I would argue that a good measure of a city's nightlife is not how many clubs it has that have cages or allow nudity - in fact, I'd argue that's a pretty terrible measure of quality.
How about how many good beer bars does the city have? How many microbrew pubs? How many bars with solid live music (and preferably no cover) How many legitimate Irish pubs are in town? How many spots with a solid late-night menu? How many decent pubs can a single girl pop into for a beer and not have to worry about being attacked? Is the nightlife concentrated in walkable areas?
I think there's no question SLC has been held back by the old membership law and now potentially the restaurant/bar license cap, and, of course the city's silly two-bar-per-block rule.
I haven't been able to find a real Irish pub in the city, which is certainly a departure from Boston which must have over 100.
But hopefully the tide is turning, the microbrew scene seems healthy and even thriving, and places like the new BeerHive are a solid step in the right direction.
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