Modern Forage: Salt Lake City, UT
Crown Burgers (the SLC restaurant) coined the pastrami-on-burger Crownburger. Funeral Potatoes are the LDS post-funeral-luncheon casserole, with 2002 Olympic collector pins shaped like the dish. Dirty Soda emerged from LDS abstention from alcohol and coffee; Swig (founded 2010, St. George) and Sodalicious pioneered the format.
Salt Lake City and Utah’s LDS food culture anchor three dishes: the Crown-Burgers-coined pastrami Crownburger, the LDS-funeral-luncheon Funeral Potatoes (with 2002 Olympic collector pins), and the Swig-Sodalicious Dirty Soda movement.
This list is almost certainly incomplete; Salt Lake City and Utah hold further hyper-local dishes that have not yet surfaced in the survey.
A note on the Where-to-eat blocks. Every entry below carries a list of restaurants and, where available, star ratings as of the date this post was published. These are a snapshot. Verify hours and addresses before driving anywhere.
Crownburger — Salt Lake City, UT
A pastrami burger. A standard burger topped with sliced pastrami and Thousand Island-style fry sauce. Specific to Salt Lake City’s diner culture, particularly Crown Burgers (the restaurant that coined the concept). “Fry sauce” itself (a mayo-ketchup blend, often with spices) is a broader Utah/Idaho thing, but the pastrami crown burger is hyper-local to SLC.
Sources: John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog (2023); multiple Utah food guides.
Where to eat: Crown Burgers, multiple SLC locations (the canonical pastrami crown burger). Apollo Burger, multiple SLC locations.
Funeral Potatoes — Utah (statewide)
A cheesy potato casserole: hash browns or shredded potatoes, canned cream of chicken soup, sour cream, cheddar cheese, topped with crushed cornflakes. Named for its ubiquity at post-funeral luncheons in LDS (Latter-day Saint) congregations, though now served at every church potluck, family reunion, and ward event. Relief Society cookbooks cemented the recipe statewide. The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City featured funeral potato-shaped collector pins. Eric Eliason, a BYU folklore professor, documented the dish in This Is the Plate, his book on Utah food culture. Potato casseroles exist elsewhere, but the name and its cultural embeddedness in LDS community life are uniquely Utahn.
Sources: Deseret News (2017, 2022); BYU Magazine (2022, Eric Eliason); Mormonr (2025); Visit Salt Lake (2025); City Journals (2024); KSL (2014). Seven+ sources.
Where to eat: Most Utah restaurants don’t serve funeral potatoes (it’s home cooking), but Penny Ann’s Cafe, Salt Lake City carries it as a side. Best at LDS ward events and Utah church potlucks.
Dirty Soda — Utah (statewide, spreading)
Fountain soda mixed with flavored syrups, cream, and/or fruit purees at drive-through soda shops. A “Dirty Diet Coke” typically comes with coconut syrup, lime, and a splash of cream. Swig (founded 2010, St. George) and Sodalicious pioneered the format. Dozens of competing chains now operate across Utah and the Mountain West. Born from LDS culture’s abstention from alcohol and coffee. Soda shops became the social gathering space that bars fill elsewhere. Church historian Kate Holbrook observed that soda shops embody “fitting in and intentionally failing to fit in.” Olivia Rodrigo’s order at Swig went viral in 2023. The concept has started spreading nationally but remains most deeply embedded in Utah/Idaho LDS communities.
Sources: Deseret News (2022); Mormonr (2025); City Journals (2024); Visit Salt Lake (2025). Five+ sources.
Where to eat: Swig (multiple Utah and Mountain West locations; the St. George 2010 origin chain). Sodalicious, Provo (rival pioneer). FiiZ Drinks.
More from the series
Browse the rest of the Modern Forage survey.
Research & primary sources
Methodology, validation logs, and the entries that didn’t make this post are in the modern_forage/ on GitHub. Every entry here passed a 2+ independent-source check; the citations under each dish list them.