The SunTrapp, Utah’s landmark LGBTQ+ bar, is back with a new owner and big plans

After Salt Lake City’s historic LGBTQ bar The SunTrapp reopened in early June, new owner Mary Peterson said she cried every time she talked about it “because I was just so overwhelmed with so much love.”

Peterson said she has experienced an outpouring of support, gratitude and praise from patrons ever since she put her life’s savings toward leasing the closed bar in March and getting to work on renovations around April.

“People are just so appreciative,” Peterson said.

On The SunTrapp’s Instagram account, people have left comments like “Nature’s healing,” and “We are SO back.”

During the bar’s grand opening on June 8, Peterson said a line of people wrapped around The SunTrapp at 102 S. 600 West and extended to The Metro Music Hall to the west.

That night, Peterson visited with people as they stood in line, some for more than two hours, for the chance to enter The SunTrapp.

“It was very, very humbling,” she said. “I was completely taken aback by the admiration and the excitement that was surrounding that place reopening. It was really incredible.”

While The SunTrapp wasn’t quite open in time for the Utah Pride Festival at the beginning of June, it will be open during SLC Pride, being held Saturday and Sunday at The Gateway, a couple of blocks away from the bar. The SunTrapp will be the official festival afterparty spot on Sunday. (For festival tickets, visit SLC-Pride.org.)

The SunTrapp surrendered its liquor license in March, after the bar had seemed to be on the brink of closure for the past two years. Peterson, who worked as the accountant of former SunTrapp owner Michael Goulding for almost five years, wouldn’t comment on why the bar eventually had to close its doors. Efforts to reach Goulding for this story were unsuccessful.

Peterson said she wants to focus on the future, and “move away from all of that past drama with ownership changes and closures and all that stuff.”

Closing ‘would be a tragedy’

Despite having no experience running a bar except on the financial side of things, Peterson, who describes herself as an ally of the LGBTQ community, said she has a personal connection to The SunTrapp.

Her daughter — who has worked security at The SunTrapp and will continue training security staff and working there as an administrative assistant — found community and acceptance at the bar, Peterson said.

Before going to The SunTrapp, Peterson’s daughter was “struggling with her own sexuality and feeling comfortable and stepping into herself,” Peterson said. “It literally took going to that space and being surrounded by other people in the community to help her step into who she truly was and feel confident about it and comfortable with it.”

Peterson said she felt the bar closing permanently “would be a tragedy for the community” and “detrimental to our youth.”

She officially entered into a lease for the building on March 1, and that agreement will be in place for the next five years, she said. The lease stipulates that if the trust that owns the building decides to sell it, Peterson will be the first to be offered the option to buy it. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services’ commission awarded a new liquor license to the bar on May 30.

“This opportunity fell before me for some reason,” she said. “I mean, I don’t have hindsight on what that reasoning is yet. But I do know how important [the bar] is to the community. And I am grateful that I am able to step into that position.”

Upgrading The SunTrapp

Acknowledging The SunTrapp’s history — its roots trace back to The Sun, Utah’s first gay bar, opened by Joe Redburn in 1973 — ”I just was really compelled to make sure that that bar did not change, and it stayed true to what it was intended to be,” Peterson said.

But she has been making some upgrades to the building, and people familiar with The Sun Trapp name may notice that it has been changed ever so slightly: It’s now The SunTrapp, one word.

Peterson said the 100-year-old building has needed a lot of foundational work, structural repairs and mold removal.

The bar’s restrooms were “in dire need of some love,” Peterson said, and she had to practically demolish all of them due to water damage and mold.

The restrooms, which are unisex, now have new floors, new drywall, fresh paint and new wallpaper. She read comments online about how people felt the partitions on the urinals were too small, so she put in urinals with larger partitions for increased privacy.

She also hired a cleaning company to clean the bar’s windows, “and they probably hadn’t been cleaned in 30 years on the outside,” she said.

“That was actually not a huge expense,” she continued. “But I tell you what, the difference between those windows from before they were cleaned to after was just insane.”

Next on her to-do list is resurfacing the dance floor. She’s also in the process of having the sound system redone, and putting speakers out on the patio.

Peterson has hired a cleaning crew to come do a deep clean of the bar once a week, to take care of the “nitty gritty” stuff. “I just think cleanliness is key to having a nice space,” she said.

She said she has been getting feedback from patrons who say it feels “so much better” inside The SunTrapp now, and that it has a “different aura.”

Even the “way too big” drink menu got dialed back “significantly,” she said. Peterson said the shorter version is now “much easier to understand,” although they’ve gotten requests to bring some of the axed drinks back. One of those is the cucumber Long Island iced tea, which has returned along with its other iterations in fruity flavors like grape, watermelon, peach and melon. Cocktails will still be served in Mason jars, in keeping with tradition.

As far as security goes, Peterson said restoring The SunTrapp’s reputation as a safe space for the queer community is “something that is going to have to happen over time.” She said security has been tightened, and that security measures include the use of bag searches and cameras.

Fun stuff coming up

Peterson said she and her team have a lot of ideas for activities and events they want to bring to The SunTrapp. Karaoke will be coming back, as well as drag shows, she said. Around the beginning of July, Peterson said on Sundays they’d like to start doing a queer flea market, where local LGBTQ artists can come and sell their work.

She said she has gotten a lot of requests for a ladies night at the bar. “One thing that the community in Salt Lake is expressing is there’s just not enough spaces for ladies, as far as gay bars are concerned,” she said.

Peterson said they’ve also talked about doing a Goth-themed night once a month, “because there is a big Goth following within the queer community. And I’ve gotten a lot of excitement and positive feedback about that.”