Boozin’ Blog

A friend of mine recently went to see 10,000 B.C. at a theater in St. Louis. He’s from Tennessee, a state with some pretty draconian liquor laws, so he was more than a little impressed that he could not only buy beer and other alcoholic drinks at this particular theater but that he could then take them back into the movie with him.

“Nobody told you to live in a state with such backwards alcohol laws,” I told him.

He laughed. We’d been over this ground before. One of his favorite factoids along these lines is that Jack Daniels can’t legally be sold in the county where it is made. I have to admit that this is a bit mind blowing.

“So, how was the movie?”

“Oh, it sucked but the beers really helped!” he gushed.

Fifteen years ago such a thing was only a boozer’s fantasy. There might have been one or two such places in far-flung corners of the US but they were novelties and movie-goers probably had a feeling that they were crossing some legal or moral line when they partook. These days one is far more likely find a beer tab behind the candy counter but it is still not something that I would call common.

Well, it wasn’t until I read this headline: “Thirsty for sales, theaters offer booze” in the Salt Lake Tribune. I can now declare that the alcohol-serving movie theater is no longer an occasional treat but a national trend. Utah is not only more backwards than Tennessee in this matter but it is very likely the most restrictive state towards alcohol consumption. That they have allowed theaters to serve alcohol in a state that distinguishes beer from “heavy” beer – beer with more than 3.2% alcohol – and bars the sale of heavy beer after midnight proves to me that society has embraced the beer serving theater.

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