A small building in Sugar House that has housed several different bakeries and coffee shops over the years will soon have a new look and a new occupant.
The blue building at 1751 S. 1100 East, most recently the home of Brownies! Brownies! Brownies!, is going to be the new home of Hruska’s Kolaches, which will be moving its Salt Lake City headquarters out of its spot at 2030 S. 900 East.
People driving by the location have noticed part of the 1100 East building has been gutted, but city records show it isn’t being demolished. Instead, it’s being renovated by Hruska’s Kolaches, with several permits for a fire sprinkler system and electrical, mechanical and plumbing work all being filed this year. Cory Hruska — who started Hruska’s Kolaches with his brother Ross Hruska and his sister Devin Hruska — confirmed that they are working on the building and plan to relocate there.
In some of its past lives, the building was Mini’s Cupcakes from 2011 to 2014, Karma Coffee House from 2016 to 2017, Poppies Bakery & Cafe from 2017 to 2018, and, from 2018 to 2022, the late-night bakery Brownies! Brownies! Brownies!
Cory Hruska said there is no set opening date yet, but that they will make an announcement when the timing is right. He also said their 900 East location will remain open “until the very last day.”
Some of the features of the new location include plenty of parking and a bigger kitchen. “We’re kind of redoing some things,” Hruska said. “So we’re turning it into a hub for our business. So there was just a lot more opportunity, I think, over there, for making our presence in Salt Lake a little more comfortable.”
Ross Hruska said he “fell in love” with the little building eight years ago, when he and his siblings were first looking to start a shop in Salt Lake City, but it was occupied. After Brownies! Brownies! Brownies! closed, the Hruskas got in touch with Mike and Kimberly Marron, who own the property, and in 2023, the Hruskas signed a lease.
The Marrons were willing to let the property sit for two years while the right circumstances lined up for the Hruskas. In the meantime, the siblings were busy building out their new location in Orem.
It took six months to get the necessary permits, in part because the building sits on a buried segment of Emigration Creek, according to city records. Ross Hruska said the building might actually sit on a convergence of multiple waterways. That made it so the Hruskas had to renovate what was already built there, instead of doing any digging on a new building, he said.
Ross Hruska said the new location will also include a 250-square-foot addition, “for customers to come in and be able to buy things,” as well as a patio for people to sit and enjoy a kolache. It will also be Hruska’s Kolaches first stand-alone location, Hruska said. (The bakery’s Provo location is in the heart of that city’s downtown, while the West Jordan, Orem and American Fork locations are all in buildings with hair care businesses as next-door neighbors.)
“I just think it’ll be more reminiscent of who we want to be into the future as opposed to what was available at the time eight years ago,” Hruska said. “And also, it’s just one of the coolest little buildings in Salt Lake,” he said.
‘Heritage and family history’
Cory, Ross and Devin Hruska, whose family is originally from Texas, first opened Hruska’s Kolaches in Provo in 2014 while they were students at Brigham Young University.
Traditionally, a kolache is an Eastern European pastry, mainly from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Cory Hruska said. Originally, a kolache was a baked good with a sweet filling on top, but it evolved in Texas, where there is a sizable Czech population, he said. Once in Texas, bakers moved the kolache filling inside of the bread, and began to use savory fillings like kielbasa.
At Hruska’s Kolaches, they sell both types of kolaches: with the sweet filling on top, and the savory filling inside.
“There’s some kolache elitists, kolache purists out there that will say one or the other is the only type of kolache, but we call everything a kolache in our family,” Cory Hruska said.
The Hruskas opened their Sugar House location in 2016, their American Fork location in 2019, their West Jordan location in 2021, and their Orem location in 2024.
Though their kolache fillings range from fruit & cream cheese to sausage & gravy — which was featured on the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” with Guy Fieri — the Hruskas continue to use their great-grandmother’s kolache dough recipe.
There’s “a lot of heritage and family history involved in our restaurant,” Hruska said.
