A contentious meeting of Utah’s liquor commission ended in a liquor license being denied to a bar owner who has accused the agency of targeting him and his businesses because of his support for Palestine.
On Thursday, Apparition — a new rum and cider bar in Salt Lake City’s Ballpark neighborhood, owned by activist Michael Valentine — was on the agenda for the monthly meeting of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS).
The commissioners easily approved liquor licenses for a Salt Lake City bar and a South Salt Lake brewery.
But when the question of Apparition’s liquor license came up, DABS chair Stephen Handy had strong words for Valentine, who had posted an Instagram video earlier this week saying he was planning on suing the agency whether he got a license or not.
As Valentine stood at the podium with his attorney, Handy spoke about beekeeping, saying that when beekeepers harvest honey, “they don’t want to disturb the nest. They want to make sure that the bees are happy, that the bees are going to produce.”
Handy continued, “What you have done is that you have disturbed the production of the honey. ... You poked unnecessarily the bee nest, the hornet nest, and it’s got everyone all upset and real frothy about things.”
In response, Valentine said he was disappointed by DABS and by Handy’s comments, saying he had expected an apology from the agency.
“If this was routine, I wouldn’t be here,” Valentine said. “I wouldn’t be wasting my time month after month after month. I would be operating my business. So it’s absolutely abhorrent of you, Stephen, to say this is my fault for me responding to me being targeted by a state agency.”
Valentine added that the board and DABS staff “are all beholden to the public.”
Valentine’s dispute with the DABS goes back to when he had his bar, Weathered Waves, at The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. That bar made headlines last year after Valentine banned Zionists from the bar in support of Palestine. Valentine alleges that after word got out about the ban, a DABS spokesperson gave about 70 “fake complaints” to news outlets, which reported the story.
At Thursday’s meeting, Valentine said the story reached “international proportions” after the “fake complaints” were brought to light, and that he received death threats.
In 2024, after Valentine’s March 4 post announcing the ban on Instagram, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that DABS spokesperson Michelle Schmitt said the department had received 71 emails and an unspecified number of phone calls from people “voicing concerns” about the ban.
All the emailed complaints to DABS were “from people concerned the business owner is wrongfully discriminating,” Schmitt said at the time — while all but one of the phone calls made to DABS reflected the same sentiment. The sole other caller, Schmitt said, supported the bar’s freedom of speech.
The agency asked Sean Reyes, who was Utah’s attorney general at the time, to investigate whether Valentine’s anti-Zionist ban was illegal. In April 2024, an opinion from the attorney general’s office said that the ban was ill-advised but not illegal.
At Thursday’s meeting, Handy told Valentine that “you’re not being picked on and you’re not being singled out. You really are not, Mr. Valentine.”
Handy continued, “And I don’t care a fig about your political leanings. ... I don’t care about your voicing those views. I don’t care about your political aspirations. They have nothing to do with with what we’re considering here.”
Valentine’s attorney, Janelle Bauer, told commissioners that since his license application was complete, “you don’t have discretion here. You have to grant his license.”
Commissioners disagreed, saying that they had discretion when it came to Valentine’s ability to manage a bar.
Commissioner Tom Jacobson brought up issues that Valentine had with his landlord at The Gateway, Vestar, which had filed a complaint against Weathered Waves in May 2024 alleging that the bar was overdue on rent and had violated its lease by changing its name without Vestar’s approval.
“Why do you get into a fight with the landlord about this?” Jacobsen asked Valentine. “Why are you getting into a fight with the alcohol beverage services department about things? ... Most people who run businesses are well aware that you try to find the peaceful solution to any issue you have with your landlord, with a regulatory agency.”
Jacobson, who is Jewish, also said, “I know that several people in this community have felt excluded by this particular establishment in its past.”
During the meeting’s public comment period, Steve English, from Lehi, spoke at the podium and said he was one of the 70 “fake complainants” Valentine was talking about.
Addressing the commission, English said, “I’m here as a Zionist, one of the few in Utah, to also mention that not only are you to serve every citizen and protect us, I came here to just be able to exist and not have to be harassed” by Valentine.
Another commenter, Salt Lake City resident Mario Ruiz, spoke in support of Valentine. Ruiz said the bar owner had been prejudiced against for political reasons. “I think that if he had put up something saying, ‘No Nazis are welcome, no white supremacists are welcome,’ we wouldn’t even be here,” Ruiz said.
DABS executive director Tiffany Clason said that she wasn’t going to apologize to Valentine for his license application being delayed. She said her staff had to look into claims that Apparition was violating state liquor policy by being too close to a “community location” — a church, in this case.
“We have been very patient, and we have been equitable, and we have been fair with this applicant, as well as other applicants that have had proximity concerns or issues that we’ve needed to resolve,” Clason said.
In the end, the motion to approve the license application for Apparition failed on a tie vote of 3-3.
Valentine posted a video on Instagram after the meeting, with a caption that read, “Time to go to court.”
Before rejecting Valentine’s application, the commission approved a license to a bar, Sapa’s Next Door at 726 S. State St., Salt Lake City, in the former location of Burt’s Tiki Lounge. It also approved a license for Chappell Brewing at 2285 S. Main St., South Salt Lake.
Four new restaurants received licenses as new limited-service applicants:
• Range Steakhouse, 2264 S. Main St., Nephi.
• Maru Handroll, 636 S. 200 West, Salt Lake City.
• Sugar House Pizza, 1063 E. 2100 South, Salt Lake City (dual license with Fiddler’s, in the same building but separated with different entrances, Schmitt said).
• UT Craft Ramen, 7662 S. Union Park Ave., Midvale.
Restaurants that received full-service liquor licenses include:
• Sapa Sushi Bar & Grill, 722 S. State St., Salt Lake City.
• Braza Grill, 1873 W. Traverse Parkway A, Lehi .
• Sinaloa Downtown SLC, Salt Lake City.
• Grizz’s Bites & Brews, 1551 N. Riverview Drive, Moab.
• Sugar House Station, 155 S. Highland Drive, Salt Lake City.
• Side of Aloha, 11580 District Main Drive, Suite 100, South Jordan.
• Saffron Valley, 1098 S. Jordan Parkway W, Suite 102, South Jordan.
• Peace on Earth Coffee, 4534 W. Partridge Hill Lane, Riverton.
• Monte, 2245 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake City, projected opening June 1.
• HallPass, 153 S. Rio Grande St., Salt Lake City, projected opening June 1.
• La Casa Del Tamal, 500 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City, projected opening date July 22.
• Taormina Ristorante Italiano, 439 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City, projected opening date Sept. 2.
Note to readers • This story has been updated to remove a portion of a quote that had an unclear context.
