I recently went to 'Cheers' with a friend from out of town (NYC) on a Monday night. This place used to be a smoky dump. Boy was I surprised at my last visit. Not only is the air clean, but they have obviously given the joint a scrub down and fresh coat of paint. It still has that South Philly feel, but with a load of high definition TV's. They also have increased the size of their drink pours (it used to be one ounce and I've noticed a lot of bars still pour that amount) but don't appear to have raised their prices much if any. The service was impeccable as well. I've seen the bartender before. He's been at different bars in SLC over the years and is obviously one of the best in SLC. It was great to see him working at Cheers and my friend commented multiple times that the bartender could have fit in at any of the top local bars in Manhattan.
One of the reasons I hadn't been to Cheers in a while (besides how smoky it used to be) was because there were a lot of what I call 'professional drinkers' that made non-regulars feel uncomfortable. They were noticably missing. I asked the bartender about it and he confirmed that Cheers has cleaned up the bar both physically and figuratively. There were still plenty of regulars but we felt like we fit right in. Cheers is a great place to show off Salt Lake's downtown scene.
Pros: Comfortable, inexpensive, cool place, friendly staff.
Cons: We had to park a half a block away on a COLD night.
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