Park City and Martini

Besides rhyming, both names have little in common. One is a Utah city, the very town where I live, the other stands for Martini & Rossi, an Italian alcoholic beverage company primarily associated with vermouth, including Noily Prat, and also Asti sparkling wines.

The Martini “Ball Bar” logo was registered for the first time in 1929. The other is Park City's municipal government trademark "Park City 1884", created to commemorate the centennial of the city's incorporation.

Both look eerily similar in the sense that when I first discovered it upon moving to town in 1985, I mistook Park City's logo for the famous vermouth brand and, for a moment, thought that my new town was sponsored by the Italian brand and that vermouth was flowing freely in its public fountains.

I have done some research since, and some one told me that the logo had been created by one of the Fetzer brothers who had an ad agency in Salt Lake City. Another person told me that Tina Lewis, a former City Council member did it. Well, who really knows?

Today, what's certain, is that I'm more used to my city than the Italian aperitif which after I drank it one last time, is nowhere to be found inside my bar...