Posts Tagged ‘libations’
Liquor Laws Affecting Residents and Visitors
Friday, March 12th, 2010Liquor Laws Affecting Residents and Visitors
From the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
It’s been said that you can’t get a good drink in Utah, or even that you can’t get any kind of drink (other than water) in Utah. The Park City Area Restaurant Association would like to let you know that you can in fact get a drink in Utah– and some mighty fine tasty drinks at that! Here’s some information from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help you clarify when, where and what you can drink while visiting or living in this great state.
General Info
The sale and service of alcoholic beverages is regulated by the State of Utah. Alcoholic beverage control is a concept that Utah shares with other states and countries. Utah’s liquor laws are based on the general philosophy of making alcoholic beverages available in a manner that reasonably satisfies the public demand. In this respect, however, the state does not promote or encourage the sale or use of alcohol.
Legal Age
A person must be at least 21 years of age or older to purchase and consume alcohol in Utah.
The following is a summary of how residents and visitors to Utah may obtain alcoholic beverages.
Wine, Liquor, Flavored Malt Beverages, Beer, and Heavy Beer: Full liquor service is available in licensed restaurants, banquet and catering facilities, airport lounges, and clubs. Patrons may order liquor by the drink, wine by the glass or bottle, and beer in bottles, cans and on draft. Packaged liquor, wine, and heavy beer (over 3.2%) are available in State Liquor Stores and Package Agencies.
In restaurants with full service liquor licenses, liquor, wine, flavored malt beverages, and heavy beer (over 3.2%) may be served from noon to midnight. Beer (3.2%) is available from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Patrons must be dining in the restaurant in order to be served an alcoholic beverage.
In restaurants with limited service liquor licenses, wine, and heavy beer (over 3.2%) may be served from noon to midnight. Beer (3.2%) is available from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Limited restaurant licenses may not sell flavored malt beverages or distilled spirits.
An on-premise banquet license allows the storage, sale, service, and consumption of liquor, wine, flavored malt beverages, heavy beer, and beer for contracted banquet activities on the premises of a hotel, resort facility, sports center, or convention center. It also allows for room service in hotels and resorts. Alcoholic beverages may be sold on any day from 10 a.m. until 1 a.m.
In clubs, liquor, wine, flavored malt beverages, heavy beer, and beer may be served from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Clubs sell alcoholic beverages with or without food, and patrons may be served at a bar or table. Many clubs provide live entertainment. There are four types of clubs; equity, fraternal, dining, and social. Dining and Social clubs are open to the public. Equity clubs (such as country clubs) and Fraternal or Patriotic clubs are for members and their guests.
In airport lounges, liquor, wine, flavored malt beverages, heavy beer, and beer may be served from 8:00 a.m. until 12 midnight. Alcoholic beverages may be sold with or without food, and patrons may be served at a bar or table. Airport lounges are located at the Salt Lake International Airport.
Packaged liquor, wine, and heavy beer ‘to go’is sold at 37 full service state liquor stores. There are also approximately 105 package agencies that offer a more modest selection of these products. Package agencies are often located in smaller cities and towns, and in hotels and resorts for customer convenience.
Utah offers a world class wine selection at four specialty wine stores located at: 255 South 300 East, 1863 East 7000 South, and 280 W Harris Ave in Salt Lake City; and 1901 Sidewinder Drive in Park City. Several other state stores also offer expanded wine selections. Store locations, addresses, directions, phone numbers, and hours of operations can be found on our website. To locate a store, click here.
Beer
Beer establishments sell beer to customers in a variety of venues. These include taverns, lounges, cabarets, nightclubs, cafes, bowling alleys, golf courses, etc. The hours for beer sales in these establishments are 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Beer may be purchased without ordering food, and is sold on draft and in bottles and cans. Packaged beer is also available at supermarkets, grocery and convenience stores. The maximum alcohol content is 4.0% by volume (3.2% by weight) for beer sold in taverns, beer establishments, and stores.”Taverns” are beer bars, parlors, lounges, cabarets, and nightclubs where the revenue from the sale of beer exceeds the revenue of the sale of food. Minors are not allowed on the premises of a tavern.
Private Parties
Individuals and organizations hosting private social, business, or recreational events or functions are not required to obtain a permit from the state if the event is not open to the general public, and alcohol is provided to invited guests without cost.
