Girls Who Smash Food Truck: Salt Lake City's Queer-Owned Smash Burger Revolution

There's a moment when you bite into a truly exceptional burger—the kind that makes you close your eyes and forget everything else exists. That moment happens daily at Girls Who Smash, Salt Lake City's trailblazing queer-owned food truck that's redefining what the best smash burger in Salt Lake City should taste like. When TikTok food influencer Darienne DeBrule declares "When I tell you this is THE best smash burger in SLC I mean it!", you know something special is happening in that mobile kitchen.

But this isn't just another food truck story. This is about two women who decided Salt Lake City deserved better burgers, built a business on authenticity, and created a community around crispy-edged patties and secret sauce that has people "boxing each other out for the last five burgers."

The Journey Behind Salt Lake City's Most Talked-About Food Truck

Cami Aglaure and Carly Porter didn't set out to revolutionize Salt Lake City's food truck scene. They started with a catering company, taking whatever jobs came their way, until one pivotal event changed everything. "We did one event where someone hired us and they were like, 'do whatever you want,' and we [decided], 'well, let's try a smashburger,'" Aglaure recalls.

The response was immediate and overwhelming. "We felt like we made a pretty solid one, so we tested it out at this event … and it blew up, there were people boxing each other out for the last five burgers. We had people DMing us for weeks trying to find out where to get more."

Porter's New York City experience proved crucial to their success. After "living in New York for five years, they wanted to make the smashburger they couldn't get in SLC." The technique she learned—taking a ball of ground beef and "smashing it as flat as you can get it, so the edges char and get crispy while the interior stays juicy"—became the foundation of their food truck empire.

The transition from catering to food truck wasn't smooth sailing in Salt Lake City's challenging regulatory environment. "Salt Lake City […] is not set up to be conducive to small food businesses," Aglaure shared. "We worked really hard to try to upgrade to a food truck, finally did it; it took about a year to get here."

The Girls Who Smash Experience: More Than Utah's Best Smash Burgers

Step up to the Girls Who Smash food truck window, and you're not just ordering a meal—you're joining a movement. The married couple behind the operation uses "fresh, never-frozen certified Angus beef" that gets the full smash treatment on a screaming-hot griddle. As the patties cook, they add "thinly sliced onions that 'almost melt into the patty,'" creating layers of flavor that build with each bite.

The magic happens when they flip those impossibly thin patties and add American cheese that melts into every craggy edge. But the real star? Their signature smash sauce—a "white 'slightly spicy aioli'" that Porter describes with the kind of secrecy usually reserved for family recipes. Customers consistently rave about this sauce, with food blogger recommendations to "make sure you get the smash sauce on it!"

The fries deserve their own paragraph. Cooked in beef tallow for maximum flavor, these aren't your typical food truck sides. Aglaure notes that "beef tallow gives them more flavor" than standard vegetable oil, creating the kind of crispy, rich fries that keep customers coming back.

But it's the newest menu addition that shows Girls Who Smash's playful creativity—Sapphic Spuds. These specialty fries come "topped with their smash sauce, pepperoncini, and caramelized onions," combining their signature flavors into something uniquely theirs.

The quality commitment runs deep. "People are craving food that is made with real ingredients — not a ton of crappy oils, not a ton of bad meat — just good quality meat, good quality butter, and different things that just make it taste good," Porter explains. It's this philosophy that sets them apart in Salt Lake City's competitive food truck landscape.

Building Community Through Salt Lake City's LGBTQ+ Food Scene

For Porter, Girls Who Smash represents something more significant than serving great burgers. "When I moved back [to Utah] that was me finally coming out to my Utah home and being able to be in the queer community here," she shares. The food truck became her vehicle for creating the safe space she wished existed.

The business name itself tells their story. Despite advice to "avoid alienating potential customers with their establishment name," Aglaure and Porter chose authenticity over broad appeal. "We're really queer centric, and we … figured that people would probably resonate with that," Aglaure explains. "We might be a little out of pocket, we might be a little provocative, but there was this person I ran into that just started chatting with me at a coffee shop, and he was like, 'provocative is amazing, you need to be provocative,' and that's something we've noticed. The queer community has shown up for us."

Their Instagram bio perfectly captures their spirit: "Just some sizzling Sapphos serving up life-changing smash burgers." It's cheeky, it's proud, and it's exactly the kind of representation that Porter notes is missing from Utah's business landscape.

The representation matters in a state where "fewer than 15% of businesses in Salt Lake City are owned by women"—one of the lowest percentages in the United States. Girls Who Smash isn't just challenging burger norms; they're challenging business norms too.

Finding Girls Who Smash Across Salt Lake City

Unlike traditional restaurants, tracking down Girls Who Smash requires a bit of detective work—but that's part of the fun. As a mobile food truck, their locations change daily, making their Instagram @girlswhosmashslc essential for burger hunters. They're regulars at Food Truck League events throughout the Salt Lake Valley, participating in the rotating park schedule that brings food trucks to neighborhoods from Herriman to North Salt Lake.

You'll find them at the Downtown Farmers Market at Pioneer Park, where they've joined the roster of premium vendors serving the Saturday crowd. They've also made appearances at International Women's Day events at All Together Skatepark, showing their commitment to community involvement beyond just serving food.

The best strategy? Follow their social media religiously. Their 7,145 Instagram followers have learned that Girls Who Smash posts their weekly schedule regularly, often with location updates throughout the day. The payoff for this mobile treasure hunt is worth it—especially when you sink your teeth into burgers that customers describe as genuinely life-changing.

For first-timers, the recommendation is simple: get the smash sauce. Whatever burger configuration you choose, that secret sauce transforms good into extraordinary. And definitely try those beef tallow fries—they're becoming almost as famous as the burgers themselves.

Planning Your Girls Who Smash Adventure

Location: Mobile throughout Salt Lake City area
Schedule: Check @girlswhosmashslc on Instagram for daily locations
Must-Order Items: Any smash burger with signature sauce, Sapphic Spuds, beef tallow fries
Pro Tip: Follow their social media for real-time location updates Best Times: Early arrival recommended—they're known to sell out

Girls Who Smash represents everything exciting about Salt Lake City's evolving food scene. They're authentic when others play it safe, they're community-focused when others chase profits, and they're serving the kind of smash burgers that make you understand why people were literally fighting over the last few at that first pop-up event. In a city that's rapidly growing and changing, Cami Aglaure and Carly Porter have created something genuinely special—a food truck that feeds both your body and your soul, one perfectly smashed burger at a time.

Their success proves that Salt Lake City is hungry for businesses that stand for something beyond profit. When you find their truck parked somewhere in the valley, you're not just getting Utah's best smash burger—you're supporting two women who refused to compromise their values for broader appeal and built something beautiful in the process.