FAQs

🍽️ Food Policy

Menu48 lists food items that are made in-house by the business.

This includes:

• cooked meals
• breakfast items
• appetizers and entrees
• baked goods and desserts
• sandwiches, wraps, and handhelds
• scratch-made sides

Because restaurants prepare their food in their own kitchens, most food items naturally qualify for Menu48.

🥤 Beverage Policy

Menu48 lists beverages only if they are homemade, locally crafted, or produced by a local beverage maker.

This includes:

• homemade sodas
• dirty sodas (Utah definitely knows what these are—trust us!)
• homemade lemonades, teas, and juices
• fresh-pressed drinks
• scratch-made smoothies
• coffees roasted by the business or a local roaster
• beverages such as craft beer, wine, and cider

National or regional brand beverages served in their standard form—even when sold by a locally owned restaurant—are not listed.

🍨 Ice Cream Policy

Ice cream shops are treated differently because many do not make their own products.

Menu48 highlights only authentic Artisan or Farmstead Artisan ice cream, not mass-produced national or regional brands.

Menu48 lists ice cream shops only if their ice cream meets one of the following standards:

🅐 Artisan

• Ice cream that is crafted and churned on-site in small batches.
• Shops may use a neutral dairy base mix (milk/cream/sugar), but all flavors and final ice cream must be created in-house.
• This includes traditional homemade-style ice cream shops that make their product from a base mix.

🅑 Farmstead Artisan

• Ice cream produced by a farmstead or micro-creamery.
• These businesses make their own base mix or use milk from their own herd.
• Ice cream is churned on-site using small-batch methods.

🅒 Locally Sourced

• Ice cream sourced from a local Artisan or Farmstead Artisan producer.
• Not from a national or regional commercial brand.
• Shops in this category do not make the ice cream themselves but support nearby small-batch creameries meeting Menu48 standards.

❌ Not Eligible

• scoop pre-made national or regional commercial brands (Perry’s, Hershey’s, Byrne Dairy, Hood, Turkey Hill, etc.)
• flavor or mix into pre-made ice cream
• assemble sundaes but do not make or source Artisan/Farmstead Artisan ice cream
• use “homemade” or similar terms without actually making or sourcing qualifying ice cream

These do not meet Menu48’s ice cream standards.

🍧 Restaurants Serving Ice Cream Desserts

Restaurants may list desserts that include ice cream even if the ice cream is commercially sourced.

However, only desserts made with Artisan, Farmstead Artisan, or Locally Sourced ice cream will receive a badge.

Restaurants using commercial ice cream may still list their dessert items—they simply do not receive an ice cream badge.