Utah offers liquor-license workaround for restaurants with 5 or more locations

Last year liquor licenses were in such short supply that Buffalo Wild Wings stopped construction on its Layton location until the chain could get a liquor permit.

Since then, lawmakers have protected restaurant chains against license shortages by creating master liquor permits, which became available in May.

Although no chains have applied for a master license yet, officials are confident these licenses will be in demand when there’s another chronic license shortage.

"It’s a matter of education," said Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association. "Anytime there’s something new it takes time to take hold. Once people realize master licenses are out there, they’ll want to know more about the advantages of these types of licenses, but right now, we’ve gotten no calls."

To qualify for a $10,000 master license to serve all types of alcohol, a restaurant business must have five or more locations in operation or in the works. Chains wanting limited-service permits allowing only beer and wine will be charged $5,000 — and they also will have an unlimited number of licenses as new stores are added.

That’s in addition to costs for each new license. For instance, a full-service permit, allowing all types of alcohol costs $2,200, along with an application fee of $330.

During shortages, smaller applicants will have to wait until permits become available, a pool that is based on a quota formula tied to the state’s population. But if chains convert to a master license, their existing licenses would go into the pool, supposedly easing the shortage and helping mom-and-pop-type restaurants seeking to serve alcohol.

Hotels and resorts, for example, hold 54 full-service permits and two limited service licenses — all of which could become available for smaller businesses if each chain converted to a master license.

But Blake Spalding, co-owner of Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm in Boulder and board member of Local First Utah, said master licenses don’t take into account small, independent businesses.

"Once again, the state is showing it favors large corporations over small business because the Legislature could do the same thing by simply making more licenses available when they are in short supply," she said. "It’s not logical to create a false demand by limiting the supply of licenses or to make it easy for corporately held chain restaurants to get licenses while making it complicated and time consuming for small independent restaurants to have what they need to operate a viable business."