A Saloon for SOMA

A Saloon for SOMA

Review of: Hotel Utah Saloon

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 3

Read review on Judy’s Book.

It’s like that annoying cousin that you never want to visit, but once you get together, you have a great time and forget why you didn’t see each other more often.

The Hotel Utah is my office’s official bar, and for a few months last year, I was there at least three times a week before heading home or to the grocery store. It’s hard to describe the place in a way that warrants only three stars, because the individual aspects of the place should make it a four star sort of joint….

The bar is outfitted in classic dive: an aquarium that seems to only support algae as a form of sealife, stools with uneven legs… or maybe it’s just a floor that’s been worn away so that the chairs never seem to find solid footing.

The bartenders are great – they pour a stiff drink and a overfilled shot and are, in general, very nice and entertaining. Just watch out if you go there during a baseball game, because the service (and general demeanor of the bartenders) suffers, but it’s completely understandable.

The food is pretty good as well. I’ve had burgers, nachos, and other munchies there and though it wasn’t really memorable, it certainly wasn’t bad by any stretch of the word.

One point comes off because the beer selection is just getting too boring. I haven’t been there in about a few weeks, but I can tell you off the top of my head that on tap they have Stella, Pilsner Urquell, Bass, Guinness, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, White Hawk IPA, Sam Adams and Budweiser on tap (and a few more). How can I be so sure? Because that’s what they’ve had for at least 4 months. If you have that many taps, keep them rotating. For a while, one or two of the beers was rotating, with some Speakeasy making its way into the mix, but now it seems to just be the same thing over and over again.

The other point they lose is because I’m not what the Utah wants to be when it grows up. Does it want to be a pub? A dive bar? A restaurant? A live music hall? They seem to be all of these things, which it leaves the space feeling a little discombobulated.