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NIGHTLIFE Best Club Culture Booster
Best Bar That Feels Like Your Friend’s Living Room
WATER WITCH Drinking at this Central Ninth gem is a discombobulating delight: one part neighborhood dive, one part upscale lounge, one part freewheeling lab. Absent an elaborate menu, let co-owners Matt Pfohl, Scott Gardner and Sean Neves whip you up something nameless yet irresistible. Stumble in on a Tuesday night and discover a hot jazz trio squeezed into the bar’s left flank. Do day-drinking right on Tiki Sunday with another daiquiri or three, please. Imbibe on a weekday afternoon and get cast in one of Mike Wright and @luxelother801’s hilarious Instagram videos. Like that charisma-drenched friend with the impeccably outfitted living room, Water Witch provides the warmest of welcomes before sending you back into the real world with a dizzying dose of inspiration. (NM) 163 W. 900 South, 801-462-0967, waterwitchbar.com
94 | BEST OF UTAH 2018
Jesse Walker’s brand of cool wraps you in a warm, welcoming embrace—an inclusive characteristic central to his 25-year reign in SLC. Moving from Idaho in 1993 on the tailwind of fashion designer and raconteur Jared Gold, Walker immediately fell into the DJ rotation at Bricks, Club Manhattan, the Holy Cow and a hundred other long-gone but never-forgotten nightclubs. In 1998, he founded New City Movement, a forwardthinking collective that promoted a brighter future through dance music, design, art and culture. As a main incubator of the prodigious local DJ scene we enjoy today, Walker’s secret for success is simple: “Never stop being interested in everything and everyone. Also, never quit your day job.” (NM)
Best Spot To Drink During the Week
O’SHUCKS BAR & GRILL
Best Place To Drink in Public
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH TAILGATES This ain’t New Orleans or Las Vegas (or anywhere else that’s fun), so don’t you dare pop open that can of beer on the streets! We’re more modest up here—except on Saturdays in the fall. If the University of Utah has a home game, you can bet you’re allowed to crack that brew and walk around the tailgate no questions asked. Hell, if you want to pop a hole in the bottom and shotgun it down your throat, be our guest. It’s no Southeastern Conference tailgate, but the party is just as fun. Of course, don’t do anything too silly and draw attention to yourself. Be patient and wait in line for the port-a-potty—don’t relieve yourself outside. But by all means, let the sun’s rays warm you while you and your red-clad friends bask in the joy of an outdoor party and revel at the chance to (maybe) win the big one. (RH) Tailgate lot at the corner of 500 South and Guardsman Way
DEREK CARLISLE
DARBY DOYLE
JESSE WALKER OF NEW CITY MOVEMENT
If you find yourself in need of a drink on a Wednesday night, there might not be a better deal in town than O’Shucks’ $3 schooners. But the fun doesn’t stop there. The basement bar also houses Ahh Sushi, and the friendly wait staff shuffles back and forth to serve your beer and sushi cravings. (RH) 22 E. 100 South, 801-359-6770
cityweekly.net
Featuring blurbs by: Sarah Arnoff, Naomi Clegg, Darby Doyle, Rachelle Fernandez, Ray Howze, Rich Kane, Enrique Limón, Kelan Lyons, Nick McGregor, Scott Renshaw, Kara Rhodes, Mike Riedel, Amanda Rock, Zac Smith & Alex Springer
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