Utah couple open Fiddler’s in Sugar House, a new bar to ‘connect to the legacy of Fiddler’s Elbow’

A familiar name has returned to Sugar House in a brand-new form, now that the sports bar Fiddler’s has opened in the space that once housed the long-standing Fiddler’s Elbow.

The building, at 1063 E. 2100 South, had sat vacant since last August, when the LGBTQ sports bar The Locker Room and Fiddler’s Elbow Roadhouse closed.

It “left a scar on the neighborhood when there was nothing here,” said Jimmy Brown, who owns Fiddler’s with his wife, Jordanna Brown.

“Everybody that we talked to missed [Fiddler’s Elbow],” she said. “... Everybody loved it.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Workers prepare for service at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

The Browns said they were regulars at Fiddler’s Elbow when it was open.

In launching Fiddler’s, “we wanted to connect to the legacy of Fiddler’s Elbow,” which opened along with the adjoining Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta in the 1990s, Jimmy Brown said. “It was such an iconic place in Sugar House and Utah altogether. It was the go-to spot for sports. It was a great restaurant-style bar as well.”

“So, we wanted to give it a nod to what it was in the past, but make it new and fresh and inviting for people,” he continued.

What’s different, what’s the same

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tables and chairs are seen at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

Getting Fiddler’s ready to open involved cleaning up and replacing broken equipment behind the bar, adding bar shelves with improved lighting, adding a beer cooler upstairs, replacing broken kitchen equipment, repairing the pizza oven, installing a new walk-in cooler for beer downstairs, hanging up new neon signs and more.

Sports fans will be able to catch their teams on the bar’s new TVs, complete with a new audio system.

“We designed it and built it so that you could see a TV from every seat in the house,” Jimmy Brown said.

The display case that once held sports memorabilia has been replaced by a darts wall that Brown built, and the pool tables have been switched out for a shuffleboard table, which Brown said was chosen because of space constraints and because it was a “more inclusive game for all.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dart boards hang on the wall at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

The exterior of the building has a brand-new mural, depicting several state symbols (sugar beets, a honeybee and a sego lily); a man wearing headphones and eating a slice of pizza; and large stylized letters that spell out “Sugar House.” Brown said the unfinished mural is meant to tie together “old Sugar House” and “new Sugar House.”

Something that won’t be returning is the orange neon sign on the building that once said “Fiddler’s” — it would have been too pricey to replace it, Jordanna Brown said.

Instead, they’ve included a painted version of the outdoor sign in the same spot, in the same style as the old neon letters.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fiddler’s, a new business in Sugar House in the space where Fiddler's Elbow and The Locker Room used to be, sports a new sign, Monday, June 23, 2025.

The look and vibe inside the bar should feel welcoming to Fiddler’s Elbow regulars from back in the day, though. The wooden tables and chairs are still there, and a lounge area with couches has returned to the bar’s entrance. The new owners reupholstered the leather on the booths, but did so in the same forest green they’ve always been.

Jordanna Brown said they didn’t want to upgrade every little thing and lose the bar’s essence in the process. “We just wanted to be able to have the feel back of coming back to Fiddler,” she said.

The Browns’ desire to recapture some of the spirit of Fiddler’s Elbow is also reflected in the food menu.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) An employee lifts up a piece of pizza at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

Even though none of the recipes are exactly the same as what they used to be, the menu includes Fiddler’s Elbow mainstays like pizza, spinach & artichoke dip, wings, nachos, a turkey sandwich and a black bean burger. Notably, they also included French onion soup on the menu, after several people in the neighborhood requested it, Jimmy Brown said.

And they make everything from scratch, Jordanna Brown said, including all the dressings and sauces (fry sauce included), and the fries. And they freshly squeeze all of the juice for the cocktails.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lights illuminate the beer cooler at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

They have 16 beers on tap, including a number of local beers, and they also have a variety of nonalcoholic beers.

The Browns plan to rename the front portion of the building that once was the home of Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta as Sugar House Pizza. They said the restaurant will be a family-friendly, quick-service place with pizza by the slice, beer and wine. They hope to open Sugar House Pizza by the end of June.

A personal connection

Jordanna and Jimmy Brown have their own personal ties to Fiddler’s Elbow and the Sugar House neighborhood.

Jimmy Brown said he grew up just a few blocks away from Fiddler’s Elbow, on Garfield Avenue. He also had a sister who worked as a server at the bar, and several members of his family worked at Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta.

After the Browns met while they were both working in the restaurant industry, they said they would often go to Fiddler’s Elbow.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Chairs and a couch sit in front of large flatscreen televisions at FiddlerÕs in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 13, 2025.

Last August, Jordanna Brown quit her corporate job and started bartending in Park City, which made her “love” the industry again “and the potential to it.” At the time, Jimmy Brown was selling beer for Monster Brewing Company.

The couple started dreaming about opening their own bar or restaurant, one they were connected to. And “whatever we saw about the industry that needed to be better, we could do it better,” Jordanna Brown said.

Around December, she saw the Fiddler’s Elbow building was up for lease, so she reached out to the building’s owner, Al Dieffenbach. They signed the lease in February, and started their own business, Fiddler’s, in the vacant building.

Dieffenbach bought Fiddler’s Elbow and Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta from the original owner and founder, Lynn Rasmussen, in 2002, and he sold the businesses to the previous owners of The Locker Room in 2023.

He said “it’s great” that the Browns are bringing back the name Fiddler’s.

Dieffenbach said he received about a dozen offers to buy the property and two or three offers to rent the building, but that he chose the Browns and their idea specifically.

“I think Jimmy and Jordanna are great,” Dieffenbach said. “They’re very energetic, they’re hands-on, they’re excited about being in Sugar House.”

Dieffenbach is currently in a dispute with the previous owners of The Locker Room over money he says they owe him.

Jordanna Brown said they want Fiddler’s to be for everyone.

“Sugar House has been a very eclectic community over the years, and we want to provide that here, too,” Jimmy Brown said. “Everybody’s welcome.”

When you visit Fiddler’s, don’t be deterred by the construction on 2100 South. Approach the bar from 1300 East, take a right on 1100 East (where construction has been completed), then turn left into the large Fiddler’s parking lot.