Smith is retiring and has said he will not open another restaurant elsewhere. But he was also direct about the economics. He pointed to rising commercial lease rates on Main Street, which he said have become increasingly difficult for an independent family restaurant, and to pressure from national tenants. The building at 530-544 Main Street, which also houses Riverhorse on Main, was purchased by investment firm Stanton Road Capital in August 2025.
Smith argued that mom-and-pop operators cannot compete once investment firms move in, warning that Park City’s newest billionaires are pushing out its longtime independent businesses and eroding what made the town distinctive.
Plenty of polished restaurants remain along Main Street. Few can reproduce the unpretentious familiarity of a place customers visited for 35 years.
Xiao Bao Bao in Salt Lake City
Xiao Bao Bao closed both of its Salt Lake City restaurants after a three-year run.
Chef Romina Rasmussen created the concept after closing Les Madeleines, her nationally recognized French bakery, following a 19-year run. She partnered with brothers Derrick and Dwight Yee to build a restaurant around carefully handmade bao.
The opening generated enormous interest. Customers formed lines around the block for pillowy buns filled with pork, chicken, vegetables and creative ingredients inspired by several culinary traditions.
Xiao Bao Bao expanded from its original downtown restaurant into a second Milk Block location. Unfortunately, enthusiastic openings and loyal customers did not translate into a sustainable financial model.
Ownership admitted that the numbers never worked, pointing to traffic that never reached the level the business needed. The restaurant’s no-tip model also proved financially unsustainable for an independent operator. The Milk Block restaurant closed at the end of May, followed by the original downtown location at the end of June.
The closures eliminated one of Salt Lake City’s most distinctive fast-casual concepts—and Rasmussen’s second beloved business in just a few years.
Doki Doki in Salt Lake City
Doki Doki closed April 19 after eight years of serving elaborate Japanese-inspired desserts.
Owner Irie Cao opened the shop at 249 E. 400 South in February 2018 with a menu built around Japanese crepe cakes and rolled ice cream. It became the city’s destination for fluffy Japanese soufflé pancakes and for taiyaki sundaes served in fish-shaped cones.
The desserts were colorful, highly customizable and built for social media long before every restaurant began designing food primarily for photographs.
Customers waited in long lines, celebrated special occasions and stopped in late at night for combinations of ice cream, fruit, cereal, candy and sauces. Doki Doki was a frequent honoree in local “best of” awards and developed a following that extended beyond ordinary dessert-shop customers. Cao, who came to Utah from Vietnam about five years before opening, also ran Kumo Cafe in South Salt Lake until it closed in 2024.
Cao cited physical and mental health, financial pressure and a desire to move closer to family when announcing the closure. She also told customers this was not goodbye forever.
Main Street Pizza & Noodle, Xiao Bao Bao and Doki Doki occupied very different parts of Utah’s dining landscape.
One lasted 35 years by being reassuringly familiar. Two built followings through food customers could not easily find elsewhere.
Their closures demonstrate that both longevity and originality can create loyalty. Unfortunately, neither guarantees that a beloved restaurant will survive.
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