Riverdale Road’s evolution as hot spot for dining, new businesses continues
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- Shake Shack, pictured Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, is now open at 4142 S. Riverdale Road.
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- A new i.d.k. Barbecue location, pictured Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, is under construction at 1140 W. Riverdale Road.
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- The Tesla Riverdale Automotive Center, pictured Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, is under construction at 4581 S. 1500 West in Riverdale.
RIVERDALE — Riverdale Road and the surrounding area has long been one of Northern Utah’s busiest commercial hubs. In recent years, the corridor has seen an influx of new businesses, particularly with the addition of several popular restaurants.
Mike Eggett, Riverdale’s community development director, told the Standard-Examiner in September 2022 that the area had experienced “abnormal growth” in terms of the sheer number of new businesses entering the fray.
Flash forward to 2024 and while Eggett says that things have “calmed down a little bit,” he maintains that continued expansion and evolution are part of the corridor’s profile.
“It’s just a dynamic area. Every time we think things are slowing down, something new pops up.”
In December, it was Shake Shack that popped up for local residents. Construction at the burger and shake chain’s 4142 Riverdale Road location was completed, and the area’s appetite for its “fast casual” fare is apparent from the restaurant’s dinner-rush street view, when vehicles populate drive-thru lanes on loop.
People who live and/or commute along Riverdale Road can look forward to a further culinary diversification in the not-so-distant future, too.
With established locations in Tropic and Huntsville, and another in Ogden that opened in April 2022 but didn’t pan out, i.d.k. Barbecue is now coming to Riverdale. Construction on the new restaurant, which offers “small-town, All-American barbecue,” is now underway at 1140 W. Riverdale Road, Suite E, just a stone’s throw away from the recently opened Super Chix.
According to Eggett, another “unique and interesting” establishment will be among the next wave of eateries coming to the area — Chuck E. Cheese, the family entertainment center and pizza restaurant first conceptualized in the late 1970s by Clearfield native and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.
Construction on the Chuck E. Cheese is slated to begin in February in the area of the Riverdale Shopping Center at 4095 Riverdale Road.
Up the street at 4021 Riverdale Road, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream has been serving up sweet scoops of dairy delights since opening Nov. 9.
It’s not just new restaurants that are coming to Riverdale, though. Other major businesses have been attracted to the area as well.
The Tesla Riverdale Automotive Center to be located at 4581 S. 1500 West is currently under construction. Just down the block, work also has begun on America First Credit Union’s new Administrative Operations building at 4624 S. 1500 West.
Thrive Appliance, Ashley Furniture, Empowered Body Works and Bricks & Minifigs are among the other business that will be setting up shop on the strip.
Residents hoping for an update on a Trader Joe’s location one day coming to Riverdale — of which there are many on social media — will have to keep that on their wish lists for now. Eggett says there’s nothing new to report on that front at this time.