As Salt Lake City updates a community plan for the Avenues, residents taking part in the process have said they would like more small cafes, restaurants and retail spaces in the neighborhood, KSL.com reported. The city says the plan was last updated in 1987. Gramercy, a new tea and coffee shop, is among the neighborhood’s current businesses: Axios reports that it has opened in a former laundromat.
A neighborhood opening, amid historic surroundings
The shop serves matcha lattes and spam onigiri, and its space includes exposed brick, multi-pane windows and an outdoor patio, according to Axios. The publication describes the building as dating to 1907 and having been a laundromat. Salt Lake City identifies the Avenues as a historic district of almost 100 square blocks of late-19th- and early-20th-century domestic architecture. That district-level description does not, by itself, confirm the building’s reported date or former use, or establish that the individual property is designated historic, the city’s historic-preservation page explains.
Gramercy’s opening is a neighborhood business story, not proof of a wider reuse trend. As one distinct Salt Lake City example, Utah Business reported that the Salt Lake Rapid Transit Complex was renovated into Evo, an outdoor recreation hub, after approval for Federal Historic Tax Credits in 2022. That large project differs in scale and purpose from a tea and coffee shop in a former laundromat.
From pop-up to permanent shop
Best friends Emerson Alvarez and McKenna Brown previously ran a pop-up art market before opening Gramercy as their first food-business venture, Axios reported. A monthlong Kickstarter campaign launched in May 2026 raised more than $24,000 toward startup expenses, the publication said. The shop’s onigiri is made by Mr. Rice Asian Bistro, a restaurant at the Chinatown supermarket.
Axios reported that Gramercy is open daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. except Tuesdays. Brown told the publication she hopes to introduce later hours on Fridays and Saturdays.
