Today, July 1st, is a historic day in the history of Utah. This is the day that officially marked the end of one of the strangest and outdated liquor laws in the country. Today brings with it the end of private clubs in Utah.

At noon today, every former “private club” in Utah is officially now, just a bar. That means anyone over 21 can now walk into a bar without being hassled for their membership or being forced to pay a membership fee. Pub crawl anyone?

The whole private club law never really made sense to me, other that maybe a source of revenue to the state as a “sin tax”. Having to pay a membership fee never really discouraged anyone from drinking in Park City. It just made it a pain to explain our quirky laws to tourists over and over again, all winter long. Now tourists will be able to sample all of our fine Park City bars without being hassled at the door, and that is going to be good for business.

Sure, some bars and restaurants made some money through excessive private club fees, but I think the new law will make up for their losses with increased business from tourists and locals alike. We will all have more money to spend on beer now!

Before you run out to your favorite bar, there is one caveat you should know about. All former private clubs will now have bar code scanners that will scan your ID upon entry. These scanners will only be used on people that look around the age of 21 as a new way to combat fake ID’s. The information on your license will be stored locally by the scanners for 7 days, and then deleted. Only the DABC (or a cunning crook) will have access to this data. I know this is kind of Big Brother-ish, but it’s a fair trade for bringing an end to private clubs.

To celebrate this great freedom we now have in the state of Utah, head out to a few bars this weekend and create your own pub crawl. Who knows, maybe we’ll have full-strength beer sometime soon…

For a list of current nightlife events and places to grab a drink in Park City, check out Park City Voyeur.

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