Evanston’s mayor this weekend is deciding whether to take action against The Keg over problems with underage drinking at the bar. What do you think she should do?
Bill Smith
Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now. More by Bill Smith
Stop casting stones
Which one of you didn't drink in college?!? Furthermore, our ?aws are the most archaic on the planet. If we allow the Goody Two Shoes of Evanston to run our town…soon no one will be living, working or spending money in Evanston. Keep the Keg and invite the Tilted Kilt to grace our town!
I’ve lived here for 44
I've lived here for 44 years. I don't know when my awareness began, but I believe The Keg has a long history of unsatisfactory civic behavior. I've known about it for too long.
Close the Keg?
It is my humble opinion that a poll asking largely uninformed readers whether or not the Mayor should close the Keg is not a great idea…
The average person does not know the details of this controversy and whether or not the Keg's Management has acted reasonably or responsibly to ascertain the age of people entering their establishment. When I was under 21 – there were all kinds of shenanigans just like this.
This is about someone’s livelihood and about other people’s jobs… The owners should get a fair shake with the preponderance of evidence presented to the appropriate parties – which should not be subjected to mere opinion.
Respectfully submitted, Brian G. Becharas
Time for a change in management
For as long as I have lived in Evanston, the Keg has been managed the same way. Through the years, the only time I heard or read about problems at alcohol establishments was at the Keg. (More recently, a place was shut down for failure to pay taxes.)
I hope the Mayor can send a message that the business at 810 Grove St. should change hands. I hope its current owner enjoys a wonderful retirement and that a new owner remakes the business in a fresh and appealing way.
enough is enough
Keeping jobs is not the issue, nor is the amount of "fun" that young people feel entitled to. It is the matter of a business in Evanston that has been in trouble for allowing underage drinking often and over a period of many years, a business that gives at least that little part of Evanston a very unsavory feel. Other restaurants in Evanston that serve liquor apparently do not run into this problem nearly as frequently or as disturbingly as The Keg. Remember that there was even a murder there some years ago. I would never patronize it, nor would anyone I know. A new, respectable establishment would be more than welcome. Frankly, after all the hearings and second chances this place has received, I can't even believe that the issue still has legs. Pull the plug on this dump.
Hypocrits Abound
Tons of us have enjoyed wonderful, safe and fun times of social interaction at The Keg in both the past and present. Leave us Baby Boomers and the kids we've raised alone already!!! Let us enjoy ourselves while we can in these sorrowful economic times.
What the mayor, the police, and the "holier than thou" citizens should be doing is getting rid of the Robbers, Muggers, Rapists, and Gangs in Evanston. It is far safer to be in or around the Keg than it is to walk in downtown Evanston, around the university area, or even ETHS any time of day or night. Guns kill. Fake IDs don't. Stop wasting our tax money at The Keg!
Not just underage drinking.
It is not just the underage drinking,the worst is what I have seen on different visits during the daylight hours, with the unsanitary health issues there.Take a walk through this place on a Monday or Thursday or weekend night, and a day visit, and your decision Madame Mayor will be a easy one.
Guns don’t kill, people kill.
Guns don't kill, people kill. Also, someone was killed at the Keg so I wouldn't catorgorize it as the safest place in Evanston.
Close the Keg ?
But it's a tradition ! Let's not deprive our young people of their true Evanston heritage.
Leave the Keg Open
If the mayor can let these hippies who huff reefer get off with a $50 civil fine for getting caught, she needs to leave the Keg alone. The Keg is an institution. When the coffers are looking dry, she can send the cops in there for 30 minutes and bring in additional revenue by fining the kids who get caught with fakes.
The building is also worthless for anything other than an absolute dive bar. I would NEVER eat anything cooked in the place and I suspect most of us in the neighborhood feel the same way so she'll crush the economic value of the building when it sits vacant for 5 years and that will just be that much more property tax on the rest of us.
Public Parking lot.
Tear it down and build a parking lot.
brain cancer analogy is an insult
The statement of the Keg owner that the threat of losing his business is analogous to waking up with brain cancer is an insult to anyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer or a life threatening disease. His problems appear to be of his own making and even if he loses his business he is still healthy and able to build another one – that is not always the case for people who wake up with cancer every day!! THis was an offensive statement.
