Beloved local restaurant is forced to close its doors due to rising costs

Due to rising costs, Diabla’s Kitchen will be closing its doors. | Kaitlyn Hart, EastIdahoNews.com
IDAHO FALLS – Diabla’s Kitchen, a much-loved local restaurant, is officially closing its doors after 11 years.
Owner and chef, Deanna Brower, tells EastIdahoNews.com that due to rent increases and a hefty increase on the price of food in the past couple years, maintaining the restaurant became impossible.
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“From 2020 until now, my rent has tripled,” says Brower, who has been running Diabla’s Kitchen since 2011. “And between that, food costs raising and everything else, I just got to the point where I was behind on my rent.”
Brower also said she has been tasked with almost $50,000 in repairs in the last two years.
“Besides the increase in rent, my landlord does not pay for maintenance or repairs,” Brower says. “I’ve been tasked with roughly $50,000 to make the building usable in any form.”
On Thursday, Aug. 4, Diabla’s Kitchen was served a three-day eviction notice, meaning everything needed to be removed from the building within three days.
“I asked to please be able to stay until Aug. 15 to move my stuff, so I now have until midnight on the 15th to move everything,” Brower says.
Brower began a catering company in 2009 with the help of her family, and in 2011 they were able to open Diabla’s Kitchen in downtown Idaho Falls. In 2020, they moved the restaurant to a bigger location right on the Greenbelt.
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“It’s a lot of shock, a lot of sadness. My family, my children, this has been a huge part of their lives. My children were 7 and 9 when I started, so this has been their entire life,” says Brower. “This has been half of my husband and I’s marriage that we’ve spent doing this.”

Deana and Doug Brower, owners of Diabla’s Kitchen. | Photo Courtesy of Deana Brower.
Diabla’s Kitchen has been a staple in the Idaho Falls community since its opening, being one of the biggest and most popular catering options around and a must-go when dining out.
“There’s an incredible sadness for my staff; they were very suddenly unemployed,” says Brower. “They’re still working through some things with me for these next few days, but it was hard for them because they didn’t have notice either.”
Brower is holding a sale at the restaurant on Saturday, Aug. 13, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., to sell many of her decorations, furniture and equipment from the restaurant.
“I’m going to sell some of the wall decor, some of the chairs, I’m selling a lot of equipment and I have tons of dishes and utensils because I can only fit so much in my garage at home,” says Brower. “So I can keep some things, but I won’t be able to keep everything.”
Brower says all catering orders through December will be honored and that multiple community members have offered up their kitchens to her to help her fulfill those commitments.
When thinking about the future of her restaurant career, Brower says it’s time for a new chapter.
“I just need a little bit of a break after all of these years to regroup and refocus on any next chapter that there is,” Brower says. “The positive that I’m trying to look towards is now I can walk around the river instead of just looking at it through the windows.”
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Source: eastidahonews.com