Dispelling the myth of a 'dry' Utah

Ken Wynn, Dennis Kellen and Earl Dorius are three men surrounded by alcohol. So much alcohol you wouldn't believe it. Not more than a hundred feet from where they sit on the west side of Salt Lake City there's a warehouse stocked full of everything liquid and fermented you can think of, and then some. There's a wine collection they claim is as good or better than any wine collection in the United States of America. There's imported beer. There's tequila from Mexico.

Tell these three men that there's nothing to drink in Utah and know what you'll get?

You'll get one of those kind of disbelieving stares Jerry Sloan gives NBA referees.

Nothing to drink in Utah and nowhere to drink it?!

Then why are they always having to restock the warehouse?

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Ken, Dennis and Earl are three of the directors of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and in addition to their regular duties as guardians of the state-run liquor monopoly — call them mega bartenders — they are extra busy these days trying to dispel all the pre-Olympic myths that Utah is a dry state.

This is no easy task. As Clinton showed us all, perception often trumps reality, and when it comes to Utah's liquor laws, perception regularly trumps reality.

Ken Wynn, for 25 years the director of the department, soberly trots out the numbers for the Olympic corridor.

In or near Ogden, Provo, Heber City, Park City, West Valley City and Salt Lake City there are 377 liquor-dispensing restaurants, 343 beer outlets, 242 "private" clubs and 76 state liquor stores and package agencies.

That's 1,038 places to find liquor within an hour of the Salt Lake Airport.

"That's more alcohol available than any Winter Olympics that's ever been," says Ken, who has heard more than once the suggestion that Utah's supposedly antiquated liquor laws will turn the Olympics into a quilting bee.

All a visitor, or anyone else, has to know to drink freely in Utah, Ken, Dennis and Earl agree, are two things:

One: at public restaurants you have to ask for the alcohol — it is not advertised — and you have to eat while you drink.

Two: private clubs aren't really private. They're open to anyone who pays the membership fee. For visitors, that means a $5 card that's good for a week and admits six people.

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