Pot OK, but alcohol not?
As an NU alum myself who frequently visited the Keg as a freshman, sophmore, and junior, before I was 21… I think it is ironic that the mayor is reducing fines for smoking up pot in this town, while simultaneously making alchohol consumption by minors the enemy.
A great majority of NU students drank while underage when I was there, and all of them are outsanding, leaders of our country right now.
As I observed firsthand, the more this town increased the tactics of prohibition, the more the drinking just went underground — and this lead to far more problems than drinking in a public establishments.
Wake up Tisdahl and face the reality- Prohibition doens't work.
A Drug slap on the wrist..
It is interesting how the Council takes such a soft position on drugs but goes after the bars. Of course Council policies will probably drive bars and enough other places out of business overtime anyway !
I have no problem with closing or restricting bars if they are violating the law and not making a serious effort at 'carding hard' but I find the Councils view on drugs hard to understand—-I guess it shows they must have been in their teens or twentys in the 1960s. The least they could do would be a $1000 fine and boot-camp for the offenders they want to 'pat on the wrist."
Does she want Evanston to be a ghost town?
This mayor must be on the payroll for another town with the goal of turning Evanston into an empty ghost town, Walk through downtown, how many more empty store fronts does she need to realize that she is failing? She allows pot smoking and questions drinking – she must own a pot farm. Police the establishment as you would anyone breaking the law, not jumping to close the establishment.
Keg’s owner has been lucky
That place has been a disaster for years. The Keg's owner knows the alcohol and dram shop laws, it was more then obvious to anyone out after 11pm on thursday nights, that half the people in the keg were drinking underage. Now 5 counts i can understand, slap on the wrist, but over 100 or 30 for that matter, and thats just gross negligence. Keg deserves to go down for sure. No self respecting evanstonian is hanging out there anyway
Leave the Keg Open
Why you think the Kid's had fake I'D's to enter the Keg, So they can have an Good Time. Now that area looks like an ghost town. Where is the students from NU going to have some Good time, after a hard day of class studies, It was a place to relax and release some tensions. and have some fun in this area. There is no other place to Dance and be yourself. Why punish the many for so few. Kids going to be Kid's. Its the only place around here to have some sinple fun. People really enjoyed themselves at the KEG of all ages. Now what. You want the Kids from Evanston and NU to go into the City and run into problems, that they would not have If they were in close to the school. All in walking distance. Now you putting the NU Kids in danger going into the City and maybe facing problems from others who are not from the Evanston area. The Keg was not bad at all, I worked across the street and It was some relief after work on Fridays nite with the Music video's and the fun dancing. and it was enjoyable. The keg shouldn't lose its lincense, but have an better way to monitor the patrons coming into the keg. There was no other place more enjoyable in this town, Now it looks like an Ghost town, a lot of the area patrons was disappointed to see Tom get an Bad shake.
I hope things get resolved, because now it looks like an ghost town and an dead place to be. Some things need to be over looked and be corrected. Why punish all for the few. You should think about the NU and Kellogg students and the many events that took place at the keg. That brung some life and fun to the Area.
Hey, Ed — only one little problem
Hey, Ed — only one little problem with the "fun" that the students want to have. If a student is under 21 years old, it is illegal for them to drink alcoholic beverages.
I don't say that I agree with it. If you are old enough to enlist in the military without your parents' permission, if you are old enough to marry without your parents' permission, if you are old enough to sign a contract (all allowed at age 18), you are old enough to enjoy a beer or two.
But it's not the law. The Keg got in trouble because it turned a blind eye to underage drinking.
The Keg blew it. It appeared to be an operation that could print money by selling alcoholic beverages to college students of legal drinking age and anyone else age 21 and over. But the management apparently got greedy and allowed high school students and underage college students to drink there. No can do and keep a city license. And the management of The Keg has had many, many chances to make the needed changes to reduce underage drinking at that bar. Again, they blew it.