Liquor officials to consider changes to Utah restrictions
The issue is on the agenda for next Thursday's Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission meeting, but the commissioner pushing for the change said Friday she'll postpone the discussion until another meeting when there's more time available.
"That should be something we discuss and do right," the new commissioner, Bobbie Bicknell Coray, said of attempting to ease restrictions on bars in restaurants that sometimes result in glass or other barriers.
At last month's meeting, Coray raised the issue of doing away with the so-called "Zion Curtain" that keeps servers from passing food and drinks, including non-alcoholic ones, over a restaurant bar.
Earl Dorius, regulatory director for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said there are also other ways restaurants technically comply with the law banning service where alcohol is stored or dispensed.
Those include small walls at the end of a bar area between customers and where drinks are poured or even tucking the bartender and the alcoholic beverages back in the restaurant's kitchen, Dorius said.
"Certainly, we don't want to see restaurants become bars," Dorius said, with bartenders mixing drinks in front of customers and passing them directly over a bar as is done in the state's private clubs.
What likely won't change, he said, are requirements that 70 percent of a restaurant's sales be in food and customers drink only if they are also eating. But state lawmakers could consider banning underage customers from the bar area of restaurants, Dorius said.
Coray said that and other quirky Utah liquor laws should be the subject of a public hearing. While that is not on the Thursday meeting agenda, Coray said she expects commissioners to talk about how best to get public input.
Much of the meeting however, will be devoted to a public hearing on how the alcohol content of flavored malt beverages and energy drinks should be labeled. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. Thursday at the DABC office, 1625 S. 900 West, and the meeting follows at 11 a.m.
Commissioners are also looking at a new rule that would take flavored malt beverages, sometimes called "alcoholpops because of their appeal to young drinkers, out of supermarkets and allow them to be sold only in state liquor stores.
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com
Recent comments
That's exactly the problem Heinee, when people like you say."Just...
Richard | June 10, 2008 at 7:14 p.m.
I don't care what anyone says. Alcohol in any form whether that be...
Heinee | Jan. 30, 2008 at 11:31 a.m.
Utah will never change the laws on this matter they make more money...
Fax | Nov. 24, 2007 at 8:24 a.m.
- Logan canal breaks; people missing 3:58 p.m.
- Man's body found 3:47 p.m.
- 'Love advocates' plan 'kiss-in' 3:46 p.m.
- Many-splendored container garden 3:29 p.m.
- California's $26B deficit 3:25 p.m.
- Eat your squash and blossoms 3:21 p.m.
- Searchers shovel seeking giant worm 3:18 p.m.
- Crash kills Arizona woman 3:13 p.m.
- Lost crab pots 2:56 p.m.
- Lightning delays shuttle launch 2:54 p.m.
- Jazz brass debate Millsap match
- LDS seminary principal arrested
- 2 men cited on LDS plaza
- Jazz finances not quite so bleak
- Reactions on Boozer speculation
- Utahns among Texans' investors
- Cash for Clunkers to get rolling soon
- HBO defends U. logo use in 'Love'
- Jazz rookies quiet Thunder youngsters
- 10 years after the flood
- LDS seminary principal arrested
290 - Jazz brass debate Millsap match
183 - 2 men cited on LDS plaza
143 - Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
141 - Jazz talking Boozer trade?
140 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
124 - Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
99 - Fairness of BCS debated
83 - Letters: Single-payer system best
76 - Services bids farewell to Jackson
70
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
wow! i cant believe this! he was a great man and no one expected this. he...
Just another example of the skewed world of professional sports...true...
wow!! he lied to so many!!!!!!
I forgot what I was going to say. Let's go ride bikes!
I have had it up to here......next time I am voting for Prop Hate!
Everyone here blames the victim over the teacher in these cases...regardless...
"friend says..." dang typos.
LDS institutions will not crack down more on this issue...they tend to...
In economic bad times if your neighbor is out of a job, it's a recession. If...
Nice Turns, Tatiana! Nice behind too ;)

