Longtime East Valley restaurant The Landmark in Mesa to close May 31

By Jess Harter Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Post image for Longtime East Valley restaurant The Landmark in Mesa to close May 31

Owners Don and Candy Ellis, New Hampshire natives who bought the iconic restaurant in 1981, announced it will close May 31.

The Landmark truly is a landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Located on the southwest corner of Extension and Main, about a half-mile west of downtown Mesa, the red building began life as a Mormon church in 1908.

The small complex — the original building was joined by a recreational hall in the 1920s and a smaller meeting hall in the ’30s — has gone through several incarnations.

In 1963, it housed Phoenix College’s first Mesa branch, which later became Mesa Community College.

Since 1972, though, it’s been a restaurant. It was called Roach’s Schoolhouse Restaurant when taken over by the Ellises, who gave it the most recent name.

LandmarkSaladBar

For the past 30 years, the menu has featured old-fashioned American comfort foods, such as beef stroganoff, braised pot roast, and stuffed meatloaf.

Its signature menu item, though, has been its award-winning salad bar, a cornucopia of hot and cold salads, side dishes, soups, and pastries that takes up an entire room (partially shown above).

The Ellises have sold the complex to a Peoria company that will use it as a wedding venue.

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