This article is excerpted from the Utah Eats newsletter. To get the full newsletter every Wednesday, subscribe at sltrib.com/newsletters.
Hello, Eaters! There’s a new vendor inside Woodbine Food Hall, at 545 W. 700 South in the Granary District: Salt City Barbecue opened up shop a little over a week ago, and I sat down with pitmaster and owner Rusty Monson to talk about his barbecue.
Monson said he got his start in barbecue as a kid growing up in Lehi. Back then, it was common for people to hunt deer, he said, and the best way to make venison taste good is to smoke it. He would help his grandfather smoke deer and whole chickens, and his grandfather would sell the meat to bars as a side business.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rusty Monson at Salt City Barbecue in the Woodbine Food Hall, Salt Lake City on Friday, March 21, 2025.
“He would sell out immediately, and then we’d go back to injecting and brining and smoking the next day, and it was just something I’ve always liked,” Monson said.
After he went to culinary school, Monson wanted to get into competition barbecue, so he traveled to Kansas City to learn from the greats Brad Leighninger and Tim Scheer.
Monson started out in amateur backyard competitions, then moved to the professional division, receiving two Grand Champions (first place) and four Reserve Grand Champions (second place).
In 2021, Monson started Salt City Barbecue as a food truck, which still travels all over. He won Best Ribs in Salt Lake City Weekly’s Best of Utah in 2023 and 2024, as well as Best Barbecue in Best of State Utah 2024.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt City Barbecue in the Woodbine Food Hall, Salt Lake City on Friday, March 21, 2025.
Monson said his barbecue can be described as Kansas City-style, which includes a sweet, tomato-based sauce, as well as burnt ends, among its trademarks.
Anytime he wants to step up a recipe, he said he falls back on his competition experience, drawing from a wide variety of techniques to amp up the flavor.
His most popular items on his menu are the smoked cheddar kielbasa (which is made from scratch over a three-day process), the ribs and the nachos.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sweet BBQ Nachos at Salt City Barbecue in the Woodbine Food Hall, Salt Lake City on Friday, March 21, 2025.
The ribs are St. Louis cut, seasoned with Monson’s homemade rub and smoked over white oak wood, then finished in a wrap of brown sugar, butter and honey.
You can order the nachos with your choice of pulled pork, chicken or sausage, which is piled on top of corn chips, queso and pickled jalapenos. “We get people who would drive from all over to get those things,” Monson said, describing his nachos. Almost everything on the menu is made from scratch.
To see where the Salt City Barbecue food truck is going to be selling “barbecue that doesn’t suck,” go to SaltCityBBQ.co or follow Salt City Barbecue on Instagram at @saltcitybarbecue.
Live deliciously,
Kolbie
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Food News
• Do you remember the Rainbow Snow shaved ice stands? These colorful stands were once ubiquitous across northern Utah on hot summer days in the 1980s and ‘90s, with more than 150 stands operating around the country. Now, Rainbow Snow is having a comeback, and new shaved ice stands with wheels will enter production in April, according to a news release. In the meantime, I’d like to know: Do you have any memories about Rainbow Snow that you could share? Email me at kpeterson@sltrib.com.
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Booze (and Drink!) News
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Dish of the Week
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pulled Pork, Cheddar Kielbasa Sausage and Chopped Brisket at Salt City Barbecue in the Woodbine Food Hall, Salt Lake City on Friday, March 21, 2025.
Wanting to get the full Salt City Barbecue experience, I ordered the three-meat plate, with pulled pork, sausage and brisket. I loved the pulled pork; it was smoky and a little sweet and so meaty, just perfect when dunked into Rusty Monson’s homemade barbecue sauce. And that potato salad was something else, full of dill and the kind of flavor you’d get at a picnic in the summer. You can’t beat this plate.
P.S. The ribs were dynamite, too — I stole one off my dining companion’s plate.
Follow @@kolbiejpeterson
