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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
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
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
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
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
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
Hat tip to the St George News publication for this one – an intriguing little bit of news that almost passed me by – delivery of beer to your doorstep might become a thing once again in Utah. That’s the idea floated by H.B. 100 anyway, a bill sponsored by representative Joel Briscoe. The bill … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
After consultation with the DABS this story has been revised as of September 27th. As of this date the “wine of the month club” legislation proposed in this year’s changes to Utah’s liquor laws have not yet come into effect. Once they do, we will have the *full* and formal scoop. The service described below … Read more
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
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
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
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
It’s been a rollercoaster year regarding liquor laws, but then isn’t it always in Utah? In the omnibus liquor bill for 2022 the headline news was that roughly fifty percent of hard seltzers will now vanish from grocery store shelves (more on that in a minute); but you might rightly wonder what else is hidden … Read more
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
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