Park City Restaurant Association

Park Record
Anna Bloom

No more sidecars, but what about the rest? How getting a drink — and selling one — will change next month

Mike Wong, part owner of The Sidecar in the Main Street Mall, half-jokingly laments that the significance and the relevance of the name of his private club will be lost once new liquor laws take effect on May 5.

A “sidecar” is one of Utah’s quirky rules, one that allowed an extra ounce of alcohol, typically delivered in a shot glass, to accompany a standard cocktail, boosting the drink’s overall stiffness to two ounces or even 2.75 ounces of liquor. But in May, once Gov. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., signs Senate Bill 211 into law, the Utah sidecar will be cast aside as a relic, a reference only to the classic ’20’s beverage, mixed with cognac, lemon juice and orange liqueur. “Moving forward, at least we’ll have historical significance,” a wry Wong jokes.

But aside from the removal of the sidecar, Wong says he’s not yet clear about the bill’s finer points – and by the time the 2008 Utah Legislative session ended, there were quite a few. “I’m confused,” he confesses.

And Wong is not alone.

At Summit County’s Republican nominating convention last Friday, April 4, a Park Record staffer asked Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to clarify the finer points of the bill. Shurtleff gestured to the crowd, suggesting the reporter “ask one of the legislators.”

Among the most significant details of the bill is the amount of alcohol permitted in one drink served to one patron. The sidecar has been eliminated and in its stead the “primary pour,” the dominant liquor in a cocktail, has been increased from one ounce to 1.5 ounces. But the maximum pour has been reduced. After May 5, the law specifies that the maximum pour of alcohol before a single patron will be 2.5 ounces, a .5 ounce reduction in overall “stiffness.” The extra alcohol comes after the primary pour, from additional liquors added to a drink called “flavorings.” Added to the drink at portions less than an ounce “flavorings” will boost the overall alcohol content of a cocktail to as much as 2.5 ounces.

These specifics are crucial to Wong and other alcohol beverage licensees – tavern owners, private clubs and restaurants — in terms of complying with state laws, but also in terms of profitability. “We really need to understand the laws in order to accommodate trying to come up with a business model and whether we are going to pour more alcohol without increasing our prices,” he says. “If we’re going to be pouring 50 percent more alcohol into a drink and the price we pay for the alcohol is still the same, I think it’s going to be a problem. We’re all still trying to decide what to do.”

The literature of SB 211 allows private clubs and taverns to remain indifferent to the new limit. Some bars may decide not to change their menus. “I don’t think that our customers will really notice a difference,” says Teri Maloney, manager of Baja Cantina, a restaurant which also features a bar, at the base of Park City Mountain Resort.

“We’ve really had no complaints about the strength of our drinks, so I doubt we will be changing our prices.”

The ideas behind the bill are derived from Utah Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (UDABC) staff studies and observations, and lawmakers’ concerns about on how to help patrons avoid intoxication.

The decision to regulate alcohol to a 2.75-ounce or 2.5-ounce limit was made in 2003, according to Earl Dorius, UDABC director of licensing and compliance. The amount was based on what is required by most cocktail recipes. Dorius says the UDABC staff plowed through more than 700 recipes in the “Bartender’s Guide” — a bartender’s reference book, carried, usually worn and tattered, in a back pocket or at the cash register — to ensure that standardizing the amount of alcohol in a beverage would allow patrons to indulge in the spirits most Americans enjoy. All told, he says the staff found 10 drinks that could not be made with only 2.75 ounces of liquor, and when the amount as reduced to 2.5, 13 could not be made. “We wanted to look to see how many drinks could not be made if you put a cap of 2.75 ounces on them,” he says, adding that the drinks that could not be made were “obscure.” “Based on that, we were comfortable that the measurement wouldn’t have a substantial impact.”

The Utah Department of Alcohol Beverage Control is sending a new spring licensing newsletter to licensees, which is also currently available electronically on its Web site at abc.utah.gov.

