Voters in pocket of Lincoln Square overturn 117-year-old alcohol ban

Voters in a small portion of Lincoln Square overwhelmingly repealed a ban on alcohol sales that dates back more than 100 years.

Nearly 85% of the votes cast (285 of 336) on the referendum in the 9th precinct of the 47th ward voted “No” on the question of whether to keep the prohibition of liquor sales in Tuesday’s general election.

The ban, which had been in place since 1907, impacted a small patch of the North Side neighborhood. It was bounded by Lincoln Avenue to the west, Sunnyside Avenue to the north, Damen Avenue to the east and Montrose Avenue to the south.

Lucia Herrejon, owner of XOchimilco Mexican Restaurant, 2030 W. Montrose Ave., started the push to overturn the 117-year-old ban last year after her application for a liquor license was denied.

She and other workers knocked on doors in the neighborhood in August to gather enough signatures for a petition to place the referendum on the ballot.

“We are very grateful for everyone’s support, and we are thrilled for this new chapter,” Herrejon said Wednesday.

She said the liquor license would provide extra money for the business to get through the less busy times of the year.

“It means a steady paycheck for everyone and ensuring that the door stays open, and that we don’t have to struggle through slow months,” Herrejon said.

Before the election, Ald. Matt Martin (47th) said lifting the ban was “long overdue.”

“At the risk of stating the obvious, a lot has changed in the last 117 years,” Martin said, also noting that overturning it would put impacted restaurants on a level playing field with others in the neighborhood.

A Giordano’s also is located within the area affected by the ban. The burger restaurant Small Cheval is planning to open a location down the street at 2156 W. Montrose Ave. and had pushed voters to end the ban.

“This outdated law is holding back businesses and limiting our neighborhood’s collective growth,” Small Cheval’s website reads.

The ban stems from a state law that allowed voters to prohibit the sale of liquor in their individual precincts. The part of the neighborhood remained dry even after the nationwide alcohol prohibition of the 1920s was lifted in 1933.

Dry precincts are not unheard of in Chicago. Under the Illinois Liquor Control Act of 1934, residents can vote to ban liquor licenses in any precinct through a local option referendum, and voters scattered across the city often try to do so.

But the Lincoln Square ban is unusual because it endured for more than a century — and apparently unbeknownst to many residents.

“We’ve had a lot of guests who did not know. They lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and they were not aware that it is a dry area,” said Herrejon, who opened XOchimilco with her husband in 2018.