Restaurant remodels limited by liquor panel

Liquor commissioners approved about 17 pages of rules Wednesday — including some intended to keep restaurants from expanding their existing bar areas before a new law takes effect.

That law eliminates private-club-membership requirements as of July 1, as well as the so-called "Zion curtain" glass barriers that separate customers from servers in the bar areas of restaurants.

While new restaurants will be required to prepare alcoholic drinks out of sight of customers, the law does allow existing restaurants to continue pouring and mixing in bar areas. Children will no longer be allowed to sit in the bar areas of "grandfathered" restaurants, either.

But some restaurants were talking about adding to their bar areas before that portion of the law takes effect May 12, said Earl Dorius, compliance director for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

And, he said, a few restaurants are considering temporarily installing the barriers and then tearing them down to create bar areas that weren't approved as part of their liquor licenses.

At issue is what lawmakers meant by the term "remodel." The law states that a bar area is no longer "grandfathered" once a restaurant remodels it.

"I think the clear intent of the Legislature was that they could take down the barrier and add a couple of seats to the existing bar structure," Dorius said.

The new rules dealing with restaurants, which became effective upon the commission's approval Wednesday, spell out that remodeling means any alternations that "extend the length of the existing structure to increase its seating capacity; or increase the visibility of the storage or dispensing area to restaurant patrons."

Had lawmakers thought restaurants would use the change to attempt to expand their bar areas or expose hidden drink preparations, Dorius said, that could have killed the effort to do away with private clubs, Utah's equivalent of bars.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. sought that change in the law to help make the state more tourist-friendly. The new requirements for the bar areas of restaurants were part of a compromise reached after weeks of closed-door negotiations.

Melva Sine, head of the Utah Restaurant Association, said the state had no right to tell restaurants what they can do to bar areas before the law takes effect. She said it should have been interpreted that what was there "as of May 12 is what's grandfathered in."

Only one member of the DABC commission questioned the new rules. Commissioner Kathryn Balmforth said she wanted more time to study them.

"I've not had a chance to compare to the statute to satisfy myself it will not expand the statute. I have a little bit of concern about the remodeling" allowed, Balmforth said, because it appeared to "include more than taking down a glass wall."

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