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The new Wasatch Brew Pub in Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood may have opened Sept. 19, but its elegant stainless-steel taps have only served conversation — not beer.
"We cannot actually use the taps to pour beer until we get a dining club license," marketing director Judy Cullen said last week.
Wasatch finally got that coveted club license from the state liquor commission on Tuesday. It was one of two club licenses available in September. (Red Rock Junction in Park City received the other.)
Blame the Wasatch glitch on Utah's controversial Zion Curtain law.
In the 12 days between opening and getting the club license, Wasatch was forced to operate with a full-service restaurant license from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC). And under state law, restaurants must pour and mix alcoholic beverages behind a 7-foot barrier, something dining and social clubs are not required to do.
So Wasatch created a small room with a door where it poured beer and made cocktails. Now with the club license, the metal walls soon will come down and customers can watch beer flow freely from the specialty taps.
Doug Hofeling, Wasatch's chief operating officer, told liquor commissioners that Wasatch needed the club license to be competitive in the new Sugar House redevelopment, which includes residential and retail space and is close to Salt Lake City's new "S" line streetcar system.
"Help us tear down this wall," he said, noting that the unused taps are too expensive to use simply as decoration.
In addition to the expense of building a barrier, Hofeling said Wasatch struggled to create a wall that would meet the DABC's "permanent" structure requirements yet still could be easily removed when the club license was finally granted.
"It almost prevented us from opening," he said.
The new Wasatch Brew Pub, at 2100 South and Highland Drive, is a sister to Wasatch Brew Pub in Park City. It also is the fifth pub operated by Salt Lake Brewing Co. The 5,200-square-foot space seats about 260 guests and has a modern, urban feel, with exposed ceilings, full-length windows, barn-wood accents and a metal staircase leading to a mezzanine dining area overlooking the main dining room.
After waiting nearly eight months for a club license, Hofeling said Wasatch now plans to apply for package agency license and a manufacturing license from DABC so that it can brew on-site and sell ice-cold Wasatch beers directly from the facility.
Utah club licenses become available when there's an increase in the state's population or when current clubs close their doors. Availability varies from month to month. Sometimes there are two, other months there are zero. After Tuesday's meeting, 10 businesses are still on the waiting list.