Utah 2025

It has been a while since we’ve been old tavern hunting, but we recently continued our quest by heading way out west. We started our trip by flying out to Salt Lake City on one of the best days of the year, June 18th! Many of you may wonder why is that the year’s best day. Well, it’s Southwest Airlines’ birthday, so that means free drinks for everyone! We had a plane change in Austin, so that only doubled the day’s fun. After landing at SLC, we picked up our Kia Soul rental from Avis and headed north to Huntsville to visit the oldest bar in Utah, the Shooting Star Saloon.

The Shooting Star, our 39th state’s oldest bar, was a great watering hole and it easily moved into our top ten list of favorite oldest bars. There’s so much to take in, from the thousands of dollars covering every square inch of the ceiling, to the enormous stuffed animal heads adorning its walls. Best to look at, though, were Izzy behind the bar and Lalayna at the grill. Izzy was terrific serving up icy cold brews and regaling us with stories of the Shooting Star. Meanwhile, her teammate, Lalayna, was grilling up their wonderful signature burgers to pair with Izzy’s perfect pints.

If you find yourself in northern Utah we highly recommend you stop in the Shooting Star to eat, drink, and have a look around. It has loads of charm and quirkiness. Shucks, even the bathrooms have bars on the windows. While taking a bio break I was surprised to find a Cult Classic Brewery sticker on the wall. Cult Classic is located close to us on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a mere 2,109 miles away from Huntsville. Although the surroundings were so inviting, we couldn’t dawdle too long as we needed to get back on the road to find Montana’s oldest bar and check off state number 40! Ciao for now…