Less than three months before Springfield’s current 3 a.m. bars must start shutting down an hour earlier, one owner remains concerned.
Josh Delcour, who owns Clique, 411 E. Washington St., said the decision is crushing for them.
“About 40% of our week’s business is between 1-3, which is insane but it’s the reality,” he said.
One of Delcour’s biggest issues was that the ordinance approved by the Springfield City Council in June was not something the bar owners expected.
“It was all kind of a surprise to us. We had heard rumbling months out that this could be a possibility, but when talking to our local politicians they claimed it really wasn’t something that was on the books,” he said. “And then all of the sudden we got notice that it’s going up to be talked about at the council meeting without any of the bars being notified.”
The discussion about liquor license times began earlier this year when the Sangamon County Board, citing safety concerns, voted in April to change all of its licenses to allow liquor sales until only 1 a.m. The move affected four county bars that had been allowed to serve until 3 a.m.
The county’s vote sparked conversation at Springfield city hall, where an ordinance was introduced that also would have also changed all liquor licenses to 1 a.m.
But after an hour and a half of debate at the city council’s June meeting, Mayor Misty Buscher proposed allowing all bars to serve until 2 a.m. That plan, which goes into effect in January, was approved 8-2.
In addition to Clique, the other Springfield bars currently allowed to serve liquor until 3 a.m. are Celtic Mist Pub, 117 S. Seventh St.; The Alamo, 115 N. Fifth St.; and WetBar, 221 S. Fifth St.
“They act like they were doing some sort of favor to us by giving us a 2 a.m. seven days a week instead of 3 a.m. on the three busiest nights – but the 3 a.m. on our busiest nights is way more important than the 2 a.m. seven days a week,” Delcour said. He said giving everyone a 2 a.m. license makes little sense.
“They claim that they were so stretched with the police and they could not possibly patrol these four bars, there was so much trouble,” Delcour said. “However, there wasn’t that [much] trouble and now they’re going to have to patrol a hundred and something bars until 2 a.m.”
Springfield Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, who represents most of the bars downtown, said she thinks that former 1 a.m. bars will stay open on special nights but not on an everyday basis.
“I’ve already talked to Josh (Flanders, the owner) at BuzzBomb. They will utilize it on your special nights, if they have events going on, outdoor events they may stay open later now but more than likely they’re still going to be closing at 12,” she said.
“[The owners] have their preferences, but I think everybody has good judgment on how they want to do it,” she said.
Delcour said bar owners want to bring the issue back to the table to discuss again. But Purchase said there’s not much she can do until after the 2 a.m. licenses take effect in January, when she hopes to be able to show how negatively this impacted the businesses.
Jade Aubrey is a graduate student in the UIS Public Affairs Reporting program.
