A beloved Middle Eastern restaurant in Salt Lake City is in a financial bind and has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help turn its situation around.
Mazza, located in the 15th and 15th neighborhood at 1515 S. 1500 East, is doing well, owner Ali Sabbah told The Salt Lake Tribune. However, the business’s debt load has become too much.
The goal of the GoFundMe is to raise $500,000 in order to “take a bite” out of Mazza’s debt, Sabbah said. As of Tuesday morning, more than $30,000 had been raised.
The trouble for Mazza began during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sabbah said in a letter on the GoFundMe campaign. Mazza spent two years and “considerable” resources to open a location in Sandy, only to see it close six months later, the letter said, along with Mazza’s location in Salt Lake City’s 9th and 9th neighborhood.
Mazza then took out three loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration to get back on track, along with two high-interest credit card loans and several smaller loans. Now, all those loans are due.
Sabbah clarified that he hasn’t defaulted on any of Mazza’s loans. However, the remaining Mazza location is “shouldering the burden” for the debt incurred for all three locations, he wrote in the letter. “This is an impossible situation that will continue to doom us to financial failure, leading to the closure of Mazza if we don’t do something drastic,” he wrote.
Having to service a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, the remainder of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, the high-interest credit card loans and the other smaller loans every month is “starving us of the resources that we need to keep the restaurant running as an operation,” Sabbah told The Tribune.
The kitchen equipment, especially the refrigeration system and the dishwashing equipment, is in desperate need of servicing and upgrades, Sabbah said, and the restaurant needs some remodeling.
In the GoFundMe letter, Sabbah also wrote that his employees haven’t received a raise in four years.
If the GoFundMe reaches its goal of $500,000, Sabbah wrote that Mazza plans to pay off its smaller, high-interest loans and start to pay down the larger ones; repair and replace aging equipment and do necessary remodels; and give Mazza’s workers a raise.
If the GoFundMe isn’t successful, Sabbah said they’ll probably have to start looking at what assets they have. “When you’re 65 and you have a 25-year-old loan, you’re going to have to make a decision,” he said.
Sabbah told The Tribune that he was “overwhelmed” by the donations Mazza has received so far.
“I’m really grateful to all of my friends, and I do consider most of my customers to be friends, because I’ve known them through the years and I appreciate their generosity,” Sabbah said.
Sabbah was a regional finalist in the Best Chef category for the prestigious James Beard Awards in 2023 and 2024. He was the first Utah chef to receive that honor.