Speakeasy: A Better Way to Search the DABC

The Utah Department of Alcohol Beverage Control does a relatively fine job given the restrictions the Utah legislature forces upon them. Understaffed and over worked; I'm often surprised by how that ship manages to stay afloat. Their website is a prime example of a bureaucratic mess that focus more on licensing and underage drinking and less on the the people that spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on buying their products. 

While the DABC website certainly has all the information you could ever want regarding the current products the state offers, It's not exactly geared toward getting people what they want in a quick and easy manner. Enter adult beverage consumer and code writing machine, Scott Peterson. Peterson found the current online system less user friendly and decided to give it a more consumer oriented focus. "I've never found it terribly useful unless I knew specifically what I wanted" Peterson told me, "I created Speakeasy to make that information discoverable and give users the tools to find new and interesting products – quicker and easier than they thought possible through the DABC's current site".

Peterson's Speakeasy site is an easy to navigate system that gets the consumer to their preferred beverage(s) in just a few steps while adding an interactive component. "I wanted to augment the information the DABC provides—like adding user generated reviews—and make it a more shopper friendly experience". Lastly Peterson wants Speakeasy to be collaborative websites or app, by being a central place where developers would have access to tools and a publicly available API to build from in the future.

I'm offering a link to Speakeasy here at Utah Beer in the column to the right. Feel free to look it over and give it a good workout. Positive input is already making it better than it was weeks ago. You can comment at Speakeasy's Facebook page. 

Cheers!