Metered Dispensing
Utah law requires restaurants, clubs, on-premise banquet licensees, and airport lounges to use a metered dispensing system that is calibrated to dispense no more than 1.5 ounces of primary liquor in a mixed drink. Secondary alcoholic flavorings may then be added to a mixed drink as the recipe requires, not to exceed a total of 2.5 ounces of spirituous liquor.
Wine Service
Restaurants (full and limited service), on-premise banquet licensees, clubs, and airport lounges may serve wine by the glass (5 ounces) or by the bottle.
Brown Bagging
“Brown Bagging” is a term-of-art that refers to the practice of bringing alcoholic beverages into an establishment that is open to the public for consumption on the premises. This practice is generally prohibited, however there are three exceptions.
1) A person may bring bottled wines onto the premises of a full service, or limited service restaurant or a club liquor licensee (at the discretion of the licensee) and consume the wine.
2) Alcoholic beverages may be brought onto and consumed in limousines and charter busses under certain restrictions.
3) A person may bring onto any premises, have, and consume any alcoholic beverage at a privately-hosted event (private party) that is not open to the general public
For more information on Utah’s liquor laws, please visit http://www.alcbev.state.ut.us/index.html
What’s the best drink in town?
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Park Record
Greg Marshall
Park City Passion, High West Traverse, and the Zoom Matador Margarita are a few of the cocktails that will be sipped and served at the fourth annual Libation Nation. But only one will be named Park City’s signature cocktail for the 2009/2010 winter season.
Photo by David Ryder/Park Record
The popular contest will be held Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Wasatch Brew Pub. Fitted with ski bibs, 10 Park City bartenders will take on the task of mixing the best original cocktail in town. Judges evaluate the drinks based on presentation, taste and appearance. Libation Nation costs $5 to attend and proceeds benefit the People’s Health Clinic. The Restaurant Association will match up to $500 in donations for the nonprofit medical provider.
The drink that wins will be featured on the Park City Chamber/Bureau website and sampled at a reception in New York City, according to Nicole Madrid of the Park City Restaurant Association. The winning mixologist receives a trophy, $100 and bragging rights.
The restaurant association represents 30 bars, taverns and eateries in town. This year’s contest includes some new contestants, including Zoom and Flannagan’s.
“We’re just trying to let people know that they can get a good drink in Utah,” Madrid said. Much touted changes in liquor laws, including the end to private clubs, haven’t made much of a difference so far in changing the perception that Utah is a dry state.
The confections made with Blue Curacao, fresh-squeezed lemon, cherries, berries and tangerines are reminders to the contrary, and their names play off the ski industry and local landmarks.
Libation Nation is a big deal for bartenders, said Joey Rusconi, the manager at Wasatch Brew Pub. His restaurant will serve the Mountain Berry Margarita (right), which is made with an assortment of berries, whiskey and tequila. “For us, it was a big deal,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of time into it. We wanted to incorporate the local distillery and do something that honors what we do as a cantina. Anyone can make a drink, but it takes someone who cares about it to do it right.”
The bartenders competing will need plenty of moral support, Madrid said. “We really want people there cheering them on,” she said.
Previous winners of the contest are Deer Valley’s Royal Street Cafe’s Blueberry Mojito, the 350 Main’s Jupiter Cosmopolitan and Kristauf’s Martini Bar’s Crisp Pear. Judges for the event come from weekly magazines, radio stations and chamber of commerce members.
Shaken AND Stirred
Monday, March 30th, 2009Salt Lake City Weekly
Ted Scheffler
Come on up to Park City this Thursday, April 2nd for tons of crazy cocktail fun.
Park City’s best and most creative mixologists will be gathered at the Wasatch Brew Pub Cantina, from 7 to 9 PM, to face off with their best signature cocktails. It’ll all take place at the 4th Annual Park City Cocktail Contest.
Local bartenders representing Park City restaurants and bars will be mixing their most unique cocktails for a panel of distinguished “celebrity” judges, including Kerry Jackson from X96’s “Radio From Hell,” along with yours truly. (If they mix it, we will come.)
The winning libation will become Park City’s Signature Cocktail for 2009. The public is invited and the evening includes live entertainment, food,a raffle and plenty of shenanigans. The $5 entrance fee goes to benefit The People’s Clinic, a non-profit health clinic providing high-quality medical services to uninsured individuals and families in the Park City area.
Just another fine reason to visit the People’s Republic of Park City.
