The La Grange Board of Trustees unanimously tweaked the village’s code regarding liquor and food requirements in a move officials said would be business-friendly.
Previously, a Class A liquor license mandated that an establishment derive 60% of its sales from food and no more than 40% from alcohol. The ordinance approved this week lowered that ratio, but only slightly to 50-50.
“I think it’s good for the business community and I think it’s good for the village,” President Mark Kuchler said after the vote.
The issue had been a contentious topic for several months, particularly during the April municipal elections.
Intellectual property attorney Carla Carter, who ran unsuccessfully for the Village Board, left no doubt she felt the 60-40 rule was detrimental to the restaurant community in downtown La Grange.
“The first is the 60/40 rule,” she said when asked at a candidate forum what her main priorities would be.
The argument for relaxing or eliminating the rule altogether is that some newer establishments are popular for patrons who just want to meet friends for drinks without dining. Their viability is threatened by a strict enforcement of the 60-40 rule.
Carter said she became aware of the issue while serving on the Restaurant Committee of the La Grange Business Association.
“When I talked to a lot of these restaurant owners and have owners say ‘if I knew how hard it was to do business in La Grange I wouldn’t have opened here,’ that’s a bad sign,” she said.
Behind the reluctance of some to relax the rule — or eliminate it altogether — is the fear of La Grange becoming like some Chicago suburbs that attract problems with antisocial behavior that can come with too many bars where patrons could get out of hand.
Although he voted for what was essentially a compromise, Kuchler had been leery of making any change to the code.
“There was a shooting six and one-half miles from here in Stone Park,” he said at the same forum. “A bouncer, while trying to break up a fight, shot an innocent patron and killed him. That’s not what we want and it’s not what the majority of La Grange wants and it’s not what we’re looking for.”
Other board members were positive about the compromise reached.
“I think it’s a good compromise of the interests between business and community as well as keeping the traditional balance between restaurants and bars that we’ve had in the village,” Trustee Lou Gale said. “I like what we’ve done.”
His colleague Beth Augustine agreed.
“It’s an official change to the ordinance, but I see us having to continue to respond to the changing needs of our businesses,” she said. “We don’t want to run a restaurant out of town because they have a great happy hour.”
The next La Grange Village Board meeting will be 7:30 p.m. June 23 at the La Grange Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Road.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
