Sill’s Cafe – One of Layton oldest restaurants still thrives

                                      Sill's Cafe at its current Gentile Street location.

A common complaint at Sill's Cafe used to have nothing to with the quality and quantity of the food.

Rather, it involved wanting the cozy, old-style eatery, when it was located at 281 South Main Street to expand and modernize.

Layton's famed "Restaurant Row" with its big-name chain restaurants such as Applebee's, the Cracker Barrel, Red Robin and others, has put some longtime city eating establishments out of business and has caused others to change their menus or facilities to keep up.

But Sill's, one of Layton's two oldest restaurants, continues to do what it did when it started back in 1954 - offer homemade food, lots of it, in a neighborly atmosphere.

Sill’s used to be located on the far southeast end of Main Street. However, the Layton Parkway project forced it to relocate in the former Pizza Hut building at 335 East Gentile Street. That actually increased its space slightly and modernized it.

Kim Sill, one of the owners of Layton’s Sill’s Café, stands in the back of a pickup truck at the front of the café, probably in the 1980s, at its original 281 South Main Street location. 

"We do everything from scratch. Homemade," owner/manager John Sill said in 1998. "We try to keep it personal."

Farmers, cowboys, construction workers, truckers, businessmen, families and high school students all come here. Customers from Salt Lake City to Idaho are common.

The atmosphere is relaxed. People don't worry so much about getting in and out quickly. The cafe is in a more calm part of town and it shows.

Why do customers love it?

"I think it's a very nice place," Len Goodman of Kaysville said. "They have very good service."

He's been going there to breakfast for many years and loves their scones that drip with honey butter. And Sill's bacon and eggs aren't too bad either, Goodman said.

Danny Evans of Layton is another veteran Sill's customer.

He favors the place because it opens so early in the morning.

"They let me in by 4 a.m.," he said, explaining he has to be to work early.

He said by 5 a.m. the place can be full. "They have real good food, too."

(The only other place Evans used to eat at was across Main Street at Doug and Emmy's, another diner co-owned by John Sill's sister, Emmy. Its menu was similar to Sill's Cafe's, but it has since closed.)

Layton's newest restaurants don't excite him, Evans said. He said he only goes to them when it's a late dinner and his two favorite diners are already closed.

Sill's father, Golden Sill Sr., had a home moved in and then built the cafe next door on South Main Street, in 1954. He operated the business for about three decades, until another son, Kim, took it over from 1985 to 1993.

John Sill has operated it ever since.

There have been a few times the cafe has been leased out to others, but it has always remained under ownership of a Sill.

There are plenty of nostalgic family photographs and newspaper clippings on the wall of the diner.

Another thing you're likely to notice is the size of the sweet rolls and scones. The scones are 8 inches across and the sweet rolls are larger at almost a foot.

The cafe specializes in breakfast. That attracts a large crowd.

Lunchtime is almost as busy, but dinner business falls off. "Other places do affect us for dinner, but that's all," Sill said.

Some selections on the breakfast menu are named after regular customers who kept ordering the same thing.

For example, there's "Dale's breakfast" - two slices of bacon, one egg, hash browns and a scone and there's "Matt's breakfast," - one scrambled egg with cheese, hash browns with gravy and wheat toast.

Dale May is a Layton police officer. Matt Curry is a brother-in-law of Sill.

Then there's the "Boss's Breakfast" - four slices of bacon, two scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns and a scone. It's what his brother Kim Sill, who used to operate the cafe, regularly ate.

Plenty of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and pancakes fill the breakfast plates.

For lunch, the cafe employed 15 people and offered hot beef, hamburgers and hamburger steak - with plenty of potatoes, gravy or fries back in 1998. Dinner was the same.

When he took over the cafe, John Sill said he was worried about the influx of newer restaurants in the city hurting his business.

But he said, you could probably open another Sill's Cafe in town and still not keep up with the breakfast demand.

"We like to fill up the plate," John Sill said simply. "People like to get what they pay for."

-Note: This story has been updated and was originally published in the Deseret News by Lynn Arave and May 1, 1998.