SALT LAKE CITY — Sam Fox is bringing another one of his restaurant concepts to Utah’s capital city.
Culinary Dropout, a casual high-end restaurant chain with a growing number of locations scattered across the country, is slated to open its first Utah location at the new Pickle and Hide development, 765 S. 400 West, this summer, Fox Restaurant Concepts announced on Monday.
The chain debuted with acclaim in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2010, and it’s since grown to 17 locations across nine states, blending “inventive food, craft cocktails and a deep love of music.”
Fox, an 11-time James Beard semifinalist for outstanding restaurateur, told San Diego Magazine last year that the project is a nod to his career. He was a college dropout who went into the restaurant industry, while many formal chefs have also jumped into the “casual world” to take the culinary world less seriously.
“But the restaurant really was based around a chef-driven gastropub,” he told the outlet, explaining that the food is still made from scratch, even if not the traditional high-end menu.
Its menu features things like wagyu pigs in a blanket, white truffle deviled eggs and 36-hour pork ribs, on top of the traditional items one might find at a restaurant.
In moving into the old historic Utah Pickle Company building, which was adaptively reused as part of the development project, Fox Restaurant Concepts plans to have close to 10,000 square feet that includes a “vast” interior dining room and a private dining room section, as well as an outdoor patio, an indoor gaming area and a stage for live music.
“Culinary Dropout was designed to be the ultimate hangout spot for locals and visitors alike,” the company wrote in a statement.
An exact opening date was not unveiled, and it wasn’t immediately clear how many jobs it would spur. Fox Restaurant Concepts, which was acquired by the Cheesecake Factory in 2019, now employs close to 5,000 people across its many brands and locations.
It entered Utah’s market in 2024, when another one of its concepts, Flower Child, opened at Foothill Village by Salt Lake City’s East Bench. It’s done well enough that the chain opened a second location in Riverton earlier this year.
The Pickle & Hide project, led by Blaser Ventures, was the first to test the 900 South Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone that Salt Lake City established in 2023 to further boost development in its growing Granary District.
The two-part $90.4 million project also centers around the adaptive reuse of the 107-year-old Bissinger Company Hides building, while a mixed-use development next to them will add 16 studio, 99 one-bedroom and 26 two-bedroom units to the neighborhood.
The project is near the popular music venue Kilby Court, which Blaser acquired in 2024 with plans to expand in the future.
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