BAR SCENE
O’Shucks Staircase
Decades of dive
A Chat with O’Shucks Owner Bruce Corrigan
W
hen Bruce Corrigan and his wife Debra opened O’Shucks on Main Street in Park City, “I Swear” by All4-One, Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love” and “The Sign” by Ace of Base were playing on the radio. Pulp Fiction, Dumb & Dumber and Forest Gump were in the theaters. Bill Clinton was president, and we hadn’t yet heard the name Monica Lewinsky. The year was 1994. Bruce Corrigan has seen a lot of changes to the bar biz in Utah over nearly three decades since opening O’Shucks, not the least of which was the disappearance of private clubs and the memberships needed to enter them. Perhaps surprisingly, there are things the O’Shucks owner misses about the
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clubs. “Although we had to share the membership money people paid to drink at a private club, those membership fees were a steady and reliable source of revenue for club owners,” says Corrigan. “And the memberships created a loyal customer base, since most people were only going to buy a membership or two. So they’d come back and drink at your place over and over. Tourists would buy a membership at O’Shucks or the Alamo or wherever and come back day after day.” When O’Shucks opened it was essentially a tavern selling beer, which didn’t require memberships and a private club license. And by the way, Corrigan proudly uses the word “dive”
PHOTOS BY JOHN TAYLOR
By Ted Scheffler
