Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
“You can only be original once.” It is a phrase Land Cruiser Heritage Museum founder Greg Miller often uses, and nowhere does it seem more fitting than inside the remarkable Salt Lake City museum he created. More than one hundred vehicles tell the story of Toyota’s longest-running nameplate – from an exceedingly rare 1953 Toyota Jeep BJT to the first Land Cruiser sold in the United States, working trucks, prototypes, expedition vehicles that have crossed continents, and a Land Cruiser that once hurtled across the pavement at more than 230 miles per hour.
Cafe Shambala
“She moved here to have a better life for us.” For Tenzin Dawa, the story of Cafe Shambala begins long before her family took over the Salt Lake City restaurant in 2011. It begins with her mother leaving her children behind in India for the chance to build a future for them in America.
The Tutoring Toy
“Let’s go do something, have some fun.” After twenty-five years in the corporate world, Bill Sartain was ready for a change. His wife, Diane, was willing to consider the possibilities, although neither could have imagined that their next venture would involve thousands of toys, generations of children, and nearly four decades as beloved Salt Lake shopkeepers.
The Art Floral
“He just wanted to have beauty and love and light in his life.” For Stefanie Sergakis Wedemeyer, those words explain why her father, Mike Sergakis, opened The Art Floral on February 21, 1951. Having returned to Salt Lake after serving as a tail gunner during World War II, flying thirty-one missions over Germany, and witnessing unimaginable destruction, Mike wanted to devote the next chapter of his life to something beautiful. Seventy-five years later, his daughter continues the family legacy at Salt Lake's oldest florist.
The Bagel Project
“You brought me back to my childhood. I’m from Brooklyn, and I haven’t had a real bagel in over thirty years.” For Robb Abrams, founder of The Bagel Project, those words changed everything. He had spent months teaching himself to make bagels, but when an older woman returned to his very first farmers market booth with tears in her eyes, he suddenly understood that a personal quest might become something much more. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘This is what I need to do right now in this stage of my life.’”
Bliss Foundation for the Arts
“We’re trying to preserve Anna’s art.” For Kelly Brest van Kempen, who oversees the Bliss Foundation for the Arts, that deceptively simple statement encompasses far more than a collection of paintings and prints. It is about preserving the creative partnership of Robert L. Bliss and Anna Campbell Bliss - two people who left an extraordinary imprint on Salt Lake’s architectural and artistic community - and finding a way for their work to continue reaching people long after they are gone.
All About Coins
“The only difference between a hoarder and a collector is the level of organization – because both have the same amount of stuff,” Sarah Campbell says with a laugh. At All About Coins, collecting is most definitely a family trait, one that began with Sarah’s father, Harold Robert “Bob” Campbell III. It was a way for Bob to connect with his father, the owner of Arcade Jewelers who had passed away when Bob was just four and a half years old.
The Old Flamingo
“I love The Old Flamingo. There’s just nothing that I would rather be doing than what I’m doing now.” For Paula Murray, that affection began long before she owned The Old Flamingo, a co-operative of vendors in Millcreek. Raised in San Diego as one of six girls, Paula grew up with horses and the beach nearby, later working in retail and running a couple of stores in the valley. She had always been an enthusiastic collector: vintage clothing, unusual handbags, dishes, and whatever else happened to catch her eye.
Han’s Kombucha
Growing up in Boise, Idaho, Hannah Banick, owner of the eponymous Han’s Kombucha, was already showing signs of the entrepreneur she would become. There were lemonade stands and little pieces of artwork she and her friends tried to sell, along with plenty of sports that were played. “I was always pretty driven,” she remembered.
Salt Lake Roasting Company
“I was always frustrated with the quality of coffee we were serving international guests.” That frustration eventually led John Bolton away from the kitchens at Snowbird and into an entirely different pursuit – one that would make Salt Lake Roasting Company an early force in Salt Lake City’s specialty coffee scene.
Legendarium
“We are a bookstore, and we are a coffee shop, but at the heart of it is a space where people can come and feel like they belong.” Long before Raelle Westwind and her brother, Orion Enceladus, opened Legendarium, they were two Salt Lake kids growing up in what Raelle describes as a “very nerdy household,” spending countless hours wandering through bookstores.
Wildwood
“People will come in and say, ‘We came all the way from Provo for the mussels and frites.’” For Mike Richey, owner and chef of Wildwood Bistro in the Avenues, that kind of devotion says almost everything about the restaurant he has created. Wildwood is very much a neighborhood place, but its reach extends well beyond the surrounding streets. Regulars return several times a month, tables fill more than once each evening, and certain dishes have become so beloved that changing them can provoke something close to rebellion.
Mt. Olympus Clock Shop
“We just kind of grew up working with him in the shop.” For Joseph Recksiek, becoming part of Mt. Olympus Clock Shop was less of a career decision than something that happened naturally. He and his six siblings grew up nearby, and by junior high, Joe was coming in after school several days a week to unpack merchandise, organize shelves and take on whatever job his father handed him. One of his earliest memories is dismantling cuckoo clock movements so they could be repaired.
The Off Broadway Theatre
“My thing was making people laugh, and I could do that.” For Eric Jensen, founder of The Off Broadway Theatre, comedy came long before theater became a career. Growing up in Murray as one of seven children, he was surrounded by a close family and parents who supported whatever he decided to pursue. As a boy, he loved watching Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, and Harvey Korman. Eric then reenacted their sketches for friends, whether or not he fully understood the jokes.
Marmalade Antiques
“I probably got my first antique in 1975.” It was an Aladdin lamp Steven Finch found in a small shop on South Main Street in Salt Lake City. He kept it for more than fifty years before finally selling it. That one purchase began a lifelong fascination with objects from another time, one that today fills Marmalade Antiques, Steven’s wonderfully unexpected shop tucked inside his historic home in the heart of the Marmalade neighborhood.
All Chay
“My parents have always been so supportive of all of my dreams.” For Trung Tham, that freedom ultimately led him somewhere he never expected - back home and into the family business his mother had built from the ground up. Long before Trung stepped behind the counter of All Chay, the vegan Vietnamese restaurant his mother created, he watched his parents build a life in Salt Lake City from very little, work tirelessly for their family and, most importantly, give their children the freedom to determine their own futures.
Hide & Seek
Long before Justen Moser was creating elaborate dishes at Hide & Seek, food meant something much simpler - time with his mother. He was born in Pocatello, Idaho, to a mother who was only sixteen when she had him and nineteen when his younger brother was born. Raising two boys on her own, she sometimes worked three jobs, stocking and clerking at a gas station and working nights at a grocery store. The family moved repeatedly, and wherever their mother went, the boys often followed, sitting in a back room while she worked and delighting in the occasional fountain drink or ice cream sandwich.
Bonnie & Clyde’s
“Find something people don’t want to do and offer to do it for them.” It was a lesson Greg Castro learned from his father while growing up in Connecticut, long before Bonnie & Clyde’s was even imaginable. His father built a small chain of dry cleaners and taught Greg to pay attention to what people needed, and to recognize opportunity when it appeared. He also made certain Greg understood the value of money.
Bicycle Collective
“We work at the intersection of transportation equity and environmental sustainability.” For Donna Matturro McAleer, executive director of Bicycle Collective, those are not simply words describing a nonprofit organization. They are evident throughout a building where donated bicycles arrive every day, professional mechanics work alongside longtime volunteers, and customers search for everything from a vintage part to a one-dollar inner tube. Somewhere in the midst of it all, another bicycle is being prepared for someone for whom two wheels may mean an entirely different level of independence.