By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Oct. 14

City officials are keeping a watchful eye on the handful of pubs, nightclubs and bars that hold 3 and 4 a.m. liquor licenses in Elgin over concerns of violence, and hope a series of revisions to the liquor codes will alleviate their worries.

The Elgin Liquor Control Commission, which comprises the entire Elgin City Council, voted 7-0 late Wednesday afternoon to approve revisions to the ordinance.  Elgin Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley presented the proposed revisions to the commissioners, who then amended it to address their own concerns.

The ordinance revisions’ initial approval came after the panel accepted a settlement with the Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery, 2300 Bushwood Drive, which saw a spate of police calls between November and February. The commission also heard a report on a July 30 brawl outside the Afterset, 158 Symphony Way, across from the Elgin Law Enforcement Facility, in which commissioners learned there was nothing they could do at the moment to punish the facility.

• Related story: Tilted Kilt fined, Afterset evades penalties

Many of the incidents at the Tilted Quilt involved assaults, including a stabbing in February. The brawl outside the Afterset involved as many as 200 people and resulted in injuries to at least one police officer.

“We’re looking really seriously at the late liquor license, we want to make sure that everybody’s safe and have done their due diligence,” said Mayor and Commission Chairman David Kaptain as the commission approved the fine settlement with the Tilted Kilt.

Cogley said while some of the liquor ordinance revisions are procedural, there are significant ones geared specifically toward the seven establishments holding 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. liquor licenses.

Those facilities holding 3 a.m. licenses include Gasthaus, JB’s Grill & Bar, Rookies, The Martini Room and the Tilted Kilt. The only two holding 4 a.m. liquor licenses are the Afterset, which is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and The Mission, which is open late on weekends.

Commissioners expressed some dismay Wednesday when they learned the Afterset incident did not on its own establish the pattern needed to declare the facility a nuisance. Cogley advised the commission that part of the problem appears to be related to overcrowded conditions at the club, which has a capacity of 80 people. Yet, during a police check earlier this year, officers counted 140 people on the premises. He also noted that during the brawl, a crowd of nearly 200 surged into the area where the fight began as further evidence of the bar letting too many people inside.

Cogley said that while his review of police reports for the past 12 months at the Afterset failed to establish a pattern that the club was a nuisance, he pointed out there are other incidents in the public areas outside the bar that indicate a troublesome pattern, but they do not fall under the liquor code.

“One of the things in the ordinance I’m recommending to you is a provision that would ban people from loitering outside … on adjacent or nearby public property,” Cogley said, who said he proposed the revisions with input from Elgin police.

The loitering ban, he continued, will give police the authority to order loiterers near these later-hour bars to move along, and if they refuse, the officers can arrest them. Cogley said this issue was anticipated by Elgin police as a need when bars like the Afterset turn people away because there is no room or when the person has been banned from the place.

Two other proposed liquor code revisions also apply only to the holders of 3 and 4 a.m. licenses, and both are designed to limit the last-minute rush on the establishments and help police disburse the crowds that cannot get it.

The first would require the bars to allow no new patrons to enter 30 minutes before closing; the other would require the bars to stop serving liquor 15 minutes before closing.

One additional amendment commissioners proposed to the liquor code would prohibit bars from holding mixed martial arts bouts unless specifically allowed by their liquor license.