The bulletin includes the other regulations in SB 211 including the number of licenses available for taverns and private clubs and a more exacting restriction on the distance between alcoholic beverage license holders and churches, schools and playgrounds. It also prohibits the sale of flavored malt beverages (referred to as “FMBs” in one article), such as Mike’s Hard Lemonade, at convenience and grocery stores. “Even though these producers assert that FMBs are not being marketed to youth, these sweet-tasting products have become more popular among underage drinkers as ’starter’ drinks,” writes Dorius in the newsletter.

“Utah’s a little different than most states in that way,” concedes Sharon Mackay, the information officer for the UDABC. “There’s no question we’re kind of conservative here and it was just a choice that the legislators made.”

The effort to eliminate the sidecar and to increase the primary pour to 1.5 ounces was, in part, an effort to make Utah a little less out of the ordinary, she explains. “If a drink like a martini has only one ounce of alcohol, it really wasn’t the standard nationwide Legislators decided to increase the pour so it would be more in line with what was going on nationally and decreased the total amount, because it was probably more responsible to do that.”

Though members of the private club industry in Park City welcome the loosening of some of the liquor laws in SB 211, Casey Metzger, manager of the Spur Bar and Grill on Main Street, finds that there is a sense of apathy developing amongst his peers about Utah’s legislative process – especially when it comes to laws that pertains to their business. This year, “it seemed like (the UDABC and the Utah Legislature) made decisions based on their interests without including our input – and I really wanted to be more a part of the process,” he says, noting that he attended at least one meeting this spring which was supposed to discuss the proposed legislation, but the subject of alcohol service at bars was not addressed.

Metzger says the decision to allow license holders to choose between a primary pour of one and 1.5 ounces will divide the private club and tavern community. Furthermore, he foresees switching to a 1.5-ounce pour will mean more work than changing the prices on the menu: It will mean reprogramming calibration systems to measure 1.5 ounces instead of one, affect how bars will calculate their inventory and has the potential to confuse customers even further. “It’s hard enough trying to explain to tourists about buying club memberships, and now we have to explain that they can’t get a sidecar,” Metzger says.

Metzger hasn’t yet determined the direction The Spur will take once SB 211 is signed into law this May, and plans to take the time after the resorts close this weekend and tourism season slows down, to deliberate with others in the industry and his coworkers.

“Everyone I know in the bar industry has a bunch of ideas about these new laws and everybody’s trying to find the gray line or gray area,” he says. “It’s a good thing that this is all happening in spring, when there are less visitors in town, but it might have been nice to have been included in the decision, because it’s not going to be easy for us.”

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The future of alcohol beverage consumption in Utah when Senate Bill 211 is signed by Gov. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. on May 5, 2008. Utah’s rules on alcohol sale and consumption will change.

According to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (UDABC):

Primary pour:
- 1.5 ounces. This is NOT the required amount. It is the maximum.

Total alcohol in any one alcoholic drink served to a patron at one time:
- 2.5 ounces.

Number of licenses for taverns and clubs:
- About 17 club and 25 tavern licenses. The reduction is balanced with an increase in limited restaurant licenses, which the UDABC says have become more popular in recent years. The quota for limited restaurant licenses has been increased by about 45 licenses.

The distance between alcoholic beverage license holders and churches, schools, parks and playgrounds:
- Utah law will no longer allow the commission to grant a variance to the 200-foot straight-line measurement restriction with respect to churches, schools and playgrounds. It WILL allow variances to the measurement ONLY with respect to parks and libraries.

Alcopops:
- “Flavored Malt Beverages” will be sold at state-owned liquor stores only.

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In its newsletter the Utah Department of Alcohol Beverage Control answers some questions about the new regulations that will take effect after May 5:

Can I advertise on a sign within my club that I pour 1.4-ounce drinks?
- Yes.

If a person drinks 1/4 of his or her initial 1.5-ounce alcohol drink, can they be served another 1.5-ounce alcohol drink?
- Yes, “as long as the drinks are not put down together. This is a judgment call. Besides, as a seller/server of alcohol, why would you want to do that? Wouldn’t you rather wait until the patron has finished the drink before serving another?”

Can private clubs serve 1.5-ounce drinks Mondays through Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. if there are no advertisements for a “happy hour” and charge more than a regular one-ounce pour?
- No. A drink may not be sold at a special price for a portion of the business day.