Sauganash Lifts Booze Ban Some Chicagoans Didn't Even Know Existed

By Lorna Juett in Food on Jan 4, 2013 9:45PM

Via Sauganash Community Association

Many Chicagoans—this writer included—had no idea that there were pockets of Chicago that still had laws forbidding the sale of alcohol. Until November, the Northwest side neighborhood of Sauganash was one of them.

According to DNAInfo Chicago, nearly 80 percent of voters in the third precinct of the 39th Ward voted to end a prohibition-era law that banned all sales of alcohol in the neighborhood during the last election. These residents hope that the repeal will bring in entrepreneurs to fill empty storefronts with sit-down restaurants.

The area, a small pocket near Peterson Road and Cicero Avenue, has seen a lot of restaurants come and go, and they hope that giving diners the option to enjoy a glass of wine, beer, or a cocktail, top tier restaurants will be attracted to the historic neighborhood. Prior to the repeal of this law, many restaurants were BYOB, but diners still faced the challenge of finding a place to purchase those beverages to bring to dinner.

Personally, we thought that these types of Blue Laws still existed in the rural South, not in Chicago. A cursory search of the history of this law didn’t bring much result, nor did an attempt to find other dry areas in Chicago. (Ed. Note: We wrote in April 2011 about the 2nd precinct in West Humboldt Park's 26th Ward that was voted dry. Another dry precinct referendum on the November ballot in the Galewood failed.—CS) I say we petition to make that sort of information included in the Walk Score breakdown of an area. We would hate to move to a new part of town only to find out we couldn’t get a six pack within a mile and a half of our front door. Does that make us lushes, or lovers of freedom? You decide.