Blue Plate Diner in Salt Lake City is closing its doors to the public in the coming months, reported Fox 13.
The diner is set to close in May.
According to Blue Plate's general manager Joe Mandel, the announcement came after the diner's owners made the decision to sell the building to developers who intend to build apartments and storefronts.
Mandel, who has worked at the restaurant for more than 15 years, said, "I'm going to obviously miss all of the customers. Like, everybody I knew by first name, which was a lot of people."
Blue Plate Diner has been serving the community since 2000.
Busser McKenna Barlow said, "Hard to find somewhere like that nowadays, I feel like. They're all going out of business and stuff like that."
Mandel explained that the decision seemed like the right one to make with the financial impacts of the pandemic and the looming development near the restaurant.
Mandel said, "All the buildings around us are going to be torn down regardless. Do we really want to spend the next two years losing our parking and potentially just having construction going on? When all those factors came together, it was like, 'OK, let's maybe put this out there and see where we go from here.'"
Photo: Google Maps