The hangover

The Utah Legislature is not the most likely place to find a mass case of beer-induced amnesia. But that appears to be exactly what happened, with lawmakers waking up, rubbing their eyes and wondering just how it happened that a new set of rules apparently intended to apply only to the dispensing of hard liquor and wine is being enforced in beer-only restaurants.

And how did that tiger get in the bathroom?

Lawmakers were questioned about complaints from current and potential Utah restaurateurs over new rules to force all visible evidence of the dispensing of alcohol, even in establishments that offer nothing stronger than 3.2 beer, behind the so-called Zion curtain. No one involved had any clear memory of how that came to be.

The new rules will only affect beer-serving restaurants that open after Jan. 1. But it is already being attacked by restaurant owners who are wondering, again, whether a state that goes on and on about how business-friendly it is is really such a promising spot for anything in the hospitality sector.

It is another example of how an overactive disdain for alcohol can numb the thought processes almost as much as an unhealthy affection for it can.

Call it legislating under the influence.

When he was governor, the politician formerly known as Jon Huntsman Jr. pushed Utah a long way toward modernizing its antiquated liquor laws. But since Huntsman took off to be ambassador to China, to run for president, and to drop the “Jr.” from his name, the backsliding has been rapid.

So eager were they to force the mixing of cocktails into the back rooms of restaurants that offered full bar service, lawmakers apparently created the same standard for beer-only restaurants. That means that not only will all those elaborately decorated beer tap handles be pulled only in the sheltered area of such eateries, but also that servers won’t even be able to open a bottle or can in view of the patrons.

The law is not only absurd, it’s an orphan. Legislative leaders such as Senate President Michael Waddoups, Sen. John Valentine and Rep. Greg Hughes, instrumental in passing laws that aim to reduce the flow of alcohol in Utah, have only vague memories, if any, of how the beer rules came to be.

These restaurants are already so restricted — no full-strength beer, no more than 30 percent of revenue from beer, no beer sales to anyone who hasn’t also ordered food — that they don’t resemble bars or taverns and justify little in the way of added regulations.

Maybe, after they sleep this one off, lawmakers can allow beer to come out of the closet.