Thanks to a comprise to get the controversial lifting of private club membership requirements through the Legislature, existing restaurants with bars, or those under construction or with building permits as of Tuesday, are exempt — but they can't allow underage customers in the bar areas. It was Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. who sought the change in the private club law, to make the state more tourist-friendly. A group including lawmakers as well representatives of the industry, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worked out the compromise.

"We're trying to keep kids out of bars. That's the whole goal," said Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, the new law's sponsor. "If you blur the line so the bar and restaurant are the same thing, then you haven't achieved the policy goal of trying to control underage drinking."

Valentine included an incentive in the new law to help entice existing restaurants with bars to put up the new, opaque barriers around their dispensing and storage areas. Those that remodel can claim up to $30,000 of their costs as a credit toward liquor purchases from the state.

So far, though, no one has taken advantage of the offer.

"You never know with an incentive," Valentine said, adding he expects some restaurants will decide to do the remodeling before the offer runs out.

"It's sort of a long-term approach," he said, noting that the grandfathered restaurant bars won't be around forever. "It took us 40 years to get here."

Restaurants have until Dec. 31, 2011, to complete the remodeling necessary to qualify for the incentive, said Neil Cohen, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control compliance specialist.

Cohen predicted that some existing restaurants with bars could come to the conclusion it's better for their bottom line to remodel so drinks are prepared out of sight.

"They might decide it's a pain in the butt kicking out all these minors and their business is suffering," Cohen said. "They have some time."

But as of last week, a half-dozen applications for new restaurants with bars had been submitted to the state to meet the Tuesday deadline to operate under the current law, Cohen said.

Utah Restaurant Association head Melva Sine isn't surprised there's no interest in erecting new barriers to shield customers from alcohol.

"It's a legally sold product," Sine said, "and even though they don't go out of their way to promote the product, they don't go out of their way to hide it, either."