SPRINGDALE, Utah — At Switchback Liquor outside Zion National Park, Marie Payne serves a lot of tourists.
"We're the only state liquor store for probably 30 miles," she told FOX 13 News. "The next closest state liquor store is in Hurricane."
She tries to accommodate all sorts of tourists.
"A lot of tourists will say, 'You know, we're just here for the night or we're here just for a couple of days. We don't want a great big bottle. We just want a little mini-bottle do you have those?'" she said. "And it's like, 'No, we don't. The smallest we have is a pint or a half-pint.' Sometimes that's enough and sometimes they'll walk away and say, 'No, we don't even need that much.'"
Hundreds of miles away on Utah's Capitol Hill, lawmakers are contemplating revisiting mini-bottles and whether to finally legalize them again. It seemed like it was going to happen in 2022 when Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services passed a rule allowing them to be sold in state-run liquor stores, but it failed after pushback from alcohol abuse prevention groups and social conservatives concerned about youth access to them.
Now, Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who is tasked by the Republican supermajority in the Utah State Legislature, is considering trying again.
"There are some valid issues tied to mini-bottles," he said in an interview with FOX 13 News. "I've seen pictures of underneath the stadium where they, you know, people have drank and dropped them. But most of the alcohol that we're seeing kids... they're being introduced to it through the home and and I think sometimes that's because someone's opened a bottle and it's been left sitting there because maybe they have or haven't liked it. And so it, it becomes the introduction for the teenagers in the house."
Sen. Stevenson said he believed a larger bottle was worse than a mini-bottle for a recipe or a new spirit for someone to try.
"If you want to go pick up some alcohol and use it in a recipe, or if you want to try it before you go out and invest in it, some of that stuff's pretty expensive, but that maybe that's a better route than having open bottles sitting around the house, open large bottles," he said.
In the omnibus alcohol policy bill that's introduced in the Utah State Legislature every year, there are tweaks to liquor laws. Sen. Stevenson this year is also looking to address an issue identified by the creation of a special arts, entertainment and sports district to accommodate the Utah Jazz and the Utah Hockey Club. The state's notoriously strict liquor laws may prohibit alcohol from being served in certain spaces in the new area because of their proximity to community spaces like parks, schools, churches and libraries.
"We're seeing pressure to put entertainment districts in other areas across the state of Utah," Sen. Stevenson said. "We're having conversations with the people that run Black Desert, Entrata, down south, the Point of the Mountain would certainly lend itself to something like that."
But with those mixed-use development spaces, there are parks and other community gathering spots. A business nearby that wants to serve alcohol? Couldn't do so because Utah laws give them no wiggle-room. The upcoming 2034 Olympics and the desire to be hospitable to more visitors is also top of mind. But GOP lawmakers also have a desire to balance it with concerns about public safety and youth access to alcohol.
"I think there's got to be a there's got to be some changes. And I’ll be real. I'm not sure what they are yet," Sen. Stevenson said.
Another potential item in the omnibus alcohol bill would be changing the legal definition of cider. Currently, it's classified as a wine under Utah liquor laws. Sen. Stevenson said it is possible lawmakers make it a beer to meet some calls to make it more broadly available.
At Second Summit Cider in Millcreek, owner Vicki Bott had mixed feelings about it. She said there are pros and cons to the idea.
"Under Utah law, wine — which is cider also — can be served higher than the 5% [alcohol by volume]. You can see our ciders run anywhere from 5% up to 8.2 that we have on tap right now," she said.
Ciders must be served in a different glass than a traditional pint because of Utah's legal requirements it be in more of a wine-sized pour, Bott said. Making a cider a beer could be good for distribution, putting Utah-made products in more places, she said. But they may have to change recipes that customers enjoy to lower the alcohol content and serve other ciders in cans instead of on tap.
"I would love lawmakers to think about the nuance of allowing greater than 5% on tap," Bott said.
The bill is still in negotiation between alcohol industry representatives, abuse prevention groups, hospitality organizations, lawmakers and others. Sen. Stevenson cautioned that whatever is floated may not wind up in the actual bill that's debated in the Utah State Legislature.
