Drive past Fashion Place Mall this week and you will pass two active construction and opening stories within three blocks of each other, and they are betting on opposite versions of what Murray wants to eat. One is a national chain spending real money to demolish a building and start over. The other is a chef with a Michelin-recognized track record who opened with a stripped-down menu and almost no fanfare. Both landed on the same stretch of State Street and Winchester within months of each other. That is not a coincidence worth skipping past. It is the most useful thing happening in Murray's food scene right now, and it tells you something about how this city actually eats that a list of new restaurant names never would.
The Big Bet: Lazy Dog Is Betting on Scale
At 102 E. Winchester Street, just south of the mall, Lazy Dog Restaurant and Bar is tearing down the old Romano's Macaroni Grill and building from the ground up. This is the chain's first location in Utah, and it took a while to get here. Founder Chris Simms opened the original Lazy Dog Cafe in Orange County, California, back in 2003, and the brand has spent more than two decades expanding before choosing Murray as its entry point into the state. "We're thrilled to introduce Lazy Dog to Salt Lake City for the first time," Simms said when the project was announced. The Murray address was the Italian chain's last remaining Utah location, and rather than take over an existing building, Lazy Dog chose to demolish and rebuild it entirely, with an opening timeline originally set for mid-2026.
That is a specific kind of confidence. A company does not spend money knocking down a building instead of just moving into it unless it believes the corridor itself, not just the tenant space, is worth the investment. Lazy Dog is not testing Murray with a small footprint. It is building for the long run in a spot with mall-adjacent visibility and parking that a lot of new concepts would kill for.
The Small Bet: A Michelin-Connected Chef Went the Other Direction
Across the street and a few doors down, at 6356 S. State Street directly across from Fashion Place, chef Luis Perez opened La Lola Taco earlier this year. Perez is not a Murray newcomer chasing volume. He is the chef behind Lola Gaspar in Santa Ana, California, which earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction, and he also owns Chapter One in the same city. Instead of bringing a big concept to Utah, he opened something small and specific: a tight menu of street tacos, a few Mexico City-style specials like esquites, and tortillas made fresh by Armando Guerrero of House of Corn. There is no expansive dining room strategy here. It is a chef with real credentials choosing to do one thing well in a location most people drive past without noticing.
That contrast matters more than either story does on its own. Lazy Dog is betting that Murray can support a full-scale, ground-up investment from a company with twenty years of experience picking real estate. Perez is betting that the same three blocks can support something built entirely around craft and a short menu, with none of the infrastructure of a national chain behind it. Both bets are happening at the same time, on the same corridor, and neither one needs the other to succeed.
What Two Opposite Bets on the Same Corridor Actually Tell You
A neighborhood only gets this kind of split attention when there is enough foot traffic and enough different kinds of demand to support both models. If Murray's dining scene were flat or shrinking, you would see one type of opening, not two. Chains retreat to safe bets during uncertain periods, and specialty chef-driven concepts tend to follow money and buzz elsewhere. Seeing a first-in-Utah chain and a Michelin-adjacent chef commit to the same handful of blocks within months of each other suggests the corridor is doing something right for both kinds of operators, even if they are appealing to different customers on different nights.
That is a more useful read than treating either opening as the whole story. If you only followed the Lazy Dog news, you would assume Murray's food identity is tied entirely to what happens at the mall. If you only followed La Lola Taco, you would assume the interesting stuff has moved away from it entirely. Neither is accurate. Both are happening, and the corridor is big enough to hold them.
The Calendar That Does Not Care Either Way
While all of that plays out commercially, Murray's own event calendar has kept running on a schedule that has nothing to do with restaurant openings or mall traffic. The city already closed out its Picnic on the Lawn at the Murray Museum on August 24 and its Dine and Dance at the Murray Armory on August 28. What is still ahead this September:
- Get to the River Fest, Saturday, September 12, from noon to 2 p.m. at Winchester Park, 1250 W. Winchester Street
- Family Night Concert Series finale, Monday, September 14, at 7 p.m. at the Murray Senior Recreation Center, 10 E. 6150 South
The Family Night series has run free concerts on the second Monday of every month since April, and September 14 closes out the 2026 season. None of this depends on whether Lazy Dog opens on schedule or whether La Lola Taco keeps its lines out the door. Murray Parks and Recreation has been running this rhythm for years, and it will keep running it regardless of which restaurant bet pays off on Winchester Street.
What This Actually Means If You're Already Here
If you live in Murray, the honest version of this fall is not "the mall got a new chain" or "there's a cool new taco spot." It is that the corridor around Fashion Place is currently supporting two very different kinds of investment at once, which is a healthier sign for the area than either headline alone would suggest. And regardless of how either restaurant performs, the city's own community calendar keeps moving on its own clock, with one more free concert and a river festival still ahead before the season wraps.
Worth doing before summer's over: catch the September 14 concert at the Senior Recreation Center, since it is the last free one until spring, and swing by Winchester Park on the 12th if you have not been to River Fest before. And if you are curious enough about that stretch near the mall to wonder what a taco built around Michelin-trained technique tastes like next to a burger built by a twenty-year-old chain, both storefronts are a few blocks apart and both are worth the drive.
None of this requires a real estate decision to enjoy. But if you are the kind of person who tracks a neighborhood's commercial confidence as closely as its restaurant menu, this is the kind of signal worth remembering. When you are ready to talk through what a specific block or corridor in Murray is actually worth, or how a stretch like this one tends to hold value over time, Bybee + Co Realty has been reading Utah County and Salt Lake County markets closely for a long time. Contact us anytime.
