Report: Salt Lake's nightlife rebound exceeds pre-COVID activity

Salt Lake's bars and restaurants appear to be doing more business at night than they did before the pandemic, according to transaction times on the Square payment system .

Why it matters: The report suggests Salt Lake's nightlife has rebounded for the long term after COVID lockdowns.

What they did: Square looked at the share of all of its in-person restaurant and bar transactions between 7pm and 4am from January 2019 to June 2024.

What they found: More than 25% of all bar and restaurant transactions on the platform in Salt Lake occurred after 7pm in June of the last three years, peaking at nearly 28% in July 2022.

• That figure was 22.8% in June 2019.

The intrigue: The biggest increase in nighttime transactions was during the cold, dark month of January, rising from 17.9% in 2019 to more than 24% in 2022.

Zoom out: New York and Miami continue to post the most later-hours transactions, but Boston saw the largest growth, rising from a 12% share in Q2 2019 to 31% in Q2 2024, per the data.