From Camp Kettles to Cocktail Glasses
When fur trappers arrived in Teton Valley in 1832 to sell pelts to trading companies, their first demand was no surprise: alcohol. Camp kettles were filled with liquor and passed around, and the trappers became “crazy drunk,” as one participant noted in his journal. Debauchery ensued, and one unfortunate fellow was doused with alcohol and lit on fire. Times have, thankfully, changed.
Today, valley residents and visitors can enjoy alcoholic beverages without risking that they’ll go up in a blaze of infamy. Thanks to recent revisions in Idaho’s liquor laws, more cocktails than ever before are being created at local establishments. Before the change, full-strength alcoholic drinks could be served at airports, golf courses, and ski resorts, but the number of liquor licenses awarded to restaurants was based on a town’s population. Driggs and Victor, with a little over 2,000 residents apiece, each were limited to two such establishments despite being part of a tourist community that annually entertains thousands of visitors. The new law allowed both municipalities to be designated as “resort cities,” which meant alcohol could be poured at three additional businesses in each town.
On a recent Saturday night at Teton Thai in Driggs, bartender Kit Pickard was busy adding chili-infused tequila, simple syrup, grapefruit juice, and Aperol to an ice-filled shaker. She gave it a good tumble and poured the Hot Panther drink into a TajĂn-rimmed glass. Upstairs, at Tatanka Tavern, guests ordered Missy Elliotts, Tupacs, and other notably named cocktails. Down the street, Agave Family Mexican Restaurant served margaritas and more. These lucky three have joined in the serving of spirits with The Royal Wolf and O’Rourke’s Sports Bar and Grill, which long had held the only liquor licenses allowed within the city limits.
Down the road in Victor, cocktails were being consumed at Big Hole BBQ, Guidepost Brewing Company, and the Mess Hall at Teton Valley Resort. Previously, only the Knotty Pine Supper Club and Westside Yard had been sanctioned to serve full-strength alcohol. Farther north, the Tetonia Club and Dave’s Pubb, both licensed before, offered alcoholic treats, but no other restaurants will be joining them soon as Tetonia hasn’t been awarded resort-city status.
Drinking Up the Past
The history of alcoholic usage in Teton Valley is a sobering tale. After the fur trade died out in the mid-1800s, cattle rustlers and horse thieves found the valley to be a good place to hide out and, no doubt, enjoy libations. In the 1880s, settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints followed the fur trappers’ old trails and built homes in the area. They were bound by the teachings of their religion’s founder, Joseph Smith, who had banned the consumption of alcohol.
Of course, that didn’t stop others from partaking. William Raum opened the first saloon in Victor around 1890, according to B. W. Driggs’ History of Teton Valley. But Raum’s ownership would end after a customer he hit with a bottle over an unpaid bill died; the saloon was taken over in 1902 by Columbus “Lum” Nickerson. Across the valley, bars, dance halls, and billiard parlors thrived until liquor was outlawed by the State of Idaho in 1916 and national Prohibition followed four years later. Bootleggers took the business of booze underground.
Prohibition ended in 1933, but the anti-
drinking sentiment persisted. Around that time, the Union Pacific Railroad was scouting locations for a ski resort in Idaho, and its representative, Count Felix Schaffgotsch of Austria, rode the rails into Victor to check out potential sites. He wasn’t impressed, according to Thornton Waite, who chronicled the railroad’s local branch. “One legend has it,” the author wrote, “that Victor was considered to be too strait-laced for the Count.”
Over the years, Idaho’s restrictive liquor laws were enough to drive a restaurateur to drink. Beer and wine could be sold in restaurants, but hard liquor licenses were limited. To offer cocktail-like beverages, many eateries turned to lower-proof drinks allowed by the state.
Ryan Haworth, owner of Teton Thai, worked with local mayors and city council members to try to change the law, but they met opposition from establishments that were already allowed to sell alcohol. Liquor licenses greatly enhanced a restaurant’s sale price, and licenses were sometimes sold separately for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Proponents advocated for the economic benefits the communities would enjoy by bringing in more visitors.
Ralph Mossman, a glassblower and former council member in Driggs, realized how inequitable the laws were when a group of visiting artists traveled every night to Teton Springs because they wanted cocktails with dinner. Mossman and others who sought change banded together with residents in other parts of the state that were dependent on tourism. They hired lobbyists and backed legislation, but nothing happened.
When August Christensen became mayor of Driggs, she took up the fight. “We needed a change to support locally owned restaurants,” says the mayor, who had watched tourists travel to Jackson “because they can’t get a cocktail here.”
She worked with state senator Jim Guthrie of McCammon, who introduced a bill to prohibit the resale of new liquor licenses, which would make the issuance of those new licenses more palatable to existing holders. No laws regulating alcohol had been enacted in decades, but his legislation gained approval. The mayor and lawmaker decided to seize the momentum and pursued a bill to allow additional licenses in resort cities. That passed and finally became law in July 2024.
“The addition of restaurant liquor licenses in resort cities, specifically Driggs, supports our locally owned and operated restaurants by allowing them to serve the customers or visitors instead of turning them away, bringing in more money through sales, and keeping everyone in our valley and increasing our economic development,” Mayor Christensen says.
As a result of their persistence, on a busy night last November, Guidepost Brewing co-owner Chris Macchietto opened a bottle of tequila and poured three shots. He had applied for a liquor license so long ago that when he learned he finally had received one, it was a welcome surprise. He handed the drinks to two regulars, then lifted one up for himself. Cheers!
Liquor License Changes
• To be designated a “resort city,” a town must be at least fifteen miles from the nearest city of 50,000 or more and have seasonal sewage flows that exceed low-season flows by twenty percent or more.
• In each designated resort city, three additional liquor licenses can be issued. Licenses are awarded on a first-come, first- served basis, and the mayor and city council must approve.
• To be eligible, restaurants must earn at least sixty percent of gross sales from food. Liquor can be sold only during hours when food is being served.
• Newly issued liquor licenses cannot be sold, leased, or transferred, and licenses issued before 2023 can be sold, leased, or transferred only once.
