Earlier this year, Mara and I found the place where the Cook Tent Cafe (the original Cafe Decay!) once stood, just off the highway in Thompson Springs, UT.
The photos above show the Cafe during her first visit in 2007 and her second in 2014. (This post features more photos of her original 2007 visit. The rest of the photos below are from 2014.)
It took us a while to find the spot. The structure itself was gone, from even a short distance the land undifferentiated from the surrounding expanse of scrub grass and weed.
We drove around a bit. Eventually, the battered sign led us to the foundation. From there, we reconstructed how the old Cafe had been situated, pictured in our minds the stools, the toaster, the hot plate.
Mara chatted with the women at the new gas station on the highway access road. We learned that the place had been burned down and demolished as part of a training exercise for the local volunteer fire department.
Cafe Decay 
I wondered if the Cook Tent was still standing! My dad leased the restaurant for a short time in 1980. I was eight years old and used to waitress and buss tables after school. ILast year I found a photo of me sitting on the log railing of the entrance of the Cook Tent. We lived in a rickety house between the brick cafe building and the hotel. My sister and I would often scrounge for change and go next door to the cafe and split a burger and play foosball. We discovered a local pond up the road that was covered in lily pads but that didn’t keep the local kids from swimming in it. We only lived here for about a year before we returned to California. Thanks for sharing your amazing photos and allowing me to reminisce!
Debra
I loved reading your story. Thank you so much for sharing! I’ve visited this old cafe more than once and you can’t help but wonder what is was like back in its day.
Thanks for sharing always wondered what was here while walking the dogs. That basement has been buried recently, the sign is about the only thing left. Do you happen to know how long It had been there?