Nick Tsiftilis, owner of Starbusters and Thirsty Liquors, and Kim Knowlton, representative for Class A liquor license holders, approached the DeKalb City Council at a council workshop Monday night arguing local bars are abusing Class E liquor licenses.

Class E liquor licenses, as stated by Tsiftilis, are designated for restaurant-style establishments, whose primary purpose is to serve food with alcohol as a beverage option on the side. Some establishments, though, have obtained Class E liquor licenses, coming across at first as a place for food, but soon after promoting beer specials and ultimately becoming a bar or tavern.

Tsiftilis said some places with these licenses have had special deal nights offering cheap alcohol while charging a cover to get in. In turn, these places end up pocketing the money made from the cover charge. As a result, city sales tax suffers because, technically, these places only record their revenue from alcohol sales.

This also possibly deters sales from Tsiftilis’ establishment and other Class A establishments that obtain their licenses to conduct business as taverns, not restaurants.

In an effort to place a strain on establishments wrongly using a Class E license, Tsiftilis asked the council to consider a number of revisions to the license. Proposed revisions included earlier closing hours for alcoholic sales, more food to be consumed in order to purchase alcohol, no cover charges and seats be implemented for each individual attending these places.

Tsiftilis also asked if the council would consider Class A license holders to allowed to open at 10 a.m. on Sunday and extend the Thursday closing time by one hour, which would make it 2 a.m.

The council, in the upcoming weeks, will look deeper into these issues.