Good News: You can officially get shitfaced in Utah without filling out an application form first.
Bartenders in Utah threw open their doors Wednesday as the state ditched a 40-year-old requirement that customers fill out an application, pay a fee and become a member of a private club before setting foot in a bar.
“It’s 40 years of oppression come to an end,” said Dave Morris, owner of the bar Piper Down in Salt Lake City.
Bad News: Karl Malden is dead at age 97.
Those two bits of news are allegedly unrelated, but we’ll keep digging until we get to the bottom of it.
(Thanks to Slog tipper Alex.)
More in NEWS
Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
Suite Deal
The longest hotel strike in Washington state history is over now that workers at the downtown Embassy Suites have a contract.
Mayor Katie Wilson Presents Gun Violence Prevention Plan
Wilson Flexed Her Authority to Make SPD Respect the CARE Department
Washington’s Republican News Site Gets Money from the Conservative Group Funding Anti-Trans Initiatives
A Reporter for the Site Is in Hot Water with the Attorney General’s Office
TikTok Made 9/11 a Catastrophe Among So Many Catastrophes
Why Walter Benjamin’s “Theses on the Concept of History” Is Relevant Today
The Lunch Lawyer
The Attorney Who Picks Fights With Seattle’s Most Famous Restaurants
What Does the “Mamdani Moment” Look Like in Seattle?
Instead of Speculating Like Everyone Else, We Asked the Local Democratic Socialists of America
You live in Utah. You receive word that Karl Malden has just died. What will you do. WHAT WILL YOU DO!
Go to a bar and order a Polygamy Porter, if you have any sense.
I’m sure Karl Malden had to have spent at least some time in Utah. Maybe he even had a drink or two there.
Regardless, goodbye, Karl. Truly an “actor’s actor.”
Are you still limited to 2.5 percent alcoholic beer?
You can pay for your beer in Utah with an American Express travelers check (do they still sell them?)
3: Pretty sure he’s stopped drinking… if you’re talking to Karl.
@ 3 Will: I lived in Utah in 2000 for work & you can only buy beer with no more than up 3.2% alcohol-content in regular grocery stores (you have to go to a state liquor store to get the more potent brew, such as Snowcap or most IPAs).
Additionally, there were pubs that did not require a “private club” membership, but they were limited to serve sub-3.2% beer and no wine nor hard liquor whatsoever. For example, one infamous non “private club” bar about half the size of the Pacific Inn *only* served 89 cent schooners of PBR and deviled eggs. You’d see patrons with *dozens* of schooners lined up in front of them in order to ensure a proper buzz (as much as one can derive a buzz from PBR).
The “private clubs” I patronized did serve the hard stuff, but each bottle had special auto-measuring spouts that basically ensured that you would not get a stiff gin & tonic (*and* you would pay considerably more than normal per drink). Also, when I went to see Murder City Devils at an SLC club, for example, an additional “temporary” membership fee was tacked onto the cover charge (and I had to sign up for said membership as well), unnecessary hoops to jump through just to go see one of my favorite bands.
I sincerely hope the lifting of the “private club” requirement will free some SLC establishments to embrace the freedom to pour away and follow the example of Seattle institutions such as Mecca and Canterbury.
I love it that a state with even more retarded liquor laws than ours has been able to repeal them. That’s amazing news. Utah is a state with organized retardation built into its history like few others, if they can do this, what does that say about us if we can’t reform our ass-ignorant liquor laws?
Oh and I really love it that there’s a bar called “Piper Down”!
Some of the best news ever.