Even with an additional Class A liquor license, DeKalb still would have fewer bars and liquor stores by population than other Illinois college towns.

Currently, there are 16 liquor licenses held in DeKalb, but one may be added after the city’s special census is completed.

In the 2000 census, DeKalb had a population of just more than 39,000. DeKalb’s liquor ordinance allows for a 17th license if the city tops 40,000 people and an additional license for every 5,000 additional residents.

Signs point to DeKalb surpassing 40,000 once the census is complete next month, DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow said, but an additional license is not guaranteed. In 1992, the city surpassed 35,000 people and was in line for a 17th license, but the DeKalb City Council changed the ordinance to 40,000 people for a 17th license.

The desire for additional Class A licenses then was not as great as it is now, Sparrow said.

Dennis Radcliff, owner of Husky’s Bar & Grill, 1205 W. Lincoln Highway, has experienced the demand firsthand.

When he opened his restaurant in the fall, Radcliff said he was hoping to get a Class A license, but he was forced to get an E license because of the limitations.

For better or worse

Even if DeKalb does add a 17th license, it still would have fewer Class A equivalent licenses than other major college towns in Illinois. Class A equivalent licenses include bars and packaged liquor retailers.

In Champaign, a city with a population of just more than 67,500, the city has a limit set at 48 licenses for bars and 25 licenses for package sales or liquor stores. In neighboring Urbana, population 36,400, the city has issued 33 licenses to bars and liquor stores.

Even with more bars, Dustin Wesley, assistant manager at Clybourne in Champaign, said his bar does well.

“[Other bars] don’t really affect our business overall,” Wesley said.

In DeKalb, added licenses and added competition isn’t seen as a good idea by some current bar owners.

Nick Tsiftilis, owner of Starbusters Bar & Grill and Thirsty Liquors, 930 Pappas Drive, said DeKalb doesn’t have the customer base for many more bars or liquor stores.

“There’s not that much of a demand here [as compared to other communities],” Tsiftilis said. “If the bars in town had lines three, four nights a week, I would say ‘why not?’ I would open another one myself.”

One factor allowing more bar business in the other towns is the lower bar-entry age, Tsiftilis said. Both Champaign and Carbondale allow 19-year-olds into bars as long as they don’t drink alcohol.

A provision to allow 19- and 20-year-olds in DeKalb bars failed at the city council three years ago.

At the Pinch Penny Bar, one of the more popular student bars in Carbondale, owner Frank Karayiannis said allowing younger people to enter does bring more people to the bar, but he is doubtful that allowing more licenses in Carbondale would fare well for everyone in town.

Carbondale (population 20,681) has 15 bar licenses and another eight for liquor stores. That’s about as many as Karayiannis said he thinks the town can handle before people begin putting each other out of business.

Putting other bars out of business is something Sparrow said he does not want to see in DeKalb. Additional licenses could do that, he said, especially if someone comes in well-funded and is able to drive down prices to the point with which established bars can’t compete.

For Jeff Dobie, owner of Fatty’s Pub and Grill, 1312 W. Lincoln Highway, the argument for fewer liquor licenses goes beyond competition and into perception.

“You can’t have the town overrun with bars,” Dobie said. “It looks bad.”

Self-serving?

Radcliff argued that Class A bars are just trying to look out for their economic benefit when they say they don’t want more bars in town, Radcliff said.

“I’ve never been through anything like DeKalb,” said Radcliff, who has owned a bar outside of Charleston and lived in Champaign for many years, where many of his friends owned bars.

“They have no problems with business,” said Radcliff, about his friends in Champaign. “There’s no problem with so many of them down there.”

When or if a new license becomes available, Radcliff said he would be interested in it. He added that an additional license might put an end to the talks of licenses in town.

Sparrow agreed with Radcliff, saying that the discussion of liquor licenses is greater than it has been in his 20 years as mayor, Sparrow said. But that’s not necessarily bad, he added.

If bar owners know there is a desire for their license, they will work harder to abide by the rules, so as not to lose the coveted license, Sparrow said.