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To the lingering question of how many — if any — restaurants there will be in the City Creek Center that serve alcohol, the answer is five, but the names of only two of them are being revealed.
Liquor permits were issued Thursday for the Cheesecake Factory and the Texas de Brazil steakhouse, which are set to open next March in the shopping/retail area of the massive City Creek Center development bankrolled by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in downtown Salt Lake City.
Three others also will be serving alcohol, said Steve Barth, representing Taubman Centers Inc., a prominent mall owner and developer, but he declined to name them.
As for other tenants that will be populating the open-air mall stretching the length of two city blocks, consumers will have to wait for that information, too, because Taubman isn't saying. "We aren't ready to make our announcements yet and that's all we can say at this time," Karen MacDonald, Taubman's director of communications, said by email Thursday.
Taubman is partnering in the retail center with the LDS Church, which is developing the $1.5 billion office-retail-residential project and which strongly discourages its members from drinking alcohol.
All involved have been juggling how to allow individual restaurants to pour booze — considered key for profit margins — while not violating the faith's stricture. Utah-based Blue Lemon, the first eatery to open in the City Creek development, does not serve alcohol.
Although Cheesecake Factory is known for large bar areas, bartenders in the City Creek location will have to mix drinks in back rooms to comply with a recently enacted Utah law that prohibits mixing alcohol in public view. Cheesecake Factory's other Utah location, in Fashion Place mall in Murray, is exempt because its bar was constructed before the law went into effect, in January 2010.
The law's passage was driven, in part, by some liquor-control commissioners and legislators who objected to bars in restaurants, which they say clouded the distinction between family-orientated eateries and liquor establishments. The Cheesecake Factory was one of several restaurants singled out for criticism.
Attorney Jon Butler, representing the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday at the monthly meeting of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said the City Creek restaurant will have seating for 350 diners. It will have a bar, similar to the chain's floor plan in other states, but under the law there will be unopened liquor bottles on display and the bar won't be operational.
A representative for Texas de Brazil said no decision has been made on its bar area.
Liquor-control commissioners were able to award restaurant licenses Thursday, thanks to a new state law that went into effect in July, which increased the number of available permits. Under the permits, patrons are required to order food with drinks, and restaurant sales may not exceed 30 percent from alcohol purchases.
Lawmakers, however, have refused to increase the number of club permits, which allow serving of liquors and beers, and no more licenses will be available for up to two years because of the state's quota system. Eighteen applicants are waiting for those permits. Some club owners are serving only beer, while others are operating under temporary seasonal permits.
Tribune reporter Lesley Mitchell contributed to this story
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