I was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Provo. About 30 years ago, a lot of cultural change was going on in Utah. As a very young lad, I remember my dad and uncle having to register to get "liquor licenses" in order to buy booze at the state store. That was mostly changed during the late 60's and by the end of the 70's. As a musician, all the bars I played in only served 3.2 beer, but private clubs could serve glasses of wine and shots. That led to a lot of "private clubs" that were very easy to join - especially at the ski resorts. I played in a few of those as well. Folks tipped the band much better at those places
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As I see it, the non-Mormon folks either drink or do not, and nobody really gets on each other about it. The Mormon folks either drink or do not, and the non-drinkers have a certain 'attitude' about the Mormon drinkers that I think bugs the drinkers, but that they get off on a little too. That makes rebellion a life-style choice with more cachet to it than one would expect in that place. In the interest of full disclosure, I don't live in Utah anymore, don't drink, and don't really mind if people want to.
(The following may seem very negative, but I feel the need to point it out even though I have lots of nice things to say at the end.)
My beef with Utah really has a lot more to do with every level of government there. IMAO, there is no other way to state this than that the state is being run by amateur politicians and many tricky businessmen. Back in 1983 after the lake rose a few feet due to excessive runoff, they built some pumping stations at a cost of 10's of millions of $$ to lower the water level. By the time they got the pumps installed and running, the lake was pretty close to normal levels and would have eventually gone below normal levels even without the pumps. The pumps were used, then mothballed. They are unlikely to ever be used again. They have to be maintained to some degree and guarded. Letting nature take it's course was apparently not an option when 3 feet of water was running down State Street.
Virtually every mayor of Salt Lake for the past 50 years has enjoyed doing random things to incite one faction against another, and cause a political spectacle. Mostly these events are calculated to demonstrate how little they can be influenced by the leadership or infrastructure of the Mormon church. There have been other cases where they have been just the opposite. In every case, the mayor in office has been just as ham-handed as possible demonstrating that they have a definite tin ear when it comes to political accommodation.
As a final example, is it any wonder that they could not find a competent, capable, credible leader within Utah to take the reins of the faltering Olympics some years ago? Mitt Romney came in at the last possible moment to rescue what would have been sheer disaster in the operational logistics of the games. To be fair, the site construction and facilities were largely way ahead of schedule, even though some dodgy practices did come to light after the fact.
All of this is not to say that all businessmen in Utah are corrupt, evil, or incompetent. There are many successful businesses there run by honest and competent folks. For the remainder, it seems to me that level of honesty is very high, but competency is pretty low. I think many people just assume certain things about a business, clientèle, and money and march forward assuming that it will all work itself out in the end if you are merely honest. That does make it so they can sleep at night, but it also means that folks regularly fail to put into place sufficient plans so a business can thrive and survive. The rate of vacancy for commercial real estate is generally very high.
Having said all that, I love to go to Utah. Even as much time as I have spent in other Mountain West states, I have to say that Utah's mountains are the most spectacular and their skiing the most rewarding. The schools are among the nations finest. They are sweet and caring to a fault. You will never find better neighbors anywhere that I can tell. They are stereotypically nice and extremely helpful. However, I like living where I don't have to shovel snow so I can go to work - I know that's my fault.
If what I have described as the flaws I see with Utah aren't likely to bug you, the many nice things about Utah will be what you encounter on a daily basis and you will have a very nice experience there.
Cheers!
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Must one be mormon to be happy in SLC?
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