Liqour licenses continue to dwindle at April’s DABS meeting

Generic bar setup

The headline news from April’s DABS meeting – the likely exhaustion of even more liquor license types. The writing has been on the wall for months, with the reality now starting to hit hard. Here’s a look at the main items from this month’s meeting. Full service restaurant licenses (beer, wine, liquor) Going into the … Read more

Three surprise bar licenses granted In March DABS meeting

Midjourney, fancy bar counter with liquor bottles, golden light

Bookending the March DABS meeting, some fairly surprising news with DABS staff confirming three rare as tantalum, bar licenses would be up for the taking . You can catch the full meeting here. But here’s a quick recap of the meeting and notables. Bar licenses With the room nearly fainting en masse, five businesses pitched … Read more

Want to open a bar in Utah this year? Maybe think again…

Pendry Park City - Apres Pendry bar seating

As reported today by Sean Means in the Tribune, efforts to stave off a total collapse of bar licensing in Utah, have now almost certainly failed. Despite year-long insistence that communication with law makers would help matters, it would appear we’re looking at Utah’s bar licensing conundrum go unaddressed for a further year. This year’s … Read more

February’s DABS liquor meeting points to a challenging year ahead for Utah

Mar Muntanya interior bar counter

With all the headlines decrying a departing NBA’s labeling of Utah as boring – today’s DABS meeting left one feeling a better phrase might have been, dysfunctional. At least inasmuch in describing the current state of Utah’s stalled liquor policy. Highlighting the enormity of challenges businesses can expect to face this year, today’s DABS meeting … Read more

Proposed Utah liquor law tweaks offer short term bar license fix

Stanza bar area

No sooner than I declare January’s liquor news a damp squib – Ben Winslow over at FOX13 drops this spicy preview of what we might expect from the 2023 omnibus liquor bill; the all singing, all dancing liquor legislation that will come into force this Summer. For some context, here’s what happened in 2022 and … Read more

January’s DABS meeting a quiet one

Bar area at Caffe Molise

After the storied DABS voyage that was 2022, and a particularly choppy end of the year, January’s DABS meeting offered calmer waters; surely a portent of upcoming storms and overly worked metaphors. The headline news right now is the incoming legislative session and what the yearly omnibus liquor bill might hold for business owners in … Read more

NBA All Star games will mean 115,000 visitors and a new temporary liquor store for SLC

300 W Liquor Wine Store DABS DABC

Mark February 17th through 19th very boldly on your calendar. If you didn’t already know, those are the official dates for the massive NBA All Star games hitting downtown Salt Lake City. According to some, estimations are that 115,000 attendees will pitch up to watch the action. Ben Winslow notes an expected $40 million economic … Read more

Final Utah DABS meeting of 2022 proves an intriguing one

Mar Muntanya interior bar counter

Well that was a head scratcher. Maybe someone was passing around the egg nog, but the final DABS meetup of 2022 left this curious onlooker a smidge confused. Lets start with the main item therein… Bar licenses After some jiggery pokery with the population numbers I believe an extra bar license was conjured up from … Read more

Utah restaurants on notice as liquor licenses dry up

Beehive Distillery - bar area

November’s DABS meeting wrapped up this Tuesday morning, and confirmed what was writ large last month; full service restaurant liquor licenses are about to splutter out of existence in Utah. The seven restaurants that applied for this license type (allowing liquor, beer and wine with the ordering of food) were all duly approved, but future … Read more

Utah’s full service restaurant licenses could run dry soon

Homecoming Southern Kitchen and Bar

If you’ve been following along with morbid curiosity this year, you’re no doubt aware of the storied drought of bar licenses in Utah. Want to open a bar in the Beehive? You better have a cash runway like Elon coupled with the patience of Job (the biblical one, not the Appley one). What many haven’t … Read more

Zero bars granted license at Utah’s September DABS meeting

Counter and bar sapce at Current Fish and Oyster

After last month’s DABS meeting you might recall I posed this not entirely rhetorical conundrum. When tasked with managing Utah’s most precious of resources – that’s bar licenses not water duh – how exactly should a kingmaker act? This month saw one possible course of action come to pass, which is to say, inaction. Demurring … Read more

Utah liquor licensing starting to turn the screw on local businesses

Generic bar setup

If recent DABS meetings weren’t worrying enough for would be bar owners, the August meeting writ large the reality of a distressing future. Entering the eighth edition of this year’s disbelief fest, fourteen Utah bars turned up hoping for the best. Five business were ready to roll, three bar licenses up for grabs. But wait, … Read more

No new bars granted license – plus mini bottles return

A cocktail bar in downtown Salt Lake City

The headline news – at least according to out of state onlookers and column inches – is the return of mini bottles in the Beehive. Last seen on shelves here in the 1980s, a vote at the July DABS meetup saw their re-instatement approved. Ho hum huh. Miniature liquor bottles of 50ml and wine of … Read more

Eight new bars approved at June alcohol meeting

Credit, Quarters Arcade Bar, City Home Collective

Yesterday saw the momentous day of reckoning that we’ve been previewing since March. With the myriad updates to Utah’s liquor laws now in effect for for 2022, a once in a generation bounty of full bar licenses were up for grabs – ten to be precise. As commissioner Thue dubbed it,”barapalooza”. Let’s get straight to … Read more

Which hard seltzers are now legal in Utah grocery stores?

Spring and Summer beers from Dquatters Wasatch to check out

You might recall we recently recapped all the updates to Utah’s liquor laws that came into force this June. You might also recall the headline news about the loss of tens and tens of hard seltzer brands from stores across Utah. Essentially, as the definition of beer changed this year, so did the compliance of … Read more

Liquor license frenzy approaches – mark your calendars

Beer (freepik)

As the clock ticks down to the June DABC meeting (sorry it’s DABS now folks) so the interest escalates around who exactly will snaffle up all those delicious bar licenses set to unfurl. Just like an exotic flora that blooms once every 17 years, this is a practically unheard of event, something to witness and … Read more

Single Utah bar crowned at April DABC meeting

RoHa Brewing tap room interior

RoHa brewing in Salt Lake City was the solitary business rewarded with blink and miss it bar license at this months DABC meeting. The bar – four months on the wait list – also recently toasted five years in business; the April meeting then, a cherry on top of an already notable birthday. Two licenses … Read more