The first Queer Food Feastival, back when it was known as the Queer Food Festival, happened in 2019. The second festival was scheduled for March 28, 2020, which ended up being the day after Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall issued a mandatory shelter-at-home order for city residents because of COVID-19.
Needless to say, that event was postponed.
When the local-centric festival was able to return, it was an opportunity to “break bread together and not worry, just celebrate and think about abundance,” said organizer Liz Pitts, president and CEO of the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce.
This year’s Queer Food Feastival, as the event is now known, will feature 20 LGBTQ- and ally-owned Utah food vendors. It will be held Friday, May 10, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Mountain West Cider, at 425 N. 400 West in Salt Lake City’s Marmalade neighborhood.
Festival attendees will get what Pitts calls a “mini taste of Salt Lake,” or samples of food from all 20 vendors, plus a complimentary specialty cocktail as well as entertainment. Tickets to the 21+ event — which must be purchased in advance, as no tickets will be available at the door — are $35 for chamber members and $45 for nonmembers. Discounted tickets for $20 are available to anyone who needs them, no questions asked.
Tickets will be available until they sell out, or until 12:01 a.m. Friday.
SLC gets a queer food festival
The first Queer Food Festival was the idea of Moudi Sbeity, a former owner of Mediterranean restaurant Laziz Kitchen. Back in 2019, Laziz Kitchen was being featured in Jarry, a Brooklyn-based print-only queer food journal, and Sbeity wanted to do an event in Utah around the article, said Pitts, who was with the Utah Pride Center at the time.
The event was “wonderful and fun,” Pitts said, and the proceeds benefited the Utah Pride Center.
In 2021, Pitts became the president of the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, and they went back to Sbeity and told him the chamber wanted to continue the event “because we’re promoting and supporting our local, queer and allied businesses,” they said.
With Sbeity’s blessing, the event, with the new name of Queer Food Feastival, returned in 2022.
Since then, the annual festival “has grown in size and in scope, as we really refined that this is an event intended to bring together community, celebrate [and] have fun,” Pitts said.
This year, about half of the proceeds of the event (after the food vendors and entertainers are compensated) will go to the chamber and its nonprofit Safe Zone Utah, which offers free LGBTQ inclusivity trainings to small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
‘Loud, proud and out and about’
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jordan Starks, a trans man who operates his burger truck, Bad Boy Burger Co., prepares one of his signature mushroom burgers in Layton, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The Queer Food Feastival, set for May 10, is gathering food makers who are LGBTQ+ and allies.
Jordan Starks has been a vendor at the Queer Food Feastival before, running his parents’ food truck, Fry Me to the Moon. But he said it had always been his dream to participate with his own food truck, at this event and others.
He’s been running food trucks since he was 22, he said, but this year, at age 30, he struck out on his own and started Bad Boy Burger Co., a new vendor at the festival this year.
Starks, who transitioned four years ago, said he “wanted to use this truck as an opportunity to get involved with the community and reach out to a different group of people, more relatable to me. And it’s been going really well, actually. So it’s been very cool.”
He said he typically donates a portion of his funds every week to a worthy cause; in April he raised money to support a friend in their transition process. He also has a goal of starting an LGBTQ resource center in Davis County, where he lives.
Using his culinary school experience, Starks cooks up such gourmet burgers as The Smooth Talker, which is a ⅓-pound burger served on a locally baked brioche bun and topped with melted Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, mushrooms and garlic aioli. He also offers vegan and gluten-free options.
Pitts said Utah’s queer food scene is growing and becoming “more visible,” and Starks is part of that movement.
“I want to show people like, ‘Hey, we could do this. We’re here. We could be loud, proud and out and about,’” he said.
Here is a complete list of the rest of the festival’s vendors:
• Flanker Kitchen + Sporting Club.
• Kahve Cafe.
• Xiao Bao Bao.
• La Lupe.
• Skillets.
• Sushi Squad.
