SALT LAKE CITY — Rayne Holyoak has worked at SugarHouse Barbeque for eight years.
“I can tell you so many stories about customers coming in and it being the worst day of their life, and they leave here with a smile on their face,” she said through tears. “We’re truly a family, and we make sure that our customers know that.”
Over the years, Holyoak, the assistant general manager, has been a part of the tight-knit, family-owned restaurant donating to many local nonprofits and winning countless awards.
“There's no real barbecue in Utah except for us, and I hate to say that, because I don't like hating on other businesses, but we definitely were the number one,” she said.
SugarHouse Barbeque is shutting down next month after 26 years in business. The restaurant took a huge financial blow during the COVID-19 pandemic and it never fully recovered, Holyoak said.
“On top of that, the cost of the meat and every supply that we have to provide, whether it be to-go boxes or cups even, everything just got to be so expensive that we were having to raise our prices just to keep up, and we were never catching up,” she said.
At this point, Holyoak says there’s no way to save the restaurant.
“Maybe the city is outgrowing these small businesses,” she said. “One thing I loved about this place is that it was mom-and-pop, and walking down the street, you could stop in any one of these places, and it's the same face you've seen for the past decade. Now it's not that way anymore.”
SugarHouse Barbeque plans to close on August 10, with the possibility of staying open a few more days to sell all the food.
