THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Cheers to New Law
Author(s): CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Rhonda Hailes Maylett/The Salt Lake Tribune THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE  
Date: March 17, 2002

Boulder, a community whose long-standing desire to keep alcohol off the menu of local eateries turned into a tussle that went all the way to the Utah Supreme Court, is no longer a dry town. The first glass of beer for on-premise consumption in the town's 108-year-old history will be poured today at the Hell's Backbone Grill.

On Tuesday, the eatery will ask state regulators for a license to serve wine with meals. A special meeting of the Boulder Town Council on Wednesday gave the restaurant the required "local consent" for the liquor license application.

The switch is dramatic for a village whose size is distinctly disproportionate to the pages of legal briefs its battles over booze generated in federal and state courts during much of the past decade.

But the factors driving the change are as varied as the ingredients in the cocktail concoction known as Long Island Iced Tea. Consider that the first beer will be poured today in a restaurant run by Buddhists on a holiday named after a Catholic saint in a community formerly opposed to restaurant alcohol sales because of its Mormon heritage.

The most obvious influence for the change was the result of a voter referendum on the November local ballot. "Under Boulder town's current liquor ordinances, restaurants cannot serve alcoholic beverages," read the question. "Do you favor changing Boulder ordinances to allow alcoholic beverages to be served in restaurants?"

With little campaign or fanfare, the measure passed 56 in favor of changing ordinances to 49 against. The results were in contrast to a less-formal survey of residents taken in 1994, which found 56 against restaurants serving alcohol and 30 in favor.

The 1994 survey results prompted the town board to pass a 1995 ordinance prohibiting the local sale of beverages with more than 3.2 percent alcohol and then only for off-premise consumption. The result was that two convenience stores that had sold Utah's traditional half-strength beer for years continued to sell six-packs for take out, but restaurateurs were denied requests for the state-required "local consent" to apply for a restaurant liquor license.

When innkeeper Mark Austin asked the Boulder Town Council in 1995 why they wouldn't consent to his plan to serve alcohol with meals at his lodge restaurant, a town board member at the time explained that Boulder "was settled by Mormons who do not believe in the use of alcohol."

That "one improvident comment," as a district judge would later call it, triggered a long legal battle. At issue was whether a community could legally block the sale of strong drink by withholding local consent when there was a state mandate to "reasonably satisfy public demand for alcohol."

Ultimately, the Utah Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that Boulder had met state policy by polling its residents and then crafting laws based on those attitudes. But in the years since that first survey and the ensuing court battles, the demographic composition of Boulder changed, its population grew (from 126 in 1990 to 180 in the 2000 Census), and a tourist-based economy continued to emerge.

Along the way, town board members -- including the elected official who cited "religious reasons" for the ban -- left office, with one opening up his own local eatery. Austin, whose colorful criticisms of the town board were off-putting to some residents, sold his share of Boulder Mountain Lodge and Hell's Backbone Grill to a partner. He still lives in Boulder, developing luxury homesites outside of town.

'Just About Money': The Hell's Backbone Grill (named after the knife-edged ridge that snakes southward from Boulder) was taken over in 2000 by two women who moved from Arizona. Their Buddhist beliefs guided everything from the organic menu selections to the way they approached the town council when the subject of alcohol in restaurants came up again last year.

"I told them it wasn't about my belief in whether alcohol is right or wrong, or my rights as an American, it's just about money," said Blake Campbell, who operates the grill with business partner Jen Castle. "If I didn't need alcohol to swing this restaurant, I wouldn't have it, it's not that big a deal to me. But the hard economics are that it costs a lot to produce nice food and restaurants succeed because they buy alcohol and resell it for twice as much."

It was a frank admission akin to the "Mormon Country" comments heard years earlier on the same topic in the same room. The next day, Campbell remembers a town board member stopping by the restaurant to thank her for "not yelling at us about alcohol." He said he was rethinking his position.

Following the approval of the alcohol question, the town board allowed for restaurant sales of 3.2 beer in December, with Campbell and Castle applying and receiving the first on-premise city beer license for Hell's Backbone Grill. The amendment to allow liquor to be sold in Boulder came at a special meeting Wednesday night called to give the grill operators time to get on this month's waiting list for a state license.

Change in Attitudes: Boulder Town Clerk Judy Davis said the change in policy toward alcohol sales reflects a change in the majority of residents' attitudes.

"Both town boards were acting on the will of the people at the time," she said.

The result also may be a reflection that Boulder is no longer an isolated outpost that for the first 41 years of its existence was accessible only by pack mule.

"Growing up is always a struggle and across southern Utah it's a changing world and these liquor questions are part of the growing pains," said R. Scott Berry, the Salt Lake City attorney who represented Austin in his booze battles and who now owns a share of the Boulder Mountain Lodge. "The people in control of the political system were old ranching families from Boulder who never had much tie-in with the tourist economy and saw it as a bother or unwelcome addition to the mix. There's been some erosion of that belief."

Understanding Others: At the same time, a desire to develop a harmonious, rather than combative, relationship with the community probably helped Campbell and Castle make imbibing history in Boulder.

"They approached their business in a way that demonstrated by action and deed they wanted to be a part of the community and that probably broke down resistance," said Phillip Bimstein, former mayor of Springdale and Boulder's representative to the Utah League of Cities and Towns. "I don't drink myself but I applaud it when communities can allow diversity and, by understanding other people and realizing there's a connection between us all, reduce the polarization."

Campbell, whose restaurant fare is influenced by Mormon cooking, cowboy grub and Pueblo Indian cuisine, said she intends to serve only wine and beer with meals, not liquor -- even though state licenses provide for such.

"We've made a commitment to the town we are not serving hard alcohol, and that's not a problem because I've never felt hard liquor was necessary for a good meal," she said. "But when you tell a French tourist that they cannot have wine with dinner, it's like telling an American they can't have water. That's the most exhaustive part of my evening, trying to explain to customers why we don't have wine."