Fall of Utah’s ‘Zion Curtain’

UNITED STATES: The ’’Zion Curtain’’ is finally coming down in restaurants across Utah.

Currently, the law requires restaurants in the Mormondominated state to erect a 2.18m high barrier to prevent drinks being mixed and poured in front of anyone below the age of 21.

Under a measure signed by Gary Herbert, the state’s governor, from the beginning of next year they will instead have the option of separating the bar from the eating area with a 3m buffer zone from which unaccompanied minors will be banned, or of building a 106cm high railing.

Until the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Utah drinkers had to pay to become a member of a bar before they could be served alcohol. The law was relaxed but in return restaurants had to erect a small physical barrier between the bar and the rest of the premises. In 2009 Utah changed the law again, raising the height of the barrier and demanding it be opaque so children could not see drinks being prepared.

The legislature, where 88 per cent of members are adherents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has demanded significant concessions from the hospitality industry for the latest change.

Restaurants will, like Utah’s bars, have to electronically scan driving licences to verify that those ordering drinks are 21 or older while duty on alcohol will be increased.

Utah was the last state in the union to end prohibition, in 1933, and even now the state enjoys a monopoly on the sale of wine, spirits and beer stronger than 3.2 per cent. - Telegraph Group