Walking into Heber Valley Brewing is more like a scene in “Cheers” than a big-city nightclub. No bouncer. No pulsating music. Just familiar faces and cold beer, said co-owner Greg Poirier.
“It’s the same people sitting in the same bar stools every single day at 3 o’clock. We call it the old man’s corner,” Poirier said, “although there’s some young ladies that join.”
Poirier said there are several other great places to hang out in Heber, like Melvin’s Public House, which hosts live music weekly. But as far as places to dance or do “evening activities,” Heber just isn’t that place, he said.
That’s why Poirier, and even Heber Valley’s tourism director, were surprised to see downtown Heber — perhaps best known as a bedroom community and stopping ground on the way to and from outdoor recreation — was ranked the No. 12 underrated nightlife destination in the United States.
Wealth of Geeks, a digital magazine, set out to find “exceptional nightlife scene(s) with a more localized flavor” outside of “well-known party hubs” like New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, the Las Vegas strip and South Beach, Miami. They determined the No. 1 underrated destination was Sawtelle Japantown in Los Angeles, followed by Cooper-Young in Memphis, then Greenwood, South Carolina. The only destination that ranked higher than Heber and had a smaller population was Hallowell, Maine, which ranked No. 11 and has a population of less than 3,000, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
To make these determinations, the magazine said in a news release that they “canvassed the opinions of 3,000 partygoers around the country” to inform their rankings. But they did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s follow-up questions about what exactly they asked those partygoers, so it’s hard to know why they ranked Heber (or any other city) where they did.
Overall, the magazine noted that Heber’s downtown has a “mix of historic charm and vibrant nightlife options.” According to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services, there is just one fully licensed bar in the city — Heber Valley Brewing — and six restaurants with full-service bars.
The ranking mentions Poirier’s brewery, as well as Melvin’s, as establishments that set the less-than-18,000-resident town apart. They lauded the former’s “relaxed setting with local brews,” as well as Melvin’s “welcoming atmosphere with craft beers and good food.”
Dallin Koecher, Heber Valley’s director of tourism, admitted in his June “director’s letter” that he, like a Deseret News columnist who wrote about the ranking, was “understandably shocked” by it. However, he took issue with claims the town was “best known as a passthrough town,” where people don’t spend an hour, “let alone an entire night.”
“That may have been the case several years ago, possibly pre-2002,” Koecher wrote, “but ever since then, we have been on the rise, and more is yet to come.”
Koecher said people visit to enjoy the nearby trail network, state parks and reservoirs, as well as its golf course and spa. And local restaurants, too. Koecher counted 40 throughout the valley — more than just Dairy Keen and the iconic Heber Valley Railroad.
“Now, to be fair, Heber City and the Heber Valley don’t have the type of nightlife to claim a spot on an undiscovered list such as this one. However,” Koecher said, “this is changing.”
He pointed to the the “renaissance of investment” in Midway City, and said Heber is “also on the verge of something great as revitalization efforts are well underway.”
The goal, he said, was to give locals destinations in their community so their tax dollars are spent on upgrades closer to home.
Poirier said much of his clientele are locals, who live in Heber but work in nearby Park City, or recreation enthusiasts stopping by after a day of fly fishing, hiking or skiing. But many places, he said, currently stop serving alcohol before 10 p.m.
“So, again, the nightlife connotation kind of threw me for a loop, but as far as restaurants and places to have a beverage after snowmobiling or fly fishing ... we just always seem to be busy,” he said, “and getting busier all the time.”