Utah House OKs bill allowing restaurant diners to see drinks made

Utah’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that could allow restaurants to stop shielding diners from seeing alcoholic drinks as they’re prepared.

House lawmakers voted 58-10 late Friday afternoon to approve the measure, sending it to the Senate for consideration. Utah’s Senate will have only four days next week to pass the bill before legislators adjourn for the year.

Current law requires some restaurants to hide drink-making behind a barrier, typically with a translucent glass wall. The proposal from Republican Rep. Brad Wilson would require all restaurants that don’t use that barrier, nicknamed a “Zion Curtain,” to instead use a separate room or create child-free buffer zones around bars – either with a half-wall or rail marking a 6 foot zone, or a 10 foot open zone.