Food and Drink

Lithographic postcard of Saltair's coliseum, with the "Laviathan" [sic] restaurant on the right, 1893-1925.

After spending hours in the hot sun, visitors could find refreshment and dining options for every price point. The price-conscious dined on meals and snacks from home in the picnic area. Lunch counters and snack bars offered quick bites and treats, like ice cream soda. Opened in 1900, The Ship provided a fine dining experience with live musical entertainment. In 1909, a 200-foot restaurant opened with brick ovens for baking bread, oversized refrigerators for perishables, two floors, and a roof area for relaxation. A naming contest appropriately dubbed it “Leviathan”.

Agreement between Saltair Beach Company and J. J. Greenewald, wherein Greenewald will manage a cigar stand and have exclusive rights for the sale of cigarettes for the Summer 1911 Season.

Agreement between Saltair Beach Company and Joseph P. Evans, and W. C. Husbands, regarding a restaurant, cafeteria, and lunch counter at Saltair Beach for the 1911 Season.

"In daytime the lake air was hot, rich with popcorn and spun candy and the smoke of frying."

- Wallace Stegner

Becker Brewing & Malting (1892-1917) was one of the most successful Utah breweries. By 1906, the brewery covered 15 acres on the corner of 19th Street and Lincoln Avenue in Ogden. When statewide prohibition began in 1917, Becker opened a brewery in Evanston that operated until nationwide prohibition in 1920. Found at Saltair, this bottle was most likely smuggled into the resort between 1917 and 1920.

During Saltair’s first season, Charles Auer operated a bar that served both beer and liquor, and the season program advertised Fisher as “The Only Home Beer Sold at Saltair” for 20 cents a bottle. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints allowed beer to be sold at Saltair, a point of contention between prohibition advocates and resort management. The Salt Lake Tribune charged that the resort sold over 9,000 gallons of beer in just one night (June 2, 1900). The Deseret News complained in 1902 that liquor attracted “disreputable, rowdy” people at Saltair. City reformers argued that alcohol started fights and weakened young women, leading them down a "fallen" path. Partly motivated by the alcohol issue, in 1906 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sold Saltair to private owners.

Waiters for the Saltair Dining Room, August 19, 1906. Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection, #2297.