Realigned restaurants at Temple Square set to reopen this year

Shut down since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the Lion House Pantry restaurant in Brigham Young’s former home on Temple Square in Salt Lake City isn’t coming back.

But no reason to panic: The popular eatery’s famous dinner rolls will return. The pillowy treats are just moving to a different home.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released plans for the reopening of the restaurants in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, closed in response to COVID-19 and to accommodate remodeling of the structure and other major construction in the area.

The Nauvoo Cafe will reopen as the Garden Restaurant in June, the church said through Gary Porter, president of Temple Square Hospitality Corp. Porter said much of the menu will be the same — including its popular soup and sandwich offerings — in a casual dining atmosphere. He said the café will also add new items to its menu.

Later, in November, The Roof restaurant will reopen with its same overlook of Temple Square, but without the buffet-style offerings from before the closure. Porter said the completely new à la carte menu will offer a wide variety of fine dining options. The Roof will also provide areas for private dining and large group events.

When the pandemic first appeared in Utah, Temple Square dining options included the Nauvoo Cafe, Lion House Pantry, The Roof and the Garden Restaurant. The church announced plans to renovate the Salt Lake Temple and reconstruct Temple Square in November 2019 — which would have necessitated the closure of the restaurants. The advent of the pandemic, however, moved the closures up to March 2020. Renovations at Joseph Smith Memorial Building, home to three of the four dining spots, and the Lion House, site of the Pantry restaurant, have kept them closed until this year.

With renovations nearing completion, preparations are underway to open the two restaurants in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, but the Lion House will now be reserved as a historical site and maintained for tours for Temple Square visitors, according to Kelly Smoot, a spokesperson for the church.

“The Lion House will become part of a toured-historic site open to the public that includes the Beehive, the Lion House and the surrounding landscape,” Smoot said in a statement. “The Lion House will contain visitor services, restored historic rooms and exhibit spaces that teach about Latter-day Saint history from the 1850s to the 1950s.”

The Beehive House will open in early 2027, in time for the influx of visitors for the open house at the renovated Salt Lake Temple.

But, what about those dinner rolls? Often imitated, but rarely duplicated, the Beehive House rolls will now move to the menu of Garden Restaurant.

And plenty of people will have a chance to sample Beehive House rolls as visitors roll into downtown Salt Lake City for the temple open house, now slated for April through October 2027. Church public relations officials have estimated that 3 million to 5 million people will visit the site during the six-month open house, likening the crowds to “having general conference crowds every day for half a year.”

Using the church’s figures, the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance estimates the event could bring 22,000 additional downtown visitors daily and $320 million in additional spending at downtown businesses. And part of that spending is sure to be for Beehive House dinner rolls.