Just two years ago, lawmakers reformed Utah's liquor code so restaurant customers no longer had to pour their own drinks from mini-bottles. At the same time, "brown-bagging" alcohol into bars was banned.
Now lawmakers are considering at least a half-dozen proposed changes, most of which are considered "fine-tuning" rather than sweeping shifts in how liquor is controlled in Utah. (See box on B2.)Next year, they also may be asked to look at creating a new type of liquor license so private clubs could operate restaurants but still be able to sell drinks without food.
Generally, though, the state's liquor control officials and its licensees say they are satisfied with the way the laws are working. They acknowledge that any major changes are unrealistic because Utah is a state where some 70 percent of the population belongs to a church opposed to alcohol consumption.
"When people start complaining about the liquor laws - and don't know what they're talking about - it adds up to nothing more than alienating the Legislature and Utah-bashing," said Tom Guinney, a partner in Gastronomy Inc., owners of a number of popular restaurants and private clubs.
Guinney said liquor licensees can't forget that the majority of legislators belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which forbids its members to drink alcohol.
"I am very sensitive to the cultural heritage of this state and control issues. Disregarding that, I believe, is irresponsible," he said. "This state, throughout its history, did not want its citizens to be subjected to . . . being confronted by a bar."
Though criticism of the liquor-control system certainly exists, even some of the private club owners who'd like to see the members-only drinking establishments converted into bars recognize the prevailing culture's concern over liquor control has to be taken into account.
"We know if and when it happens, it's a long ways away," said Kent Knowley, president of the Utah Hospitality Association and owner of Port O'Call, a private club in downtown Salt Lake City. "The biggest problem is education (of the non-drinking public). They don't know what we're doing, and they don't care to know."
Lawmakers are just starting to wade through the proposed changes in a special interim subcommittee. The subcommittee is expected to make recommendations to the 1993 Legislature, which convenes next January.
The liquor law is codified in no fewer than 167 pages. In often-arcane language, it addresses questions ranging from where liquor stores can be built to how much whiskey a bartender can put in a drink.
The state's strict liquor laws are famous - some might say infamous - for their detail, but Utah is hardly unique when it comes to its involvement in wine and spirits. Utah is one of 18 states and one county (in Maryland) where government keeps its hand in liquor sales.
Government authority over the liquor business varies widely among those 19 venues, however, with Utah representing the strictest, according to Dennis Kellen, operations manager for the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
At the other extreme of the control states is Wyoming. Unlike Utah, which sells everything but low-alcohol beer products at state-run liquor stores, Wyoming leaves retail sales to the private sector.
Mississippi is much like Wyoming. West Virginia and Iowa used to be similar to Utah; they have since sold their state-run stores to private entrepreneurs but still maintain control over wholesale distribution.
Utah's liquor laws spell out a number of prohibitions, such as the ban on advertising. If shoppers want to know what's on sale, they must pay a visit to their nearest liquor outlet.
That outlet might not be very near. The state, by statute, allows one liquor store for every 48,000 residents. The legal private-club to-population ratio is 7,000; one liquor-licensed restaurant is permitted per 4,500 people.
But there are no "dry counties" in Utah, as there are throughout much of the South. Every major town or city in Utah has at least a small variety of liquor outlets, whether they be stores, restaurants, private clubs or some combination.
State law requires the department to mark every product up at least 61 percent above cost. Added to that is the 6.25 percent sales tax plus a 13 percent tax earmarked for the Utah school-lunch program and another 42 cents per case for freight. By the time a bottle of liquor reaches the checkout line, it costs an average of 92 percent more than what the state paid for it.
Of some $80 million in net revenue the department brings in each year, almost two-thirds goes into operating costs, wholesale liquor purchases and federal tax coffers. A little less than one-fourth of the money is funneled into the state's general fund, where a small fraction of it is doled out to local law-enforcement agencies for alcohol control. The department's separate contribution to school lunch programs is about $10 million.
Liquor is regulated by a five-member governor-appointed commission that serves part time, its makeup reflecting local leadership tradition as well as the predominant ecclesiastical view of liquor. All the commissioners are men, all belong to the LDS Church.
Commission Chairman Jerry Fenn, an attorney, said liquor regulators have an obligation to make sure "we reasonably meet the demand for alcoholic beverages."
Fenn added, "We also have an obligation by statute to not promote or encourage consumption, and we also have the obligation to consider the interest of those who don't want to be involved with the consumption of alcohol."
The legal code regulating alcohol gives rise at times to semantic disputes. For example, purists rail against use of the word "bar" in Utah, where bars don't exist in their strictest sense.
Utah bars come in one of two guises - private clubs or restaurants, of which there are 252 and 331, respectively (according to its population formula, the state allows up to 258 private clubs and 401 restaurant licenses).
And liquor is technically sold by the drink, though it is measured by state-mandated meters on every liquor bottle - in contrast with the traditional "free pour" method of spilling whatever amount looks right into a glass.
