By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Friday, April 13, 2012
Three liquor licenses issued this week by the Elgin Liquor Control Commission will help usher in an Irish sports pub, allow a second beauty salon to serve beer and wine to clients, and allow a big-box retailer to begin selling beer and wine.
The commission approved issuing a Class E-3 restaurant liquor license to McGruder’s Pub Inc., doing business as McGruder’s Irish Sports Pub, 1350 E. Chicago St. Later Wednesday, after the commission adjourned only to convene again as the City Council, its members voted to approve a conditional use permit for the establishment.
The pub will be in the Highpoint Plaza Shopping Center. Normally, the city restricts the hours of restaurants operating in residential areas, but commissioners noted that the pub will be located in a portion of the strip mall that is a significant distance from the residential area to the rear of the site. Consequently, they agreed the hours restrictions were unnecessary.
James McGrath for now has dropped plans to have outdoor drinking and dining as too costly. The city would have required him to install Jersey barriers in the parking spaces he intended to use as part of the outdoor dining/drinking area. But use of the barriers would be allowed only from April through October, and they would have to be removed the rest of the year. McGrath told the liquor commission he had hoped to install permanent barricades.
The Liquor Control Commission also:
- Approved a Class B liquor license for Target, 300 S. Randall Road. The license will allow the retailer to begin offering package beer and wine sales.
- Approved a Class X liquor license for Nail Art & Spa, 2300 Randall Road. It is the same license issued to Salon Couture Ltd., 176 E. Chicago St. Randall Road. The City Council created the Class X license in August to allow full-service salons to sell beer, wine, champagne and martinis to patrons. Nail Art & Spa will have some limits on what it can offer because the types of sinks in the salon do not comply with some health code requirements. Those limits bar the salon, for example, require that only disposable cups be used to serve drinks.
- Rejected a request from Casa Lara, 7 Clock Tower Plaza, for a Class U restaurant liquor license. Elgin Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley told the commissioners he is dissatisfied with the Class U license, saying there are far too few restrictions on it for a license that would allow the restaurant to remain open until 3 a.m.
- Approved the renewal of 78 liquor licenses whose applicants had met all the conditions for seeking their license.
- Approved the renewal of eight licenses with exterior sales permits.
- Approved the renewal of the young adult night permit for The Mission/Medusa.
- Approved with conditions renewals of 47 licenses whose owners face various issues, ranging from no dram shop insurance certificates to missing Basset cards to changes in ownership to outstanding fees or delinquent fines to code issues to pending liquor license complaints. Cogley said he expects that as these establishments learn they will be shut down if they do not meet the requirements for getting the license, they will move to address the issues.
