A showing of support from more than 40 one-time employees, friends and others at a Waukegan City Council meeting may not be enough to enable Edwin Lagunas to reopen La Catina, a sports bar he owned and operated on Washington Street for more than two years.
Though he operated La Cantina with the knowledge of city officials, based on guidance he said he was given, he had an issue that prevented him from obtaining a liquor license in the state of Illinois — a DUI on his record — despite having cured other concerns with the establishment.
Lagunas, his attorney, former employees and others, made their case for the reopening of La Cantina during the time set aside for public comment at the City Council meeting Monday at City Hall.
La Cantina is located immediately east of Toluca’s Restaurant, a longtime Waukegan eatery owned by his father. They are separate businesses. Marcus Martinz, an attorney with Waukegan corporation counsel Elrod Friedman, said they are separate operations with distinct licenses.
Martinez said in an email Wednesday, Taqueria Toluca II, Inc. operates the business known as Toluca at 1419 Washington, and La Cantina is their business name of Toluca’s Restaurant and Cantina Inc., at 1415 Washington.
During his three-minute speech to the council, Lagunas explained how he was guided to open La Cantina by city officials during the summer of 2022, he followed their advice and opened La Cantina in September of that year.
“I was given the green light to open my business with some conditions — no liquor license and an expansion of the restaurant — which is why I named it Toluca’s Restaurant and Cantina,” Lagunas said. “I had to put a wall preventing access from the bar to the banquet hall, which I did.”
As patrons and former employees told the council about the community formed at La Cantina, they made it sound like a gathering place for people who enjoyed talking, drinking, eating some food and watching sports. Lagunas said Wednesday there are eight screens there.
While at La Cantina on Dec. 13, Lagunas said the city posted a notice requiring him to close. He complied, and then tried to learn what was behind the notice. It took two weeks before he got a response and began his effort to reopen, he said.
“I passed the inspection done by the fire marshal, and we opened,” Lagunas said. “I was told I was running a bar with no permit or license. So, two years running a bar in Waukegan and nobody knew.”
Starting the process to reopen, Lagunas said he applied for both a business and liquor license. Martinez said the Waukegan liquor commissioner denied the request for a liquor license on March 18.
Martinez said in his email Illinois law does provide a number of reasons a person cannot be issued a liquor license, and a DUI conviction is one. Lagunas admitted at the meeting he had one. He said he was disappointed he was not told it was a problem before his hearing before the commissioner.
“I’m upset the background check was done a month ago, and I’m just being told about it,” Lagunas said. “If the communication was there, I could have switched the application to my wife’s name or my dad’s name.”
When he was given guidance to open La Cantina more than two years ago, Lagunas said he was also told not to use the name of his former business — La Bombo. It was a bar operated at the same location as La Cantina. It was closed by the city in August of 2019, because of filed police reports.
