Laura Jones Proper Brewing Co. On a Monday evening at Proper’s Main Street location, shift-lead bartender Laura Jones seems to notice I’ve been out in the hot summer sun (maybe due to the sweatcascade on my forehead) and steers me toward the brewery’s Guava Skittlebraü. “It’s pretty refreshing,” she says, smiling. Raised in Taylorsville, Jones, 40, left an office job 17 years ago to try bartending because, she says, “I like being surrounded by people.” She’s been with Proper for 18 months, since the Main Street location opened. “I love it,” she says. “I wouldn’t change it for anything.” In order to guide patrons through Proper’s offerings, all employees undergo 16 weeks of beer training, monthly meetings to learn about new brews and have to obtain first-level cicerone beer-server certifications. Some customers taste until they find a winner; others just wanna run the gamut. Occasionally, she’ll tease the latter group, suggesting they order a “big-boy beer.” Not that she’d ever deprive someone of experiencing beer however they like. She remembers telling a couple from Connecticut a pint would last longer, “or you can keep drinkin’ these and pretend you’re giants.” Supertasters: One time, a party of three ordered enough to fill their entire table with empty taster glasses in a half-hour period. “I was, like, really?,” Jones says. “Alright. I’ll go clear off [another] table.”
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in o v e r 2 5 0 way s
| THE BEER ISSUE |
| CITY WEEKLY.NET |
OPEN NOON TO 1AM DAILY 128 SOUTH MAIN ST. | 801.364.4268
AUGUST 10, 2017 | 27
Gina Varni Mountain West Cider Next to Red Rock Brewing Co. at 425 N. 400 West sits Mountain West Cider, the first and only cider-only establishment in Utah. Inside the cidery, it’s silent. It’s not unusual, says tasting room manager Gina Varni. Customers come to MWC in a random ebb-and-flow, and don’t stay too long. That’s because, Varni explains, by law, “You can only get five ounces in a 24-hour period.” That’s a marked difference from the twoat-a-time taster policies at most other breweries. The state regards MWC as a winery instead of a brewery, and Utah law is different for vino—and, by classification, hard cider. You can distribute those five ounces among the four types of cider offered here (there’s one more, but it’s seasonal) and try 1.25 ounces of each or, if you have a favorite, five ounces of that. They also don’t have to serve food here, so you can stop by, lay down a fiver, sip your cider and split. So on most days, Varni, 30, gets to hang out in the cool, quiet, modern decorated tasting room, serving the ephemeral clientele. The Bay Area native got into the cider business from knowing co-owner Jennifer Carleton, and she’s been with Mountain West since it opened in 2015. The gig teaching folks about cider is similar to her other, seasonal job as a golf pro at Bonneville Golf Course. It makes for a well-rounded, indoor-outdoor lifestyle. “I have two jobs that I love, and would like to do both for a very long time,” she says. Loopholes: Varni says she sees plenty of randoms and regulars at MWC, and one group in particular—construction workers—come in “three or four times a day, grab [a bottle of cider] and then leave, and come back in an hour-and-a-half and get another one.” CW