Salt Lake City approves $1M loan to help Whiskey Street rebuild after 2025 fire

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake City approved a $1M loan to aid Whiskey Street's rebuild.
The restaurant aims to reopen by year-end with a new rooftop patio.
The 2025 fire impacted five businesses; the city offers loans to assist recovery.

SALT LAKE CITY — A popular Salt Lake City bar and restaurant destroyed by a massive fire on Main Street last year is getting an assist from the city as it plans to rebuild taller than before.

Salt Lake City's Community Reinvestment Agency board of directors, who are all members of the City Council, voted on Tuesday to approve a $1 million loan for 323, LLC filling a financing gap for the owners of Whiskey Street Cocktails and Dining to complete a $3.8 million rebuild.

The restaurant, located at 323 S. Main, has already started its rebuild, which will include a new rooftop patio atop the one-story building. Its owners told KSL last week that they hope to reopen by the end of this year.

"I think we're always like, 'We're coming back bigger and better and rising from the ashes," said Matt Crandall, director of operations for Whiskey Street, as well as White Horse Spirits and Kitchen, Whiskey Street's sister business, which reopened in January.

The two restaurants were among five heavily impacted by the fire, which broke out in the kitchen of the London Belle Supper Club and quickly spread to neighboring buildings on Aug. 11, 2025. The restaurant Eva has also reopened, while the rest are rebuilding.

The Reinvestment Agency opened a loan program to help affected businesses last year. The loan that the board approved for 323, LLC has 0% interest for the first 24 months, and 2% thereafter, with a 10-year amortization schedule.

The scene of a structure fire that damaged or destroyed five businesses on the 300 South block of Main Street on Aug. 11, 2025, is pictured in downtown Salt Lake City on Aug. 12, 2025. (Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

Insurance proceeds will cover another $1.8 million of the project costs, while "outside sources" will help pay for the remaining project costs, city officials said.

The loan is similar to a $2 million loan the board approved in July for Chenzo, LCC, the owners of London Belle and a property that housed a Los Tapatios location. They unveiled a new four-story property at the site of their building that they hope to have completed within the next few years.

Moments before Tuesday's vote, Salt Lake City Councilwoman Jennifer Napier-Pearce, whose district includes downtown, said she's thrilled that all of the businesses are working toward reopening after the fire.

"Main Street is a jewel, and it needs to be preserved," she said. "I know so many people have been waiting for this section of our city to be revitalized."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.