To imbibe, drinkers must gain formal admittance to a private club by either paying an annual fee - usually in the $20 to $40 range - or by forking over a one-time $5 charge that's good for two weeks' admission.
The other access is via restaurants. They can be licensed for liquor sales - which many say amounts to liquor-by-the-drink. Patrons may order wine or spirits as long as they also get something to eat.
Liquor-by-the-drink is not a term state alcohol regulators like to use. It recalls the bitter campaign to legalize bars in 1968 that pitted the LDS Church against supporters of the referendum. It failed.
Private-club owners plan to start the latest campaign for bars by pushing for the creation of a new type of liquor license, one that would combine private clubs with restaurants.
"We need to get to the point where we're more associated with food than with alcohol," the private club association's Knowley said.
He said under the proposed license, the private-club diners would be physically separated from the restaurant customers. But the combination license would, he hopes, attract customers who might not go into just a private club.
And that's the key to their efforts - changing the perception Utahns have of private clubs. "It's a stigma," Knowley said.
While Fenn doesn't rule out the possibility that liquor regulators will consider permitting bars someday, he doesn't sound very optimistic about it, either.
"Bars would be the classic liquor-by-the-drink," Fenn said. "The concern is about open saloons in the state. The question I have is, is it really necessary?"
Guinney, whose restaurants include Market Street Broiler, Cafe Pierpont and Baci, said the 1990 liquor law changes have not led to more drinking by his customers.
"It doesn't work that way," Guinney said. Most customers, he said, continue to consume the same number of drinks they did before the state eliminated mini-bottles.
The difference is that each mini-bottle - served to a customer along with a glass containing mixers such as tonic water - contained 1.8 ounces of alcohol. Drinks poured by a restaurant or private club are limited to 1 ounce of alcohol.
"We were serving one of the strongest drinks in this country," Guinney said. Customers see the change to already mixed drinks as more hospitable. "Better hospitality, better business," Guinney said.
That doesn't mean Guinney and his partners are selling more alcohol. Liquor sales are down 18 percent from five years ago, he said, attributing the decline to the national trend to drink less.
Most liquor-control protestations come from those who say the law - if not the commission - fails to serve its public well. Critics run the gamut from tavern proprietors to politicians and bon vivants.
The laws that regulate when, where and how people can get a drink are "confusing," said Chick Isom, who owns Pete's Pool, a Salt Lake City beer tavern that cannot sell hard liquor or wine because it doesn't have a private-club license. Bars in general should not be forced into the expense and red tape of getting a private-club license, he said. "It's annoying, it's dumb," he said.
Isom's objections to the system are in part on a philosophical level: "This is America, and you ought to have a free market on things like this. The state has far too much control over that aspect of commerce."
Salt Lake County Commissioner Jim Bradley said Utah's restrictive liquor laws don't do much for the state's image beyond its borders and probably limit the potential of its tourist-convention industry.
"I think actually it's not nearly as bad as people perceive it, but we're dealing with that outside perception, not the reality," he said. "The perceptions are very, very real in terms of people making a decision on whether to bring conventions to Utah. The first question that always comes up is, `We hear you can't get a drink.' "
Bradley and others also take issue with the law that prohibits restaurants from selling liquor before 1 p.m.
"What's the purpose of that one? I don't get it," said Bradley, noting that many restaurant owners favor a roll-back to noon so they can cater to the customer who wants a drink with lunch. Much opposition to any such move would naturally come from private-club owners, who now have the lunch market cornered.
Glynus Gregory, proprietress of the Cheese House, a Foothill Boulevard shop, said certain laws are an intrusion for devoted gastronomes.
"So often wine and cheese go together, and I would love to be able to sell wine along with my cheeses, like in real states," she said.
As the law stands now, bottled wine to go is available only in Utah's 36 state-run liquor stores, two of which are devoted solely to wine. That puts the state's ratio of population to wine-only stores at about 1 million to one.
But the liquor-control department tries to make up for the low quotient by stocking both its wine-only stores with depth and variety. The one at 255 S. 300 East is acclaimed by oenologists, recently declared "one of the nation's truly great wine stores" by the Wall Street Journal.
Bob King, restaurant critic for the Event, a local arts and entertainment newspaper, said the statute keeps most small restaurants, "the backbone of fine dining in any city," from developing good on-premise wine cellars.
In most parts of the country, restaurants buy wine on credit, according to King, but in Utah many small establishments can't stock much variety because they must buy wine on a cash-only basis from the state.
The state is mandated to operate its liquor stores "as a public business using sound management principles and practices . . . with the intent of servicing the public demand for alcoholic beverages."
But the state also adheres to certain practices that might not be widely followed if private enterprise directed Utah's liquor industry. Most liquor stores open at 11 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, although a few stay open until 10 p.m. Hours are set by the commission through regulation, not by law.
"The time was set a long time ago out of respect for the rights of non-drinkers," said Ken Wynn, department director. "That's how we kind of balance it."
None of the stores take checks or credit cards. Liquor regulators intended the cash-only policy to discourage problem drinkers from going into debt - or worse, resorting to crime such as writing bad checks to pay for their purchases.
But the commission may soon consider a proposal to allow credit cards to be used at the state liquor store in Park City, a method of payment that could eventually be allowed in other stores.
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Liquor and wine consumption
1982 2,830,354
1985 2,878,484
1988 3,318,529
1989 2,668,579
1990 2,800,392
1991 2,800,392
Consumption trends
Gallons consumed 1991
Blend whiskey 242,366
Brandy 18,445
Gin 70,918
Scotch whiskey 441,360
Rum 149,345
Vodka 515,036
Tequila 69,466
Misc. liquor 149,456
Wine 1,144,000
Source: Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
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(Chart)
The study items for subcommitte on alcoholic beverages
Variable liquor fees for rural areas
Consider lowering license and insurance fees for beer taverns located off the Wasatch Front.
Airport liquor lounge
Consider permitting one lounge per concourse and extend hours of operation.
Restaurant serving hours
Allow liquor to be served beginning at noon instead of 1 p.m.
Beer tavern hours
Allow taverns to begin serving at 7 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. to accommodate graveyard shift employees.
Liquor representatives
Permit representatives of liquor companies to provide information directly to retailers instead of through the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Liquor in Utah
Where the money goes
$9.10 bottle (750 ml) of Smimoff Vodka
Department operations
$1.00(11%)
School lunch program 98 cents (11%)
State sales tax 47 cents (6.25%)
Distiller's cost and freight $2.48 (27%)
Profit to state general fund $2.03 (22%)
Federal excise tax $2.14 (24%)
A Guide to Liquor-control Jargon
Private Club: Open to members only who pay an annual fee, typically $20 to $40. Hours are 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.; midnight on Sundays and holidays.
Tavern: Sells beer only, open to the general drinking-age public. Hours are 10 a.m. to midnight.
Bar: Not permitted in its traditional form, though taverns and private clubs are variations.
Restaurant liquor license: Allows restaurants to sell alcohol with meals from 1 p.m. until midnight; they can start selling at noon on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Hours until recently were 4 p.m. to midnight; lawmakers are considering allowing service from noon to midnight on all days.
Liquor store: In Utah, all are state owned and operated.
Package store: An outlet on contract with the state to sell liquor in places where state operations would be less cost-effective. Almost identical to state-run liquor stores, package stores don't have as large a selection.
Mini-bottle: Now extinct in Utah, the 1.75-ounce setup bartenders used to pour drinks from.
Metered dispensing: The mini-bottle's replacement. A measured pouring device is used by bartenders now; it limits alcohol servings to 1 ounce.
Beer vs. wine vs. liquor vs. coolers: Only state and package stores sell liquor, wine and wine-based coolers. Grocery stores can sell ale-based coolers and beer, but only if its alcohol content is less than 3.2 percent by weight or 4 percent by volumne. Beers of high alcohol content are handled by the state.
Liquor-control states
Eighteen states - plus Montgomery
County, Md. - control liquor sales through state-run operations:
Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and Montgomery County, Maryland
Comparing prices, state to state*
Smirnoff Vodka (750 ml)
Utah state liquor stores: $9.10
Liquor store, Boulder, Colo.: $9.49
Liquor store, Rock Springs, Wyo.: $7.89
Idaho state liquor stores**: $8.85
Liquor store, Las VEgas: $7.99
Gallo Chardonnay (750 ml)
Utah state liquor stores: $5.85
Liquor store, Rock Springs, Wyo.: $4.65
Idaho state liquor stores**: $3.99
Liquor store, Las Vegas: $3.99
Liquor store, Phoenix: $4.99
Corona Extra six-pack
Utah state liquor stores: $9.90
Liquor store, Boulder, Colo.: $5.29
Liquor store, Rock Springs, Wyo.: $5.95
Liquor store, Boise**,: $6.07
Liquor store, Las Vegas: $5.99
Liquor store, Phoenix: $6.27
*Utah law prohibits the transportation of liquor across state lines.
**In Idaho, state stores handle hard-liquor sales; private stores sell wine and most beers.
Ranking the stores
Utah's 36 liquor stores did a combined business of $84.2 million in the 12 months from April 1991 through march 1992, the most recent figures qvailable. Total sales for each (addresses are included in cities with more than one outlet) of the top five and bottom five stores in dollar amounts.
1. $7,501,892 Salt Lake City (1470 Major St.)
2. $4,401,405 Park City (1990 Sidewinder Road)
3. $4,255,920 Salt Lake City (205 W. 400 South)
4. $4,191,632 Ogden (3880 Pacific Ave.)
5. $3,939,785 Salt Lake City (1177 Ashton Ave.)
32. $758,570 Cedar City
33. $684,357 Magna
34. $662,790 Park City (524 Main St.)
35. $649,741 Brigham City
36. $637,929 Moab
Source: Alcoholic Beverage Control Department