No special bottles were uncorked, balloons flown or songs sung on Monday to celebrate the death sentence to private clubs announced that morning at the Capitol Building.
Multiple-establishment owner Steve McComb said, “Hallelujah” when asked, but couldn’t muster much enthusiasm.
The general reaction to the news among owners and managers of local private clubs was largely skepticism. In their view, club memberships were always stupid. No one deserves praise for ending stupidity. But other aspects of the state’s liquor laws still concern them.
“Sometimes when they change laws dramatically they take a step forward and several steps back,” McComb said. “Sweeping changes can sometimes create difficulties.”
The private club law was crazy, said Maxwell’s managing partner John Burdick.
Many are worried about the electronic scanners to be required by the same legislation.
“Scanners for people who look under 35? How are you going to enforce that?” questioned Sidecar owner Mike Wong. “It’s kind of vague and an added expense.”
Star Bar manager Danny Hill said he’s all for making sure young people use legitimate ID’s, but is concerned about international clients, like those from Brazil. Many don’t carry passports on them for safety reasons, and their foreign ID cards won’t scan, he said.
Matthew House, a manager at Maxwell’s, said he hates explaining private club memberships to out-of-state visitors, and now he’s anticipating having to explain the ID scanners to everyone.
All of the owners and managers interviewed said they believe the end of mandatory memberships will be good for business.
O’Shucks patron Joe Salad said that as a local he’s never had to buy a club membership in his 10 years in Park City. He just goes where people know him.
House said memberships only punish the establishments who obey the law. When he worked on Main Street, he saw visitors walk up and down the street until they found an establishment that didn’t ask for a membership. Now if people want to come to Maxwell’s, there’s no deterrent, he said.
Not requiring memberships will make visiting an establishment an easier decision and will be good for all businesses, Wong said.
But the queerness of Utah’s alcohol laws won’t die with the end of private clubs, Maxwell’s chef Warren Willey pointed out.
Maxwell’s has an 80-foot bar, but also several large booths for families to sit together – and they do. He said people from out-of-state comment on how normal it feels to be in a family-friendly bar. He’s perplexed by rhetoric from legislators about keeping children away from the serving of alcohol to protect them.
In other states, drinking habits are something taught in the home and the set-up of a bar or restaurant is not considered to have any effect on that.
“Drinking habits are based on how you raise your child, not a child seeing alcohol,” he said. “The children in here watch us tossing pizzas, not the bar.”
McComb said laws that prevent children from being in private clubs have made it difficult to provide waiting areas for families at his Bistro 412. With limited space, he had to tell families to wait out in the cold and snow because they weren’t allowed to stand in the empty club area.
Owners and managers were also frustrated about how little the new laws will change in regards to the requirements to serve food in clubs, limits on ounces served and the purchase of “near beer.”
The changes, mostly encompassed in Substitute Senate Bill 187 sponsored by Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, will address fees, insurance requirements, state liquor store policies, the creation of resort licenses and the end of “Zion curtains” in existing restaurants – among other things. But little will change with other aspects of Utah’s liquor laws that are considered weird or inconvenient.
Besides electronic scanners, other new changes will prohibit any new restaurants, restaurants that remodel, or restaurants that lapse in their liquor licenses to not have a bar of any kind.
Summit County’s senators expect the bill to sail through the legislature with little opposition and few changes.
Senate Minority Leader Patricia Jones, D-Salt Lake City, said on Monday that behind-doors meetings about the issue were very inclusive. People she talked to in the hospitality and restaurant industries were pleased with the direction the state is headed, she said.
Sen. Kevin Van Tassle, R-Vernal, who represents Summit County said the bill includes everything he anticipated and doesn’t expect anyone to try to make amendments to it.
“We’re running out of time,” he explained.
He said the bill is “significant progress” and “should play well for Park City restaurants and clubs.”
Senator Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, who also represents Summit, said it “sounds great.”
“I’m glad the people running it are running it, because no one else could handle it in this state,” he said.
Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. joked at the press conference on Monday that the only other negotiations he’d ever been in that matched these for complexity, sensitivity and confusion was getting the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan to join the World Trade Organization.
Read the new alcohol bill at www.le.utah.gov. Substitute SB 187 by Sen. Valentine.