It’s been barely six months since James Beard nominee SLC Eatery announced its closure – a tremendous loss for the SLC food scene. News breaking in the last 24 hours, underlines the struggles of another acclaimed name. Since receiving a prestigious final placing in the 2024 JBF cycle, Mazza owner Ali Sabbah took to GoFundMe this week, to hopefully secure the future of his award-winning Lebanese restaurant. After twenty-five years of routinely being recognized as one of the best dining destinations in the state, the restaurant now faces the risk of closure. “This is an impossible situation that will continue to doom us to financial failure, leading to the closure of Mazza if we don’t do something drastic”, explains Sabbah.
The detailed fundraising post by Sabbah (picture top left alongside Nick Zocco at the JBF awards last year) explains the financial reality of the business and seeks to raise $500,000 the address those challenges.
As many might remember, post-COVID, Mazza shrank from three locations to the original 15th and 15th spot. In turn the number of covers reduced tenfold – dramatically affecting the cash flow of the business. While the remaining Mazza remains profitable, Sabbah’s posting explains this alone is not enough to sustain the debt load incurred from years past. Sabbah’s GoFundMe post explains:…