Lamb's Grill Cafe
December 11th, 2009
Utah's oldest restaurant remains a beacon of hope on Main Street while providing its patrons with a glimpse of nostalgic 20th century class
by Diane Hartford
As you step off Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City and into Lamb's Restaurant, you are taken back in time to a place when quiet elegance and unobtrusive service were the standard. The cocoa-colored walls are flanked with intimate, crimson booths with flattering ambient lighting and tables with white tablecloths dot the interior of the main dining room. As you look around the lovely dining room, you half expect Frank Sinatra to stroll by. Unlike the cacophony of thumping music and seemingly frantic wait staff emblematic of today's restaurants, soft background music adds to the ambiance at Lamb's rather than competing with it.
on Main Street. He's seen the rise and fall and current revival
of downtown from behind the counter of his restaurant.
Lamb's is an institution in Salt Lake and on Main Street, enjoying the distinction of being the longest operating restaurant in Utah; opened in 1919 in Logan, Utah by George Lamb, and in its current location since 1939. Ted Speros partnered with George Lamb in 1941; they remained partners for 32 more years. John Speros, Ted's son, began working at Lamb's as a dishwasher in 1954 and has worked every job at Lamb's in the years since. He took over as owner of the restaurant in 1977.
Speros recalls the Main Street of the 1950's as a time when hundreds of well-dressed shoppers crowded the street, which was then full of retail shops. He says the landscape changed drastically during the 1970's when the city commenced the downtown Beautification Project. The project widened both Main Street and the sidewalks plus added large planter boxes. These improvements came at the cost of parking spaces in front of local businesses. Crossroads Mall and the ZCMI Center were built during this time too. Foot traffic on Main Street nearly disappeared as shoppers patronized the malls instead of Main Street retailers. Another blow was the completion of the Gateway Mall in 2001 which lured shoppers several blocks west, off of Main Street altogether. Speros recalls that "Main Street was almost completely deserted at that time, except for three or four businesses." Speros fears that Main Street may never return to its former glory in terms of retail shopping. He's hopeful, however, that the current City Creek Center construction project, which will bring retail, residential, and office space back to downtown Salt Lake City a few blocks north of Lamb's, will rejuvenate Main Street once again.
In fact, Speros says nearly a dozen new restaurants have opened on Main Street within the last year, which is quite remarkable given the challenges new restaurants face under ideal economic conditions, let alone during a recession. Speros believes these businesses are popping up in anticipation of the completion of City Creek rather than due to the economic opportunities afforded to local businesses by the closure and demolition of Crossroads and ZCMI Center.
Despite all this, customers continue to flock to Lamb's (pun intended) because they know they'll get consistently good food at a reasonable price.
Lamb's customers are a diverse group. Speros has seen billionaire John Huntsman, Sr. sitting at the counter next to a vagabond. Judges and lawyers often escape the court house to lunch at Lamb's as well. Speros appreciates the success that Lamb's has enjoyed and feels grateful to his customers for their continued support throughout the years. At the same time, he doesn't take the restaurant's success or its customers for granted.
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