Emigration Cafe

Address: 1709 East 1300 South, Suite 108

Telephone: 385-218-4315

Website: emigrationcafe.com

District: Yalecrest

 

“I am most happy serving the same people over and over and being able to be a part of the community.” After introducing Salt Lake City to farm-to-table dining at Pago and later celebrating Spain through Finca and Casot, Scott Evans turned his attention to something quieter – creating Emigration Cafe, the neighborhood cafe he wished existed. “I lived across the street. What was missing was an all-day place with elevated food that was a little more casual.”

For Scott, restaurants have always been about more than food. They help define the places where people live. “I’d rather serve the same people than have a higher-volume urban location. I want to build relationships with the community.” That belief explains why nearly all of his restaurants are tucked into neighborhoods rather than entertainment districts. 

Emigration Cafe opened in 2022 in the heart of Yalecrest, but to Scott, it belongs to something even more local than a neighborhood map. It belongs to the people who walk there, stop in several times a week, recognize familiar faces, and slowly turn a restaurant into part of their daily routine. 

Unlike Pago or Finca, Emigration Cafe was never meant to be a special occasion destination. Scott envisioned a place where breakfast could turn into a morning meeting, lunch into an afternoon work session, coffee into an unplanned conversation, and dinner into the easiest decision of the day.

The menu reflects that philosophy. Soups, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, and breakfast favorites are prepared from scratch using many of the same farmers and producers that supply his other restaurants. The ingredients are just as carefully sourced, but the food is        deliberately simpler. “It’s almost like a gateway to fine dining - clean food made from scratch with good ingredients, prepared a little more straight forward.”

As the cafe settled into the neighborhood, Scott found himself paying close attention to the rhythms of the people who walked through the doors. The menu evolved with them. More entrée salads, lighter dishes, cleaner cooking, and thoughtfully prepared everyday meals reflected what his regulars actually wanted including wood fired pizza, burgers, tostadas, and pastas. This was never about creating the biggest menu or the trendiest dishes. It was about becoming the place people could comfortably return to again and again.

The same philosophy shaped the coffee program. Rather than operating the coffee bar himself, Scott invited local roaster Nick Hoover of Logos Coffee to become part of the project. Nick had been roasting beans and selling them at farmers markets, and Scott saw an opportunity to help another independent business take its next step. Today, Logos Coffee operates within Emigration Cafe, giving the neighborhood both a cafe and a destination for roasted coffee that allowed another local entrepreneur to grow alongside the restaurant.

That spirit of collaboration extends beyond the walls of the cafe itself. Scott has become increasingly interested in how neighborhood business districts create community. He talks about the small commercial corner surrounding Emigration Cafe with the same affection others reserve for entire neighborhoods. One side belongs to Yalecrest, the other to Wasatch Hollow, yet he believes the collection of independent businesses has developed an identity of its own. He has even imagined giving the area its own name and organizing neighborhood events that encourage people to walk, gather, and discover the businesses just steps from one another.

Emigration Cafe may be Scott's most everyday restaurant, but that is precisely what makes it distinctive. It was designed to become woven into people’s routines rather than reserved for special occasions. “It’s a place you could go a couple of times a week and be satisfied.”