New movie bar SLC Pub brings screenings and Cincinnati chili dogs to the Gallivan Center

SLC Pub owner Scott Hanna agrees that the name of his new bar does sound like “SLC Punk,” the title of the 1998 filmed-in-Utah cult classic.

But aside from a few visual references, like the sign near the ceiling that reads, “Only posers don’t tip,” SLC Pub isn’t an “SLC Punk” bar.

Located in the Gallivan Center, it’s more of a movie-themed bar, Hanna said — one that has punk attitude at its heart.

“And, honestly, a lot of punkers love movies,” Hanna said.

On a recent Saturday, nostalgia seekers packed SLC Pub for a 2000s-themed bar crawl, and flicks were front and center.

Earlier in the evening, patrons watched 2000s films like “Bring It On” and “Mean Girls.” Later in the night, though, Hanna put on the 1980s classics “Predator” and “Aliens,” to go with the bar’s Sci-Fi Saturday theme.

Even the cocktails are named after movie titles and references, like the Eraserhead, the Little Miss Sunshine and the Smile YSOB (bonus points if you can name the 1975 film).

It only helps that Hanna has a “crazy memory” for movies and music, he said, all augmented by him participating in the film production program at Salt Lake Community College.

Movies as an ‘escape’

At 43, Hanna is either a young Gen Xer or an older millennial. He’s at least old enough to have seen “Willow” in the movie theater, he said.

Until he was 9, his family lived in Cincinnati, Ohio — headquarters of Procter & Gamble, where his dad worked.

Every summer, the family would load up their Ford van and drive across the country to visit Hanna’s grandparents in Oregon or his grandma in Utah, Hanna said.

He remembers the van had a small TV that would hook up to the cigarette lighter, along with a Betamax machine, and once the sun was down, Hanna and his siblings would watch an edited-for-TV version of the 1983 comedy “Vacation” on a loop.

Hanna’s family belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he said his parents only allowed him to watch R-rated and racier PG-13 movies if they’d been sanitized for TV.

But Hanna still found ways to see the movies he wanted. He went to a friend’s house to “sneak watch” “Batman Returns” when his parents worried the PG-13 film was too violent, he said. And somehow, he got in to see the R-rated “Predator 2″ in a theater — when he was 8.

As he was growing up in Ohio and, eventually, Utah, Hanna decorated his room with posters for movies like “Young Guns,” the 1989 “Batman,” the 1990 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and, a couple of years later, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” — which he remembers sneaking into the old University Mall theater in Orem to see when he was 10.

Years later, when he got the chance to start a bar in the former Coterie space — where he’d worked as a barback and manager when it was known as Good Grammar — he said he wanted it to be filled with TVs playing movies, since he was going to be hanging out there all the time.

Now, patrons of SLC Pub can look up and see the same posters that once adorned the walls of Hanna’s bedrooms — the “Batman” poster is actually an insert he tore out of a magazine, he said. And there’s also a poster for his all-time favorite movie, “The Crow,” with the quote, “It can’t rain all the time.”

Movies are “something I’ve always been able to emotionally connect with,” Hanna said. “Growing up in a strict and mostly angry religious house, it was an escape as well. [Movies] and music, it’s the kind of love you feel deep and might not have the words to properly explain it, but it’s always there.”

Offerings at SLC Pub

SLC Pub has only been open since Sept. 5, a Friday night that saw a full house with a line out the door, Hanna said. The following night, he said there were about 50-60 people outside waiting to get in.

Hanna said some excitedly thought that Good Grammar — which had been popular with younger crowds — had returned, but were upset when they saw the former dance floor had been taken over by secondhand couches.

He’d like SLC Pub to have a more mature vibe, where you can pull up one of those couches and watch a movie. On opening weekend, “a lot of [patrons] were still loving it,” he said.

For the bar’s grand opening, Hanna also experimented with having DJ Cosmic Fold do a set of emo, goth and ’80s alternative music as “Poltergeist” and “Donnie Darko” played on the TVs.

“It was super cool, so I definitely want to keep running with that,” Hanna said of pairing movies and music.

There’s also a small stage to accommodate live bands, and local art on display. The artists will rotate monthly; until October, the featured artist is Nick Polito, with his frenetic graffiti art.

As far as munchies go, SLC Pub doesn’t have a full kitchen, but Hanna is still introducing patrons to an Ohio staple called a Cincinnati chili dog.

It’s a hot dog in a bun that’s doused in a type of chili that’s famous in Ohio — a beanless “meat gravy” that contains unsweetened baking chocolate — and topped with an “absurd” amount of cheddar cheese, plus hot sauce, mustard and onions if you so desire, Hanna said.

At SLC Pub, you can get a Cincinnati chili dog for $5, or two for $9.

“You need good pub food if you’re going to be here watching a movie,” Hanna said.

He’d like to keep SLC Pub affordable, too. For $5, patrons can get the shot and a beer special, with a Coors or a PBR paired with a shot of well tequila, rum or whiskey.

And Hanna plans to establish a slate of themed nights every week, including Horror Movie Night on Fridays and Whiskey Wednesdays, along with Family Home Evening on Mondays, a tongue-in-cheek event designed to welcome former Latter-day Saints, like him.

“I’m really trying to turn this into a neighborhood bar,” for the after-work crowd and for the residents of the new apartment buildings that have been popping up downtown, Hanna said. “... I’m hoping they’ll just come in for a beer and a chili dog every once in a while — ex-Mormon or not."