Font ResizeCocktails by Christmas?
Santa, with a green light from Salt Lake City, may be granting that wish at Jam in the Marmalade, after the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to amend its west Capital Hill zoning to allow full-service bars.
The vote culminates a two-year odyssey for co-owners Bob McCarthy and Brian Morris, who spent $200,000 to renovate a half-century old dive -- gambling the city eventually would approve the sale of full-service liquor for their gay clientele.
"It's been such a roller coaster ride," said McCarthy, co-owner of the stylish Marmalade bar at 751 N. 300 West. "I was surprised by the unanimous vote. We're elated."
Research compiled by city planners and cops, McCarthy contended, proved the business can be compatible with the neighborhood. "It is barely treading water," he added. "This will hopefully make the bar successful."
Next hurdle: Scoring one of the fast-dwindling liquor licenses from the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bar owners hope to secure a conditional-use permit Dec. 9, prior to their hearing before the DABC later next month.
"From what they're telling us, it shouldn't be an issue," Morris said. "They're well aware of our circumstance."
As a condition of amending the five-block mixed-use zone, the council will require Jam include a parking-management guideline with its security plan. That will include signs telling patrons to enter and exit from 300 West,
Other conditions include designating an outdoor smoking area, buffering the bar from surrounding properties with landscaping, prohibiting live or loud music outside, keeping trash cleared and the building free of graffiti, and having a Jam representative meet with neighbors to resolve complaints.
Earlier this year, the council approved a similar measure, amending the "residential mixed use" zoning east of downtown so that beer tavern Andy's Place - on the corner of 500 East and 300 South - could also become a so-called social club.
Last month, the Planning Commission voted 8-1 to recommend the change for Jam.
That followed a significant makeover of the bar, which now offers modern lighting, high-end fixtures, bamboo floors and a top-shelf sound system. Jam also had to overcome a proximity problem with Warm Springs Park by relocating the entrance.
But the owners' biggest obstacle was a group of self-described polygamists, some with ties to the Kingston family, who occupy homes just west of the bar. They argue regulars park in front of their driveways, toss beer bottles and cigarette butts into nearby yards and have little regard for the neighborhood. Other critics, who frequently ferried their kids to public hearings, insisted adding liquor to the beer-only menu would increase drunken driving.
Jam patrons countered that the club has become a community gathering place, promotes walkability, and actually will increase property values across Marmalade's emerging 300 West commercial corridor.
Councilman Luke Garrott said the case can and should be a model for future conditional-use permits. "Mixed use means mixed use, literally," he said. "We're moving forward in this neighborhood with an upgrade. We are not degrading the neighborhood. We are doing exactly the right thing here."
Told the process would take 30 to 60 days, Morris notes it took one year and one month. But martinis may yet flow in the Marmalade - just in time for the holidays.
