Restaurants that sell liquor may face an early cutoff time for liquor sales.

At the last DeKalb City Council meeting, members heard a consideration that proposed a change to make Class E liquor license holders cease liquor sales an hour earlier.

Class A liquor license holders are primarily bars and liquor stores where most sales come from liquor. Class E liquor licenses cover restaurants that sell liquor. Class E licenses require no more than 40 percent of sales come from liquor.

Also in that consideration was a suggestion for increasing liquor sales time by one hour on Thursdays.

Currently, Class A and E holders must stop liquor sales at 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Class E establishments may continue to serve food for 24 hours if they wish. This would not change if the ordinance is passed, said Mayor and Liquor Commissioner Greg Sparrow.

If both parts of the ordinance are passed, Class A liquor license holders could stay open until 2 a.m. Thursdays and maintain regular hours the rest of the week, while Class E establishments would have to stop liquor sales at midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

The city council will hear the proposed ordinance at its Nov. 10 meeting, but probably will not vote on it until the subsequent meeting on Nov. 24, Sparrow said.

As it looks now, the votes are split, Sparrow said.

If the vote is a tie, Sparrow will vote as the tie-breaker, in which case he’ll probably vote for the changes, he said.

The sticking point with the aldermen is extending liquor sales by one hour on Thursdays, Sparrow said.

Some Class A liquor licensees came to a city council workshop requesting Class E licensees be forced to close an hour earlier because they are in direct competition, claiming some Class E establishments act more like bars than restaurants.

Sparrow said the liquor license is granted to restaurants to enhance the food-service part of their business, to bring customers who like a drink with their food but would not otherwise frequent some of the restaurants.

He said there is no problem with the restaurants acting as a restaurant first. It is the restaurants acting like bars that the ordinance is meant to target. Sparrow said he even suggested shortening Class E liquor sales by two hours, and minimizing the current amount of space a restaurant is allowed to have where patrons can drink without eating.

Some Class E businesses would not be affected by the time change.

Jaime Yakey, kitchen manager at Ruby Tuesday’s, 2370 Sycamore Road, said the restaurant closes at 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends anyway, so business probably would not be affected.

This is not the case for all Class E restaurants, though.

Chris Gochis, owner of The Barn, 1215 Blackhawk Drive, said his business would be affected if the closing time changes.

Gochis said the current law is good enough to distinguish between Class A and Class E license holders.

“All of a sudden they want to change the laws and restrict people from doing business. I don’t understand how that works,” Gochis said.

The Barn holds banquets in its basement, and Gochis said a new ordinance would affect his ability to hold these banquets, as well as sell food.

The claim that bars are in competition with some Class E restaurants is flawed, Gochis said. The city has complained that his advertisements resembled those of a bar too closely, but he countered that bars advertise food, resembling those of a restaurant.

He also raised the question of enforcement, and said police would not know if a customer has already eaten if they are enjoying drinks after consuming food.

To that, Sparrow said this is currently not allowed. The law says customers of Class E establishments can have liquor outside the bar area only if they are eating. Those that allow customers to sit around and drink after they have eaten are in violation of the current ordinance, he said.