Signature Dishes of Salt Lake City

Must-try dishes

Crown pastrami burger

The Crown pastrami burger is a quarter-pound cheeseburger loaded with hot pastrami, lettuce, tomato, onion and Thousand Island dressing on a sesame bun.

History: Nick Katsanevas and brother-in-law John Katzourakis opened Crown Burgers in 1978, converting a downtown hot-dog stand and putting the pastrami burger on their menu. The dish itself was first served at Minos Burgers in Anaheim by James Katsanevas, who learned the build from a Los Angeles cook; Crown Burgers brought the Greek-American pastrami-on-cheeseburger to Utah and codified it. The hybrid (pastrami plus American cheeseburger plus fry sauce) defines Salt Lake's casual food canon. By the 2020s, seven Crown Burgers locations served the dish across Utah; Apollo Burger built a competing pastrami burger empire at a lower price point.

Where to try it: Crown Burgers, Apollo Burger, Red Iguana

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Fry sauce

Fry sauce is Utah's defining condiment: roughly equal parts mayonnaise and ketchup, sometimes with sweet pickle relish, served with every order of French fries from Crown Burgers to Apollo to fast-food drive-throughs statewide.

History: Don Carlos Edwards, founder of the Arctic Circle burger chain, invented fry sauce in 1948 at his Salt Lake counter when a customer asked for mayonnaise mixed into the ketchup. Within a decade the condiment spread across Utah; by the 1980s every Wasatch-front burger counter, drive-through and even McDonald's franchises in Utah served it. The 50/50 mayo-and-ketchup ratio is the canonical form, though commercial brands add pickle relish, paprika or buttermilk.

Where to try it: Crown Burgers, Apollo Burger, Pretty Bird Hot Chicken

Watch out for: Egg

Red Iguana mole

Red Iguana's mole sauces are the Salt Lake Mexican canon: mole negro, mole verde, mole amarillo, mole poblano and four to six other variants rotating.

History: The Cardenas family opened Red Iguana on West North Temple in 1985, building on their 1965 family Mexican restaurant tradition. The kitchen offers at least eight distinct moles, drawn from Mexico's Oaxacan and central states, simultaneously. Red Iguana is Utah's most awarded restaurant and the editorial flagship of Salt Lake's Mexican food culture, a multiyear Best of State Mexican winner.

Where to try it: Red Iguana, Red Iguana 2

Watch out for: Tree nuts, Sesame

Funeral potatoes

Funeral potatoes are a casserole of hash brown potatoes, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, shredded cheddar cheese and crushed cornflakes or potato chips.

History: Funeral potatoes evolved within the Latter-day Saint Relief Society community-feeding tradition through the mid-20th century. The casserole became canonical at post-funeral receptions across Utah, hence the name, but moved into wedding receptions, holiday potlucks and any large community meal. The dish is sometimes called Mormon potatoes outside Utah; locally, the funeral-potatoes name is sincere and unironic, recognizing the casserole's central role in community grief-feeding.

Where to try it: Crown Burgers, Red Iguana, Pat's Barbecue

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Utah scone

The Utah scone is a yeasted dough deep-fried into a puffy, hollow square or oval, served hot with honey butter, jam or savory chili. Unlike British scones.

History: The Utah scone evolved from the pioneer-era fry bread tradition crossed with European yeasted dough traditions brought by 19th-century Mormon immigrants. By the 1950s, the puffy yeasted Utah scone was a staple of Wasatch-front cafes, ski-resort lodges, and pioneer-day celebrations. Honey butter, made from whipped butter and Utah honey, is the canonical condiment.

Where to try it: Penny Ann's Cafe, The Park Cafe

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Pretty Bird hot chicken sandwich

The Pretty Bird hot chicken sandwich is a Nashville-style fried chicken thigh dusted with cayenne-based hot powder, layered on a brioche bun with pickle and slaw, in five heat levels from plain to face-burning.

History: Chef Viet Pham, an Iron Chef America veteran and multi-time James Beard Best Chef Southwest semifinalist for his earlier Forage SLC restaurant, opened Pretty Bird Hot Chicken on Regent Street in 2018, bringing chef-driven Nashville-style hot chicken to Salt Lake. The concept built on Pham's training at Forage. By 2025 Pretty Bird operated in Downtown, Sugar House, Park City and Midvale and won the Best Fried Chicken in Utah from Food and Wine Magazine.

Where to try it: Pretty Bird Hot Chicken

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Utah whiskey old-fashioned

The Utah Old Fashioned is built around High West Distillery's bourbon or rye whiskey, with sugar, Angostura bitters, orange peel and a Luxardo cherry over a single large ice cube. Park City's High West gives the Utah variant a regional whiskey identity.

History: High West Distillery, founded by David and Jane Perkins in 2006, became Utah's first legal distillery since 1870. Its Park City saloon opened in 2008 in a historic livery stable, and by 2015 the Wanship distillery on Blue Sky Ranch was producing High West's award-winning whiskeys. The Utah cocktail scene built around High West's bourbon, rye and Campfire whiskey blends, codifying a regional Old Fashioned identity at downtown bars including Bar X, Post Office Place and Beerhive Pub.

Where to try it: Bar X, Post Office Place, Beerhive Pub

Greek pastrami gyro

The Salt Lake gyro at Crown Burgers and Apollo combines vertical-rotisserie lamb-and-beef gyro meat with pastrami, tomato, onion, cucumber tzatziki and pita bread, a Greek-Mormon-Lebanese fusion identifying the local Greek-American counter idiom.

History: Greek Orthodox immigrants arrived in Utah in waves from the late 1800s, building Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1925 and the annual Salt Lake Greek Festival since 1976. Greek-American burger counters including Crown Burgers (1978) and Apollo Burger (1980s) brought the gyro spit to Utah burger culture, blending it with the pastrami burger and fry sauce into a distinctive local Greek-American counter idiom.

Where to try it: Crown Burgers, Apollo Burger, Manoli's

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Wasatch craft beer

Utah's craft beer scene operates under a 5% ABV draft cap, with Squatters, Wasatch, Uinta, Red Rock, Epic, TF, Fisher, Kiitos and Proper breweries producing pilsners, lagers, IPAs and stouts that work within the constraint to deliver bright drinkable beer.

History: Squatters Pub Brewery opened in 1989 as Utah's first post-Prohibition brewpub, breaking ground for the state's craft brewing renaissance. The 5% ABV draft limit (federal-stricter than the rest of the country) constrains the industry but spawned innovation in low-ABV beer styles. By 2026, 30+ breweries operate across Wasatch Front; the annual Utah Beer Festival at the Gateway draws 200+ beer pours and 50+ breweries.

Where to try it: Squatters Pub Brewery, Epic Brewing Company, Uinta Brewing Company, Fisher Brewing Company

Watch out for: Gluten

Pioneer Day BBQ

Pioneer Day BBQ on July 24 commemorates the 1847 Mormon arrival in Salt Lake Valley with community-scale grilling: smoked brisket, slow-cooked beans.

History: Pioneer Day is Utah's official state holiday since 1849, commemorating Brigham Young and the first Latter-day Saint pioneers arriving in Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. The day's BBQ tradition emerged from community feeding at parades, rodeos and church-yard gatherings, blending traditional American summer BBQ with Mormon community-meal traditions. The Days of '47 Parade is the largest in the state; Pat's Barbecue and Crown Burgers cater Pioneer Day events citywide.

Where to try it: Pat's Barbecue, Crown Burgers, The Park Cafe

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy