Dead Goat Saloon owner Daniel Darger says a cabaret and burlesque may not be coming to his bar after all.
Instead, Darger said a full-blown strip joint could be on the way.
"That's probably what I'm going to do if that will keep the Dead Goat out of bankruptcy," Darger said Monday following a Board of Adjustment meeting at City Hall. Opening a strip club "is what I'm being forced to do right now."
Darger, who blames city ordinances for forcing him to consider turning his establishment into a strip joint, said he wants Kent Bangerter, who runs the Northern Exposure and Southern Exposure strip clubs, to become the business manager at the Dead Goat, 119 S. West Temple.
The Board of Adjustment, in a 4-0 vote Monday, upheld an administrative decision to grant a sexually oriented business license to the Dead Goat.
Darger had applied for the license so he could have burlesque or cabaret-style shows at the Dead Goat, which he says has struggled to make money as a live-music bar.
The city administration determined that the Dead Goat, which is located in Arrow Press Square, does not violate city ordinances that ban sexually oriented businesses from certain downtown locations.
But that decision was appealed by Steve Christopher, who owns the Souvenir Stop at ZCMI Center. Along with Christopher, the Salt Lake Chamber, Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, People's Freeway Community Council and more than a half-dozen others opposed Darger's bid.
Christopher and the others argue a sexually oriented business would be detrimental to downtown business, bring more crime and blight, and discourage people from wanting to live downtown.
Darger said he has worked hard to clean up the area around Arrow Press Square, which he maintains was already blighted when he bought buildings there in 1998.
Following the board's decision, Darger said city laws are forcing him to use his sexually oriented business license to open a strip club rather than a vaudevillian burlesque bar.
The ordinances require sexually oriented businesses to have a "pole stage" common in strip joints, Darger said. Such a stage wouldn't be conducive to burlesque or vaudeville-type acts, he said. Also, city rules require sexually oriented business employees to submit to a background check 30 days before they perform.
Darger said that would be impossible for the burlesque circuit, which functions similarly to the Broadway-style theater circuit, and allow the time for traveling performers or actors to get background checks just to play in Salt Lake City, Darger said.
Given city laws, Darger said he will be forced to hire strippers to make the Dead Goat profitable. Still, he hopes to operate the Dead Goat as a live-music bar until the end of the year.
City Councilwoman Nancy Saxton, who represents downtown, said Monday the council may soon examine whether it wants to continue to allow sexually oriented businesses in the downtown D-1 zone.
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com