Bar owner 'rouge' over cabaret license delay

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jul 14, 2003 by Brady Snyder Deseret Morning News

Excuse Dead Goat Saloon owner Daniel Darger if he's a bit upset.

His plan to open an upscale cabaret is stalled at City Hall, where the red-tape-filled process of considering his sexually oriented business license has dragged on for nearly a month.

That delay follows a Utah legislative session that saw tweaks to the state liquor code, which Darger says makes it hard for him to stay profitable. Darger, an attorney by trade, has had it up to here and is about ready to close the Dead Goat, a cultural icon downtown for years.

"I'm clearly out of patience," he said. "Quite frankly, I'm just about ready to close the (expletive) Dead Goat down."

To top it off, a group of concerned citizens is now calling City Hall complaining that Darger wants to open a strip club one block from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' downtown temple.

Darger says he is not looking to put anything obscene at the Dead Goat. Instead, the burlesque will be something like that in the movies "Chicago" or "Moulin Rouge." There would be no nudity and the acts would be more entertainment and singing than girls on poles.

Darger maintains the Legislature's new rules regulating private clubs and their alcohol sales have greatly impacted his business. To survive, he had to come up with a new business plan. One option is to expand his kitchen and sell more food. Another option is to open a cabaret-style stage that could be used on some nights for vaudeville- type acts while attracting quality music acts.

Now, Darger is angry at the city for dragging its feet on his sexually oriented business (SOB) license. He figures that's because his application for a downtown burlesque (which is not a strip club) carries the SOB title, and some politically conservative city staffers are looking for ways to deny the application.

"Somebody's got an agenda," Darger said.

At City Hall, zoning administrator Larry Butcher says he only found out about Darger's application, which was filed Wednesday night. He says there are some zoning issues yet to be worked out with the application.

For instance, the Dead Goat has to be a certain number of feet away from West Temple and the nearest landmark site -- the Zions Bank on Main Street and 100 South. It also has to be a certain distance from any park or church.

"From a zoning standpoint, we are still evaluating it," Butcher said. "Our attorney's out this week, so it's just too early to tell. . . . We've got to sit down and really evaluate how we apply this ordinance."

Community and Economic Development director Alison Weyher maintains 30 days isn't a long time to process a private club or sexually oriented business license, since there are various checks mandated by law.

"I don't believe that 30 days time is an extraordinary amount of time for the review," she said.

Still, Darger maintains there are staffers inside City Hall who, on moral grounds, don't want a cabaret downtown.

"Why don't I just close it down? Then there wouldn't be any Dead Goat downtown, zero. How would that affect downtown development?" he asked. "Downtown is dying. It's dead. One of the options is to just close the Dead Goat. Thank you, Legislature."

E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com