Utah restaurants welcome end to alcohol law
SALT LAKE CITY — A trendy downtown Salt Lake City seafood restaurant started business Saturday with glass-smashing and Champagne, a symbolic gesture in its emancipation from Utah’s Zion Curtains alcohol law.
The new liquor law went into effect Saturday, making wine, liquor and higher-alcohol beer more expensive while also allowing some restaurants to take down walls and partitions that were meant to prevent customers from seeing their alcoholic drinks being mixed and poured.
The broad liquor law passed in March eased a longtime requirement that drinks be prepared behind barriers known as Zion Curtains, typically glass walls or back rooms.
The Zion Curtain nickname is a reference to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which teaches its members to avoid alcohol and plays an influential role in state liquor policy.