Porter’s Place closing in Lehi, opening in Nephi
Western restaurant Porter's Place owner Bob Trepanier poses for a portrait in the dining room on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 in Lehi. The restaurant will be moving later this year to Nephi.
Porter's Place restaurant owner Bob Trepanier helps cook food on the line on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 in Lehi. The restaurant will be moving later this year to Nephi.
Western restaurant Porter's Place owner Bob Trepanier poses for a portrait in the dining room on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 in Lehi. The restaurant will be moving later this year to Nephi.
As you look at the Lehi skyline, it’s hard to pick out the old downtown among all the new office buildings dotting the landscape.
But one of those old town icons, Porter’s Place, will shutter its doors June 25. Bob Trepanier, owner of Porter’s Place, will be closing the Lehi restaurant and reopening it just a bit further south in Nephi.
Porter’s Place is an Old West restaurant that strives to honor the heritage of Mormon pioneer Orrin Porter Rockwell and his era. Walking into the old building on Lehi’s Main Street is literally like setting your spurs back in time. As piano player music wafts through the air, the walls, the floor, the decorations, and even the fixtures create an aura of an old-time Wild West saloon — without actual alcohol.
Trepanier originally owned the Lehi building Porter’s Place now resides in, but sold it to Lehi in 2008 to pay for a Porter Rockwell Place development he was planning in Bluffdale. That plan fell through with the downturn of the economy, and Trepanier has been trying to buy the building back from Lehi ever since. But the city plans to tear down the building, so he went on a quest to find just the right spot for Porter’s Place.
“It’s a unique restaurant. It wouldn’t fit in a generic restaurant building,” he said.
Trepanier looked all over the valley for another suitably old building to house the restaurant, but wasn’t happy until he found an old log building in the heart of Nephi.
“It was tough to find a good location and building that’d be suitable for the image of Porter Rockwell. But when we saw the building in Nephi we just knew that was it immediately,” Trepanier said.
Some question the move from the bustling boomtown that is Lehi, down to the quieter, smaller town of Nephi, in Juab County. But Trepanier is undeterred. He and his wife plan to relocate down to Nephi, and live in the home that’s part of the Nephi property. The building there is five times bigger than the Lehi building, with a stage and sizable property. Trepanier has a working narrow gauge steam locomotive that will rumble around the property.
“We’re a destination restaurant. Most people pass by numerous restaurants to get here,” Trepanier said. “The place in Nephi will have room for more Porter Rockwell-themed ideas, things we don’t have room for here.”
Trepanier is dedicated to Porter Rockwell’s legacy. He’s been fascinated with the iconic figure in LDS history longer than he’s owned the restaurant. He first learned about the man from an old 1940 movie, “Brigham Young,” with a very young Vincent Price playing Joseph Smith and John Carradine portraying Porter Rockwell. Stills from that movie hang in an upper gathering room of the Lehi restaurant.
Trepanier was not the original owner of Porter’s Place, though. Since its opening in 1971, the restaurant has been through multiple hands. Trepanier was a coal miner in Helper when he heard about the place and traveled up to visit it. After seeing the restaurant, he found the current owners’ contact info and told them to look him up whenever they decided to sell. That time came in 1986, and Trepanier has owned it for the past 30 years.
Over the years, Trepanier has become quite the Rockwell history buff. Replicas of the four known photographs of Rockwell hang in the restaurant, and he can tell restaurant patrons the stories behind every picture, every light fixture, even about the large mirror hanging behind the bar, the tractor stools lined up there, and the 100-year-old clock from the original Hotel Utah.
“This place is half museum,” he said with a laugh.
None of those pieces will be buried in the rubble of the Lehi building, though. As soon as they close their doors in June, Trepanier and his crew will strip the place of everything that makes it authentic — even up to the huge ceiling beams that aren’t actually holding up the roof but are just for show. They will cart all of it down to Nephi, where Trepanier said he plans to open for business in late July.
Trepanier plans on bringing some of his current staff of about 20 to the Nephi location. Wendy Raines is one of those employees staying in Lehi, but she said she is sad to say goodbye to Porter’s Place. In her work hostessing and waitressing for Trepanier, she said she feels like she’s been able to travel around the world a bit.
“The people are great here. We’ve had people in here from all over the world. I served a group just a while ago from Japan, and another from Germany. I love to hear their accents,” Raines said.
It will be a longer drive for tourists and history lovers this summer, but Trepanier is confident the draw of Porter Rockwell will bring them down to Nephi.
