Ridge bar owners want extra hour

Online Poll: Should Chicago Ridge extend the hours bars can sell alcohol to 3 a.m.? Yes No View Results

Team up to ask village for 3 a.m. license

By Jesse Marx

In the early 1980s, Chicago Ridge residents passed a referendum that resulted in the village scaling back the hours bars could sell alcohol.

The Village Board changed those hours from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. with the intent of curbing late night brawls and attracting drunken drivers from other areas. It was hailed at the time as a populous victory; but nearly 30 years later, those old enough to have voted or remember may rue that decision if some of their favorite bars and restaurants shut down.

“I’ve been in that corner 25 years ... and now I’ve gotten to a point where I can’t cash my paycheck,” said Vince Bentivenga, owner of Rosa’s Ristorante, 9909 Harlem Ave. “By the end of the summer, if things don’t change, I’ll close the doors.”

Bentivenga was among a group of bar owners who on July 20 asked the Village Board to allow bars to stay open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights. The extra hour is needed so the establishments can compete against bars in the neighboring towns that stay open until 3 a.m. or later. Ridge bar owner argued their customers have either stopped showing up or leave early in order to beat the cover charges at other bars.

“I think that all of us are willing to work,” said Kathleen McKinney, owner of Jesse’s Tavern, 10501 Ridgeland Ave. “We’re just begging you for a little bit more time to do so.”

Bentivenga said his bar was so empty by 1:30 a.m. one recent weekend that “you could have shot a canon in the joint.”

Tim Desmond, owner of Jack Desmond’s Irish Pub, 10339 S. Ridgeland Ave., said he does not receive customers during the day like he used to, and must rely on the revenue earned Friday and Saturday to keep his doors open during the week.

“Society has changed, and we need to change to keep up with it,” Desmond told the board.

Desmond has to kick customers out at 1:30 a.m. in order to have the building closed by a half hour later.

“It’s a terrible way to do business,” he said. “We take their money and then tell them to go.”

Jesse’s revenue has decreased 40 percent in the last year, according to McKinney.

“First it was a smoking ban, and then it was the poker machines, and now it’s this depression,” she explained.

The public’s decision to decrease liquor hours was championed in the early 1980s as a safety precaution. Chicago Ridge’s bars were at the time open later than those in most other towns, and a number of accidents and fights helped drum support for the measure.

“[The village] didn’t want everybody from other communities coming into Chicago Ridge intoxicated already,” said former Chicago Ridge Police Chief Tim Baldermann, who was not chief at the time but remembers the controversy.

The group of bar owners did not ask the Village Board for sympathy but for fairness. Rosa’s should not have been punished for the mismanagement of other people’s bars, Bentivenga said. If some bar owners have trouble controlling their patrons, they should be held accountable, he added.

“When your kid goes and does something wrong you don’t go and punish the whole family,” Bentivenga said.

Evergreen Park decreased its liquor hours from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. two years ago for the same reason Chicago Ridge did nearly 30 years ago.

“When you’re the last guy on the block, the kids come here,” said Evergreen Park Mayor James Sexton. “We want our police preventing crime, not breaking up fights.”

Worth allows its bars to stay open until 2 a.m. during the week and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Palos Hills has two types of liquor licenses. Bars that opened before an ordinance changed nine years ago, and those that have been issued liquor licenses since. Zante’s can only stay open until 2 a.m., whereas Henry’s has the privilege to stay open until 4 a.m.

Groucho’s in Chicago charges $5 after midnight and stays open until 4 a.m. on Friday and 5 a.m. on Saturday nights. Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park charges $5 after 8 p.m. and stays open until 3 a.m. Chicago Ridge bar owners cited both establishments as direct competitors.

Chicago Ridge Mayor Eugene Siegel, who serves as the village’s liquor commissioner, said he would meet with Acting Police Chief Rob Pyznarski and Trustee Jim Saunoris, chairman of the Village Board’s Police Department Committee, to discuss the issue further.

“I don’t think it’s unfair to ask for that extra hour,” Siegel said.

Because the hours were determined by a public vote, the mayor said he would check with village attorney George Witous and figure out what would be within the board’s authority.

Trustee Brad Grove, who owns Grove Sports Bar, 6030 W. 111th St., questioned the stipulation that a bar must stop serving at 1:30 a.m. when the bar owner pays for a license until 2 a.m.

“I think that because people pay for a 2 o’clock license they should be able to use that license until 2 o’clock,” Grove said. “Why are they being punished and told not to serve after 1:30?”

This is part of the July 29, 2010 online edition of The Reporter.

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