2 conservatives to bar-hop

"With Senator Waddoups and even Rocky, there are all these other issues we disagree on but we can agree that this is an important public health issue," Ray said.

The evening of "clubbing" will begin at the Gastronomy-owned Oyster Bar at 4:15 p.m. and will hit a few other smoke-free bars in downtown Salt Lake City, like the Red Door and the Tavernacle, according to Love Communications, which is promoting the event. The evening, dubbed "Smoke-Free SLC," should be over by 6 p.m. and will feature live interviews on KUTV Channel 2 News, the event's sponsor.

Gastronomy helped lead the charge this legislative session to ban smoking in private clubs and earlier this year made the decision to go smoke-free, joining a handful of other private clubs in Salt Lake City that already made the jump.

Ray said the outing will give him a chance to actually see Utah's club scene and know how it works under the state's controversial liquor laws.

The media will tag along, just as reporters were on Anderson's two previous bar-hopping trips. In 2001, he took national newspaper reporters to several Salt Lake City hot spots ahead of the 2002 Winter Games. Then, Anderson said he was trying to dispel the national perception that the city's nightlife was dull.

In 2003, the mayor took local reporters on a similar trek after reading several articles stating that downtown was dead.

Anderson is taking some flak from anti-drunk driving advocates who say the mayor may be encouraging young people to drink in his efforts to promote nightlife. The mayor downplayed those concerns, saying the night is "simply a classic example of very moderate social drinking."

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com