For years, a Saturday in Holladay had a predictable center. You started at Caputo's for bread, drifted through the plaza at Murray-Holladay and 2300 East, maybe finished at Francks or Sicilia Mia. That center hasn't disappeared. It has grown a second gravity well about a mile east, at Highland Drive and roughly 6100 South, where a 58-acre mixed-use project called Holladay Hills is now open enough to start rearranging where residents actually spend their time.
If you live here, you've watched the cranes and the leasing signs for a while. The tenant list is finally real, and a few of the names are bigger than the local coverage has made them sound.
What has actually opened at Holladay Hills
The development sits on Salt Lake's east bench and, as of spring, is welcoming a first wave of tenants that includes Kiln, Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay, Magnolia Bakery, The Sicilian Butcher, and Sploot Veterinary Care. A short, unromantic list is the best way to see what's on the ground right now:
- Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay. Opened Friday, March 27, in the Holladay Hill shopping center, at 1895 E Rodeo Walk Dr, next to Trader Joe's and up the street from the Megaplex Luxury Theaters. It is the brand's second Utah restaurant after Orem, run by franchisee Joe Sample of Crave Management Group.
- Magnolia Bakery. The New York bakery famous for its banana pudding is now open in the development. The Holladay Hills location is the brand's only outpost with dirty soda offerings, alongside cupcakes, cakes, cheesecake, pies, cookies, brownies, and the banana pudding. Franchise owner Kirk Schneider confirmed this is Magnolia's first franchise store in the United States.
- Kiln. A 52,000-square-foot flex office and coworking community whose Holladay space has already attracted Mastercard, T-Mobile, Intuit, Penn Mutual, and Assos. That is a meaningful signal if you have ever tried to find a professional workspace between downtown and the Point of the Mountain without commuting.
- Sploot Veterinary Care. Sploot's first Utah clinic, combining primary and urgent care under one roof and open 365 days a year. For a neighborhood full of long-tenured pet owners, a walk-in urgent option on the east bench is a genuinely new option.
The Village side hasn't gone quiet
None of the Holladay Hills momentum takes anything away from the older core of the neighborhood, and if you already live here, that is the more useful observation. The Village Center RDA area is still flourishing, with a thriving commercial mix, a City Plaza that hosts community events through the year, and the Harmon's grocery and adjacent retail all operating.
The dining bench at the traditional Village end runs deep. Taqueria 27 sits in Holladay as one of five Wasatch Front locations for the veteran-owned group, known for daily specials that include a taco of the day, guacamole of the day, and a rotating cocktail. Caputo's Market & Deli continues to draw the crowd that treats a deli sandwich as a small architectural project. Francks, tucked into the Knudsen's Corner area in a renovated home, still holds its casual fine-dining niche, and Sicilia Mia keeps the tableside pasta theater going for family birthdays and anniversaries.
Newer arrivals on this side, mostly small operators, have been quietly stacking up too. Celeste Bite, run by a Tuscan chef and his wife inside a small food hall, has attracted the kind of reviews that mention forty-five-minute drives as if they were normal. Monti, a health-forward breakfast and coffee concept, is going into the former Wendy's at 6135 South and Highland, offering breakfast, lunch, smoothies, juice, and coffee. Real Taqueria, Old Tbilisi Kitchen, and Layla Mediterranean Grill round out the list of the places you actually text friends about.
The point most residents miss
Here is the argument. Holladay used to have one dining core and a scattering of specialists. It now has two cores close enough to walk between on a temperate evening, and the newer one is anchored by concepts that are firsts, not seconds. Magnolia's Holladay Hills bakery is the brand's first franchise in the country. The Sicilian Butcher is coming as its first Utah location. Sploot is opening its first Utah clinic here. Kiln is landing tenants who ordinarily choose downtown towers.
That is a different pattern than the one Holladay is used to. Historically, national brands treated Holladay as their second or third Salt Lake location. In this cycle, the neighborhood is the debut address.
The everyday effect is small and pleasant. A grocery run at Trader Joe's now sits across the drive from a made-to-order burger. A movie at the Megaplex is within a two-minute walk of banana pudding. The office day that used to require a drive to downtown can happen inside a converted studio suite five minutes from a school pickup.
A weekend, remapped
Saturday. Coffee at Monti once it opens on Highland, a produce and cheese pass through Caputo's at the Village, then east to the Holladay Hills side for Magnolia cupcakes to take to whichever friend has a birthday that week. If the kids are pushing for it, lunch at Bobby's Burgers before an afternoon film at the Megaplex.
Thursday night. A shared plate at Taqueria 27 or a proper sit-down at Francks. Later this year, the same evening might end with a five-foot charcuterie board at The Sicilian Butcher, described by its backer at Savory Fund as a place built around sharing a five-foot charcuterie board across the table or simply enjoying a great plate of pasta. That is a different scale of gathering than Holladay has typically offered on a weeknight.
What is still coming, and when
The second wave inside Holladay Hills is the one to watch through summer and fall. Magnolia Bakery is the first franchise in the United States, Sploot Veterinary Care is debuting its first Utah location, and The Sicilian Butcher will also mark its first location in the state. Magnolia's franchise owner has signaled plans for a ribbon cutting and a later community event to celebrate the opening, and a second Salt Lake location is planned for fall 2026, which suggests the Holladay outpost is being treated as the flagship rather than a test.
Outside the development, the wider Salt Lake dining moment is doing Holladay favors, too. Salt Lake landed multiple James Beard semifinalist nods in 2026, with two advancing to the finalist round. When national food attention finds Salt Lake, the east bench inherits some of the traffic.
Why the change matters for people who already live here
The interesting shift is not the addition of a burger chain or a bakery. It is that the daily radius of a Holladay resident just got denser. Errands, meals, workspace, and pet care now cluster inside a tighter geometry than they did two years ago. That density is what people usually mean when they call a place walkable, even when the drive between anchors is short.
For homeowners who bought here a decade ago, the practical read is that the amenities you always liked about Holladay have quietly compounded rather than diluted. The Village retained its character. The east bench added a second one. The gap between them is filled with restaurants your friends visiting from out of town have probably already heard about, whether you have taken them yet or not.
If you are considering how these shifts might change the value of your home, or you are curious what a next chapter in Holladay looks like for your family, Sue Ann Wilkinson is available for a private conversation. Request a Complimentary Market Consultation to talk through what the new Holladay means for your address.
