After more than a year of renovations and delays, Salt Lake City’s Kiitos Brewing has opened its long-awaited Sugar House location.
The bar opened its doors Tuesday evening on the corner of 1100 East and Kensington Avenue to a steady crowd of both longtime patrons and new neighbors. A large “grand opening” banner was hung across the front of the building.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who lives nearby, also popped in twice on opening night, said the brewery’s business manager, Jamie Aslett.
Kiitos opened the Sugar House location Tuesday at 5 p.m. — exactly one minute after the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services activated its liquor license, Aslett said Wednesday.
DABS’ commission approved a conditional license last December, but the brewpub had to get its business license and other paperwork in order before the agency would make it fully official, she said.
Aslett called Kiitos’ Sugar House location the first truly “neighborhood” bar in Salt Lake City.
“We just had neighbors walking in, and then they’d run into three or four of their neighbors, and they just hang out and have a good time,” she said of opening night.
Kiitos’ owner, Andrew Dasenbrock, has been working for more than a year to get the Sugar House location open, Aslett said. The biggest obstacle was the building’s previous landlord, who ultimately had to hold a foreclosure sale on the building, according to Building Salt Lake.
Aslett said the brewery has since been working with a new building owner and started renovations in February.
Built in 1910, the building was long home to a sewing machine repair shop called Shingleton’s, and as the bar worked to open, staff aimed to preserve some of that neighborhood history.
Inside, original exposed brick lines the walls, with vintage sewing machines on display, as well as a framed yellowed Shingleton’s receipt found during the remodel.
Builders also reinstalled the sewing shop’s original sign on the south side of the building, and in a lounge in the back area of the bar, another metal Shingleton’s sign stands from nearly floor to ceiling, wrapping around the room.
Hours at the Sugar House location are currently 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week.
Kiitos is planning a grand-opening event on Friday night, Aslett said. Details of the event are still being finalized.