Beer secrets of the Winter Olympics

By Steve Keating

Salt Lake City - Most of the visitors pouring into Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games will have heard just two things about Utah: that it can be tough to get a drink but no problem looking for three wives.

The truth is that it is actually easier to find a drink than arrange a multiple marriage.

In fact the only case of polygamy Olympic tourists are likely to be interested in is Polygamy porter beer, whose motto, much to the chagrin of the Mormon church, is: "Why have just one?"

Mormons, who abstain from alcohol, smoking and coffee, dominate the state and their views and rules concerning the consumption of spirits have changed little since the first settlers rolled into Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Plural marriages once thrived among Mormon pioneers but were banned in Utah in the early 1890s as a condition for gaining statehood and the Mormon church now excommunicates members who practise polygamy.

"People here for the Olympics just have to understand they're coming to the land of weird liquor laws," said RB Edgar, the owner of three downtown Salt Lake City bars, including the Xscape, Utah's biggest. "They should just consider it an adventure."

Like gin and Coca Cola, religion and drinking have never mixed well in Salt Lake City but certainly no visitor should die of thirst during next month's Winter Games.

While finding a bar does not present a problem, getting in can pose a few difficulties.

Everyone entering a Salt Lake bar is required by law to take out membership - $5 temporary cards are good for two weeks - or be invited in as a guest.

Once inside, Olympic visitors will be confronted with a maze of liquor laws and regulations that even the city's mayor Rocky Anderson has described as, "bizarre".

"There are some oddities to our liquor laws," smiled Anderson, who describes himself as a lapsed Mormon. "But once you understand them they don't present any real problems.

"You can go to a restaurant here and order a drink like any place else in the free world.

"But there are some places that are private clubs where you need a membership but you can pay five dollars and get a temporary membership.

"Restrictions like that don't really serve any legitimate purpose but when people outside the state hear about them it leads to a reputation that we are far more restrictive and bizarre than is really the case."

Any man sitting at a bar who finds a young woman sitting down beside him and asking him to sponsor her should not get alarmed or too excited. She just wants a quick drink without the hassle of filling out the paperwork to take out a membership.

If you order a mixed drink it will contain exactly one ounce of primary alcohol, no more. Bartenders are not allowed to serve drinks that contain more than one ounce of liquor.

You can, however, ask for a "sidecar" and the bartender will place another ounce of the same libation in a shot glass beside your drink. But the bartender is not allowed to pour it into your glass.

At restaurants, a customer is not allowed two drinks in front of him or her at the same time. When one drink is finished the empty must first be taken off the table and only then can a full glass replace it.

All these rules and many others are strictly enforced by seven compliance officers whose job it is to patrol Salt Lake bars looking for infractions, which include measuring thongs of dancers at strip clubs to make sure the material covers the mandatory amount of buttock.

Salt Lake anti-alcohol activists have vowed to closely monitor the dispensing of beer, wine and liquor during the Games to ensure laws are not violated.

But Salt Lake police have indicated they will take a less vigilant approach with so many other security issues to concentrate on.

Some countries, unimpressed by Utah's notoriously watered-down beer, are taking no chances and have made arrangements to bring in their own supplies.

Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland and Italy will import their own beer, wine and liquor by invoking 'diplomatic pouch' privileges.

Despite the Draconian regulations, Salt Lake enjoys a vibrant club scene.

Edgar, a fifth-generation Mormon, whose ancestors were among the first to arrive in Salt Lake City, said he expected to pour out more than a million shots during the Games' 17-day run, many of them down the throats of 10 000 journalists who will be working up a thirst at the Main Press Centre located directly across the street from his biggest bar. - Reuters