Provo City Council members voted 4-3 on Tuesday against a proposed high-end bar called The RX Bar and Grill, shutting down plans to turn the long-vacant B&H Pharmacy into a 21-and-over hangout with a rooftop deck, karaoke and live music. The owners of Scorez sports bar, who had offered to buy the building at 286 W. Center St., pulled their application and purchase offer once the vote came down.
The proposal, as described in reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune, would have brought food and drinks alongside the bar setup to a downtown block that currently has little in the way of standalone nightlife. Scorez is owned by Cory Brian, who told council members at Tuesday's meeting that Utah's alcohol regulations make restaurants more unmanageable and less appealing as professional drinking establishments compared to a dedicated bar. According to the Tribune, a Scorez company presentation described the goal as creating a place for locals and visitors to grab a drink after work or a conference.
Council Members Wanted a Restaurant, Not a Bar
Council members who voted against the plan generally preferred to see a restaurant occupy the former pharmacy rather than a bar, the Tribune reported. Council member Craig Christensen said he was not inclined to add another bar to the city, telling the Tribune that Provo citizens want the number of liquor licenses kept where it currently stands.
That reluctance comes despite Provo having gone more than a decade without approving a new bar license, per the same Tribune account. The city has only four places where customers can order alcohol without also buying food — and of those, only A. Beuford Gifford's Libations Emporium, known locally as ABG's, operates as a true stand-alone bar. The other alcohol-only options include a bar inside the Marriott hotel on Center Street and two members-only venues, the Elks Lodge and Riverside Country Club, both of which hold bar licenses but aren't open to the general public.
Utah's Quota System Still Leaves Room to Grow
Utah's liquor licensing runs on a population quota managed by the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services, which allocates one bar license for every 9,356 residents statewide. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate putting Provo's population at 114,527, the city would qualify for 12 bar licenses — far more than the handful currently in use, the Tribune reported.
State law separately requires restaurants holding liquor licenses to pull in 70% of their total gross revenue from food sales, a restriction Brian argued at Tuesday's meeting makes restaurant-style licenses a poor fit for anyone trying to run an actual bar. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services notes that licensees already operating under that 70/30 food-to-alcohol split must continue meeting it.
Dueling Numbers on Lost Spending
City staff data presented to the council estimated that Provo residents spend between $4 million and $6 million a year at bars in other cities, though some council members questioned the accuracy of that figure, according to the Tribune's reporting. A separate estimate from Placer.ai, cited by Downtown Provo Inc. in a report from ProvoNotes, put the figure at $21.6 million a year in bar spending lost to other cities — a number drawn from a broader population than the city staff's estimate, so the two figures aren't directly comparable. ProvoNotes also noted that Provo stopped issuing new bar licenses back in the 2000s and never replaced licenses tied to businesses that have since closed.
Quinn Peterson, executive director of Downtown Provo Inc., has been among the plan's public supporters. Peterson told KJZZ last month that 95% of the demand for alcohol from Provo residents is currently being met outside the city. Peterson, who identifies as a Latter-day Saint who does not drink, has argued that the lack of a professional drinking establishment causes conventions, businesses and visitors to pass over Provo — notable given that the Utah Valley Convention Center sits on the same Center Street corridor. Peterson has also said a bar downtown could help make the city feel more welcoming to people of different beliefs.
How Provo Stacks Up Against St. George
KJZZ's reporting also put Provo's alcohol licensing in regional context: the city has 28 on-premise licensed bars and restaurants, compared with 73 in similarly sized St. George. Provo also has just 30 off-premise licensed businesses versus St. George's 48, according to the same report.
For now, the B&H Pharmacy sits without a buyer. The Cougar Chronicle reported that the Scorez owners' contract to purchase the building was set to expire Dec. 1, though that contract was withdrawn immediately after Tuesday's vote rather than being allowed to run its course.
