Salt Lake:Official development news thread

[Viperlord]

New private club to open in downtown SLC next month


Poplar Street Pub, a new private club, is slated to open next month at 242 S. 200 W. in downtown Salt Lake City.

The club is owned by the son-and-father team of Chris and Alvie Carter and will measure approximately 5,800 square feet with a capacity of 220 and additional outside seating for roughly 80, Chris Carter said.

"We opened up back in 2002 just on a short run for the Olympics for two weeks on a temporary beer license under Poplar Pub," he said. "We were actually in the back part of the building, which we've owned for many years, and there was an art gallery in the front. We've been working to get this finished. It's got a lot of antique brick and hardwood floors in it that we've gotten from demolitions and housing projects around the Salt Lake Valley. We've gone in and completely redone the interior core of it."
Poplar Street, to be located just north of Red Rock Brewing Co., will be open seven days a week beginning at 2 p.m., Carter said.

"We're looking at maybe a soft opening or two in July and to get fully staffed before we announce a grand opening," he said.

A chef, David Hester, who has spent a significant amount of time in Portland, Ore., has been brought on board to run the new club's full kitchen, Carter said.

"The food's going to be elevated," Carter said. "The menu will have some of your traditional pub fares. Everything is handmade, and he's got some higher type items on the menu, classier things.

A staff of approximately 35 people is in the process of being hired, Carter said, and if a re-write of Utah's liquor laws results in the abolishment of private club licenses, "we'll definitely open up for lunch."

Copyright Enterprise Business Newspaper Inc. Jun 9, 2008