Will you be the one who picks Park City’s Signature Cocktail?
Monday, March 30th, 2009In Utah This Week
Amanda Chamberlain
What will Park City’s 2009 Signature Cocktail be? That’s what the Park City Restaurant Association aims to find out at the fourth annual Libation Nation Celebration.
The Celebration, happening April 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Wasatch Brew Pub Cantina (205 Main St. in Park City), hosts the contest in which bartenders whip up their alcoholic art in hopes it will be spotlighted in Park City the whole year long.
And if you’re interested in helping pick the cocktail, you can win a spot as a guest judge if you participate in the event’s raffle.
But not only will this cocktail competition ensue at Libation Nation, but also charitable fundraising. Your $5 donation at the door will directly benefit the People’s Health Clinic.
So cheers to charity, and may the best bartender win!
Cheap Shot | Drink. Drank. Drunk.
Thursday, November 15th, 2007The City Weekly
Phil Jacobsen
“Phil you’re a nobody,” Brad said when I answered the phone.
My brother Brad is a lawyer, so I know he could not have come to this conclusion without evidence, facts and possibly even a little ipso facto lawyer talk. “Are you one of the judges tonight at the Libation Nation Celebration best-drink contest in Park City?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“In that case and henceforth, you herewith will be referred to as ‘a nobody.”
My brother, in an attempt to masculineize the minivan he drives, stuck an X96 Radio From Hell (RFH) bumper sticker on his “ride.” And that morning, as he was cruising into work, one of the RFH guys, Kerry Jackson, said he would be a judge for the same contest as I and that he was “the big name.” Then the other RFH hosts, Gina and Bill, read the names of the other judges and, in summation, concluded the rest of us were the equivalent of day-labor judges.
Well, if I was a nobody, then I sure seemed like a somebody when a limo driver called and said he’d be to my house in Salt Lake City to pick me up for a luxurious ride to Park City. Knowing I was going to step out of my front door and into the spotlight and envy of all my neighbors when a limo came rolling down Downington Avenue, I put on my funeral outfit. These are the clothes I keep in the back of my closet in case someone dies. Turns out it was appropriate, because I died a little inside when I saw my “limo” was actually a minivan.
When we arrived at Park City’s Kristauf’s Martini Bar, the judges were given 13 specialty drinks from different bars around town to sample and rate. Bartenders from each establishment made four drinks and then, three or four judges shared one beverage out of the same glass. Boy, was I glad my cold sores had cleared up.
Just before we took our judging seats, and just after the photographers and autograph-seekers quit swarming around Kerry Jackson, I said, “We all may be nobody in your eyes, but we’re not deaf.” Jackson said I had it wrong and reminded me that I wasn?t even supposed to be there. John Saltas was supposed to represent City Weekly at this event but, since he couldn’t show up, I was the stand-in.
“Besides,” he said, “aren’t you just the guy who talks about cheap places to buy Pabst Blue Ribbon? What are you doing here?”
It doesn’t get any cheaper than free. And, with that, the slippery slope to drunken oblivion began. I sat next to Olympic bobsledder Ivan Radcliff. Talk about the right man for this job. If you want to go downhill fast, either hop into a bobsled or drink 13 cocktails of varying alcohols in a two-hour period.
By the end of the night, we had vodka, peach schnapps, rum, melon liquor, Godiva dark-chocolate liqueur, Absolut pear, Grand Monarch, Jager, tequila and one judge throwing up in the bathroom (not me).
My favorite drink was the Cat Mint or Turtle Martini (depending on which set of drunken notes I refer to), cooked up by Drew Johnson from the Spur Bar & Grill (350 1/2 Main St.). It tasted like an iced-tea mojito with Malibu rum, mint leaves, Bacardi 151 and a splash of Coke. But, like my new bobsledding friend, that drink took the silver medal.
The winner of the third annual cocktail contest was the Crisp Pear, a creation of Lial Gingell of Kristauf’s. After his drink was chosen the winner, Gingell combined Grey Goose La Poire with peach schnapps, 360 Vodka, a splash of pineapple juice and a float of brut Champagne 14 times, one for each of the judges.
If you want to be a somebody in Park City, go to Kristauf’s (825 S. Main) on Nov. 17 where judged drinks will be served for $5 a piece. If you can drink all 13 cocktails, then you, too, can be a persona non grata. As in, you won’t remember nothing or nobody.
