Sadly, my wife and I had our last visit to Annie’s Diner in Kaysville, Utah on May 22, 2024.
This locally owned eatery is closing by June 1, 2024, or before, as it has lost more than $93,000, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. (Thanks to one of my Facebook friends, Valerie Phillips, for posting first on Facebook about the closing.)
I haven't felt this sad about a restaurant closing since Utah Noodle of Ogden called it quits in September of 2012. (I also didn't like it when The Oaks Restaurant in Ogden Canyon closed either.)
Annie's had probably been open about 20 years, under three different ownerships. It opened in the late 1990s as Jonnie's Restaurant and was bought and switched to Annie's in 2002.
My wife and I made one last late lunch visit to Annie's. We had to wait 22 minutes to be seated and 30 minutes for our food, but worth it. Lots of high school kids there with yearbooks on the last full day of public school (including 4 young men we saw who left without paying). Many people before us had to apparently wait 60 minutes for their order.
The staff was so far behind that they locked the doors 5 minutes after we got there. We saw at least 6 people turned away. For me, the Cadillac Burger (their most expensive regular item at $16.99) was what I always ordered. And, it was as great tasting as ever,
The author and a Cadillac Burger.
A waitress said they only found out about the closing the night prior. She said the owner had stopped coming in much recently was the only pre-warning sign, as the restaurant seemed plenty busy.
The owner stated on Facebook that he was essentially subsidizing each meal ordered by about 7 percent. And, when he tried a price increase before that, business went down significantly. He had already saved the restaurant from closing a few years ago when he bought it from the original owner, who was set to close it.
Other than some very small local eateries, except for fast food now, Kaysville seems to only have Orlando’s Mexican restaurant as its lone major sit-down restaurant left.
Annie's was kind of a rough equivalent of Sill's Restaurant in neighboring Layton City, though more upscale.
All in all, it is one less locally owned restaurant in an eatery world dominated more and more by chain restaurants.
A new Jack in the Box (my favorite fast food place)
is ironically under construction next door, and to the south of Annie’s. – (some
consolation for me.)
