I am flying to Columbus from Salt Lake today, and I spent the night in a hotel last night.

The hotel didn't have a bar.

They did have a restaurant, which served wine and beer only to those who were eating. Why? Utah state law requires that if you want to drink, you can only do so if you order food. WTF!?!?

So I go to Applebees. Sadly, the same law applies here. So I order Captain and Coke. No doubles. Utah state law forbids it. Son of a bitch! There is something called a sidecar, which is an extra shot of liquor you can get along side you drink to add it, but no, Utah outlawed it last summer.


Sadly, it is actually improved last summer. They were actually allowed to serve me the drink across the bar. Before last summer, they had to walk it around the bar.

At least they did away with the proposal that all alcohol be kept and mixed behind a wall that was a t least ten feet tall.

Utah is messed up. I deal with the LDS (Mormons) a lot out here, and they are good people. I am not anti-Mormon. However, they dictate morality, like several other religions. What I do on my own time that doesn't effect you is none of your business.

I am still going to drink the same amount of alcohol, so just knock this crap off.

You can not legislate morality. Period.

Yeah, friend of mine from LA visited Utah and was equally pissed off. Horrible state if you like to have a drink.

UTAH IS NOT FOR FUN PPL OBVI

It really is a shame, because they are hurting economically, and Nevade and West Wendover is only 90 miles away, as well as Evanston wyoming, and both towns have bars, racetracks, or casinos, and Utah just bleeds money, much like the Ohio border cities like Cincinnati. Salt Lake has some great breweries, but they could have so much more if they just let up a little. I know there have been a few restaurants that passed Salt Lake over because of this. This is beyond dictating morality now, this is costing tax revenue and jobs.

Looks like I will not be moving to Utah.

When 60% of your electorate has the same moral ideology (in theory), legislation of morality is bound to happen.

They don't call it Salt Lake City for nothing.

Interestingly enough, Salt Lake is actually rather liberal and progressive, and is not run by the LDS. Salt Lake is just being held back by the rest of the state.

At the Garden in Boston, if you are from out of state you must be 25 to order a drink at any concession stand. I feel like this is illegal in some way, but apparently not.

wildcats20 wrote: At the Garden in Boston, if you are from out of state you must be 25 to order a drink at any concession stand. I feel like this is illegal in some way, but apparently not.

What....the....

Yeah, that does blow. Remember that now. If you have an out-of-state ID, you can't get a drink unless you're 25+. I think it's so that the concession stand workers don't have to memorize other state IDs.

gorocks99 wrote: Yeah, that does blow. Remember that now. If you have an out-of-state ID, you can't get a drink unless you're 25+. I think it's so that the concession stand workers don't have to memorize other state IDs.

That's what the guy told us. I was only 23 at the time and my bro was about to turn 25; I think it was the week before his bday. Needless to say we were pissed, but my bro also works for GE and had his buddies there so we just went up to one of the GE boxes.

I just got a Massachusetts ID ... solved the problem

gorocks99 wrote: I just got a Massachusetts ID ... solved the problem

Right, my brother was in "program" with GE and was only there for 6 months. I don't know why he didn't just get an ID.

wildcats20 wrote: At the Garden in Boston, if you are from out of state you must be 25 to order a drink at any concession stand. I feel like this is illegal in some way, but apparently not.

Makes sense. No one uses a fake ID from the state you're in, they are always out of state to make it more difficult to recognize as a fake. Any establishment can refuse to serve alcohol to anyone they want, so this is probably a venue rule, not a law. My guess is they probably got in trouble for serving underage people with fake ID's and this solves this issue. I've been in places before where you wouldn't be served if you didn't have ID. You could be 90 and if you didn't have ID on you, you were drinking pop. It's a smart and safe way to operate.

Try living in Utah back in the late 80's. It used to be bring your own bottle and the bar would sell you the mixers. Some/most places required a Menbership Fee, pretty much paying to enter the establishment.

Their liqiuor laws aren't as bad as it used to be. I thank God that it was NOT like that on the Base.

Not 100% relevant here, but there are some bars in NY and NJ that only let guys in if they are 25, while the girls have to be 21. Keeps some of young college guys out I guess, which I assume leads to less fighting and all that comes with it. Not many bars, just a handful.

Jeez, and I thought it was bad enough in Virginia when the Commonwealth has a monopoly on retail liquor sales.

Try going to college in a dry county - I lasted one year.

Does Kansas still have that crazy law which allowed only the sale of beer (and 3.2 beer at that) in bars?

When I was in the Ohio Air National Guard in the 80's we did a 2 weeks summer training camp one year at Wendover Airfield in Wendover, Utah and West Wendover, Nevada.

If you've never visited the place, Wendover is on the border of Utah and Nevada. On the Nevada side of the town you find bars and a few hotel casinos not unlike what you might find in Las Vegas. The Utah side has basically nothing except for a store or two and some residential areas.

You have to picture this place as a bizarre "twin cities" of paradox. The towns are side-by-side but both are governed by states with completely different legal standards; one influenced by Las Vegas and the other by Salt Lake City.

During WWII the base served as the training grounds for the Enola Gay crew that eventually dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

With a combined population of about 5,000 residents, both towns are located quite literally in the middle of nowhere in the southwestern desert mountains. At night one side is a lively neon city with bars (no drinking problems here!) and the other side is sleepy (and dry). The closest city of any size is Salt Lake City 100 miles east.

Wendover Airbase was turned over to the twin towns and now receives one or two commercial 737 flights a day carrying gamblers.

The historical significance of the towns based in the middle of the desert coupled with the existing LDS vs. Vegas political situation makes this a an interesting but bizarre place to visit!

The Mormons are too busy practicing polygamy to concern themselves with this.

BRF wrote: The Mormons are too busy practicing polygamy to concern themselves with this.

Where do i sign up? lol

And the thing about the Mormons is that it's THE MAN having many wives.............no PC reversal!!!

Yes, where do you sign up for something like this?

Don't go to Utah ever again.

wildcats20 wrote: At the Garden in Boston, if you are from out of state you must be 25 to order a drink at any concession stand. I feel like this is illegal in some way, but apparently not.

I feel like I've heard this story before.