Lagoon obtains liquor license for a new bar expected to open next year

FARMINGTON, Utah (ABC4) — Lagoon Amusement Park has obtained a liquor license for a new bar establishment that they’re planning to build on the property. During the meeting to approve the license, some details about the planned bar were revealed.

During a Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverages Services (DABS) Commission meeting, an application for Lagoon to obtain a liquor license for a new bar establishment coming to the park was discussed. Rob Hansen, a training program manager with DABS, presented the application to the commission.

“It’s an actual bar inside the park,” Hansen explained. “They had like an old carousel building … I think it had like some fire damage.”

According to Hansen, Lagoon has rebuilt that old building, and is planning to put a bar on the second floor. It will be a private club with two themed rooms, open to season pass holders and VIPs. He said that Lagoon is planning to open that bar at the end of March next year.

“The pictures of it look really good. They haven’t started to do a lot of building up on it yet because they wanted to get the license first and then start remodeling,” Hansen stated.

Commissioner Tara Thue asked whether the location has been vetted to ensure that minors do not enter the bar despite being allowed in other areas of the park.

“This will be 21 plus, no minors on the premises ever, none of the alcohol leaving that building into the rest of the park,” Hansen responded.

Thue thanked him for clarifying and made the motion to approve the license for Lagoon, alongside two other applications.

In a bit of DABS humor, before voting on the motion, Commission Chair Steve Handy shared an anecdote from Lagoon’s early days. He noted that Lagoon’s general manager, Terry Capener, was in the room and familiar with the story.

According to Handy, when Lagoon opened in Farmington in 1896, “alcohol laws were not as sophisticated as they are today,” he laughed. At that time, he said, Lagoon had a saloon, and it was on the Farmington City and Davis County line.

“Somebody had forgotten to get a license, y’know,” Handy said. “So they actually shifted the selling into the county from the city, just down the bar… so that it was legal… that’s a great little story.”

Following the anecdote, the commission unanimously voted to pass the motion to approve those applications.

ABC4 has reached out to Lagoon for more information about the planned bar.