From DABC HQ....

Utahns gathered at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control tonight to vent on whether the club memberships and fees for drinking should be abolished.

The vast majority of the more than 100 people at the hearing testified that the club system should be eliminated because it is strangling Utah's tourist economy, does nothing to make drinking safer and is just plain inhospitable. Nearly all of them, of course, also had a financial stake in tourism or selling alcohol.

As Michael Kaplan, a marketing professor and a club owner, said:

Isn't it time we stopped being the laughing stock of the world?

Still, a handful of people argued to keep Utah's rules that require a membership to enter a full-service bar.

Steve Christopher, who owns a souvenir shop in Downtown Salt Lake City:

Utah's culture is not like Las Vegas. Don't compromise our image by promoting partying and drinking, it is not part of our cultural heritage. Please don't dumb down our laws and our culture.

Ben Raskin, owner of The Woodshed, says the club rules allow him to offer an intimate hospitality to his members.

It's very important for me to know the people who come in my bar. My bar is a place where my friends drink and meet new friends.

But the most arresting comments to the board were made by Jack Carlton, owner of the Three Alarm Saloon, which a gunman shot up last week, injuring three patrons.

The deal the other night could have been worse had we not been a private club. None of them were members and none of them gained access to the bar.

Carlton says he will remain a private club if the club system is loosened.

I would not go public. People who are saying it costs us business because it's so hard to buy a drink—I just can't buy that.

In the end, the hearings mean squat, of course. Changing liquor laws is up to the LDS Church and its minions and they aren't talking — yet. The church just might agree with a gentleman at the hearing who offered this:

There is plenty [liquor] available for those who want it. ... My forebearers came here to establish a commuity without prostitution, gambling and alcohol. I suggest if people don't like it, go elsewhere.