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After about 70 years in business, Salt Lake City's iconic Little America Hotel will finally come of age this week, opening its first bar.
On Tuesday, the state liquor commission granted one of two available club licenses to the hotel's Lucky H Bar & Grill. The license allows guests to enjoy a cocktail, beer or glass of wine without also having to order food. Businesses with club licenses also are not required to have a 7-foot barrier — which critics call a Zion Curtain — to keep drinks out of view of minors.
"It's the first club we've ever had," said General Manager Ed Box after the meeting.
He said Little America hosts thousands of guests each year, many from out of state who find Utah's restaurant liquor laws "confusing" and "hostile."
When the hotel began planning a $65 million renovation now underway, adding a bar became part of the plan, he said. "With the remodel, we decided it was time to step it up."
The Lucky H Bar is in the hotel's old dining room area and is named after one of the ranches that hotel founder Earl Holding and his family operated, Box said. Lucky H has been operating as a restaurant for two months while the hotel waited for approval of the club license.
The commission Tuesday also gave a club license to Fletcher's, an upscale lounge on Park City's Main Street. Owner Steve Demarest waited 14 months for a license, twice as long as Little America.
Little America, which had only been in the list since May, jumped ahead of four businesses that had been waiting longer, including: 'Bout Time Pub & Grub, in Park City; Bistro 222 and Salt Flats Grill, in Salt Lake City; and the Pelican's Pub in Vernal.
The hotel "has been in our community so many years," commissioner Olivia Vela Agraz said, "I'd like to have a drink there."
Now, 11 Utah businesses are waiting for a club license, which become available when bars close or when there are population increases. Most applicants wait at least a year to get one.
Waiting hurts businesses like Avenues Proper, a Salt Lake City restaurant and brewery that is now seventh on the wait list.
"When customers learn they have to purchase food to try the beer, they leave," co-owner Andrew Tendick told the board.
He said some 300 Avenues residents have signed a petition and leaders of the Avenues Community Council have written letters of support for the club license.