Restaurateurs in Park City are against legislation that would make them construct 10-foot-high walls to hide alcoholic drinks being prepared in their establishments.
The legislation would strengthen a law which already prohibits drinks from being served to restaurant patrons over the bar and requires servers walk around a barrier deemed the Zion Curtain.
A Senate committee passed Senate Bill 187, sponsored by state Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, with a unanimous vote. The bill will now be debated on the Senate floor.
Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, a Republican who represents Park City, voted for the bill as a member of the Senate Business and Labor Committee.
“It has to have major revisions before I could support it on the Senate floor,” Van Tassell said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Every member of the committee said they have some real concerns with it and some major changes will come.”
Supporters of the bill hope kids who do not see alcoholic beverages mixed in restaurants will not be lured into drinking at a young age.
But requiring drinks to be prepared behind 10-foot-high walls or in backrooms would cost restaurateurs in Park City a bundle, said Grub Steak owner Hans Fuegi, head of the Utah Restaurant Association’s liquor task force.
“It just makes no sense to either have to build a 10-foot wall, or move all the preparation of liquor into the back of the house,” Fuegi said in a telephone interview. “It would generate a fairly major expense for every restaurant that has an arrangement where they prepare alcohol in the front of the house. In some cases it may not be feasible and in any case it will be a very, very expensive proposition.”
Federal judges have ruled that states cannot restrict restaurant owners from openly displaying alcoholic beverages they sell, Fuegi said.
“You would have a pretty strange situation to where you would be able to display liquor, yet you couldn’t prepare it in the front of the house. It makes very little sense,” Fuegi said.
Quirky liquor laws already inconveniently require visitors to obtain “memberships” to drink in so-called private clubs, Fuegi said.
“We just hope that the Legislature sees that this is a very, very impractical and onerous thing for the industry,” he said. “Our guests, I believe, deserve decent alcohol service. That’s just part of the business.”
Jeff Ward, general manager of 350 Main in Park City, says he would lose seating in his eatery complying with SB 187.
“Which impacts the viability of my restaurant, impacts sales tax to the state and impacts several jobs for my employees It’s not just the one-time expense of creating it, it’s the longer term effect of reduced revenues because you’re losing seats,” Ward said in a telephone interview. “Restaurateurs utilize every square inch of their square footage and you’ve got to have seats to make it all work.”
Bills on collision course
SB 187 appears “on a collision course with” House Bill 347, which could loosen onerous requirements placed on would-be patrons of private clubs, Fuegi said.
Ward, also general manager of The Spur and Bar and Grill, supports HB 347, which would stop requiring people to purchase memberships to enter some bars.
“The (legislative) session started out, in my opinion, on the right foot, we had something addressing some of the quirkier aspects of our liquor laws, while still being responsible and reacting to underage drinking,” Ward said. “But we’re not even moving forward a little bit, we’re moving backward with the big wall. I think this would be a PR nightmare when it gets out in the national press.”
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. hopes to boost tourism in the state by scrapping the decades-old private club rules, which his opponents say help keep minors out of bars. HB 347 would replace club memberships with a system that scans driver licenses.
“[HB 347] would allow restaurants to serve drinks across the bar, which right now we cannot do,” Fuegi said. “It would prohibit minors from sitting at the bar.”
Meanwhile, a third option, which seeks a compromise between the two bills, was proposed last week by Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George.
Urquhart’s proposal would keep Utah’s private club system while allowing tourists to purchase a 10-day pass so they and several friends could visit bars throughout the state without additional fees and paperwork.
“We have been trying to improve this liquor situation for many, many years and there is still a lot of room for further improvement,” Fuegi said. “The perception still is that Utah is a difficult state to drink, right or wrong.”