I don't know.

She said something else.

Yeah.

We're in the channel.

Good afternoon.

Welcome to the January 8th, 2026 Liquor Commission meeting.

Roll call.

Chericho?

Here.

Douglas?

Here.

Gunser?

Here.

McGurry.

Here.

De Joya.

Here.

Okay.

Thank you.

We have a quorum first uh order of business here.

I was just want to welcome and congratulate our two new members.

Uh Commissioner DJ and Gunzer.

Thank you for uh your service and for being here and and uh I'm sure you'll be great uh contributors to this board.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um our first order of business is our public forum.

If there's anybody here to speak on an item that is not on the agenda, please step forward, introduce yourself.

Seeing none, we'll close the public forum and begin old business.

Item D one, our meeting minutes.

Are there any questions or comments on the minutes?

If not, may I have a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Motion uh Douglas.

Second.

Second, McGurry.

All in favor?

Opposed.

Motion passes.

Next item is new business.

Um we have to approve the uh liquor commission dates for twenty twenty-six.

Any questions or comments or recommended changes on that?

If not, if I can have a motion.

So moved.

Motion McGurry.

Second.

Second Douglas, all in favor.

Motion passes.

There you go.

Thank you.

Um we changed our name to Barrel and Heritage now.

Um so it's aka we were a taste in the vine, but now we changed it to barrel and heritage.

So we have a brand new name.

And the reason for that was is because Taste and Divine basically talked about wine only.

Because now we do we have been doing bourbon now for about four years.

And with that, we also do canned beer too.

Um we get our stuff from um uh workforce.

So we change we we changed our name in these December first around around December first is when we got our new sign put up too.

All right, and the reason we're going the reason we're looking to go ahead and do uh tequila is a couple of things is one we want to keep people interested in coming to our store.

Number two is is that um basically we were looking at doing specialties of Keylist like small batch stuff or stuff that would be harder to find.

We don't want to do any of the big boys or anything else that would be out there that you would see at Binnies or anything like that.

And the reason is is that they can come in here and taste, and we do it the same way we do our bourbon.

So when we do our bourbon, we go ahead and do a total of three ounces.

So they do a total of three ounces.

And then um they have a choice to go ahead and uh pick a bottle up that we have for sale, or they can just go home with uh that would be they're only be able to do the tasting only.

So they're limited.

Um with the wine we do, you're allowed to do um you're allowed to do 32 ounces, so that's um again, you can go ahead and do uh three experiences.

There's six ounces each, and then uh with the beer, you're allowed to do two cans of beer.

So, what is really happening through this whole thing is is that lately we've been getting a lot of um information else that um wine sales are down 20% worldwide.

So we need to pivot a little, and we've been having some requests for people wanting to go ahead and do tequila tastings, and we figured that would be putting into our um into our repertoire just I think it would be a little better that way.

So we're looking to see if we can get that added to our license.

Okay, and I I did read the write up on this, but uh remind me, or at least for the purposes of just recording it.

Uh is this craft branded tequilas?

It's gonna be it's gonna be tequilas that you get from Mexico, and there'll be specialty tequilas or ones that are a little harder to find.

So I don't know if there's really a name for craft uh tequilas.

Well, small badge, yeah, something that we that you don't see a lot of, yes.

Any private label?

Um, probably not.

Oh, probably not at this point.

Okay, maybe down the future if we find something that's very interesting.

Yes, and with the tequila's also mascal falls into that um in that rim too.

Okay.

Um Detective, any uh issues with uh on the police side of this?

No.

All right, there's any other discussion from our commission.

Now would be the time.

Uh Commissioner Douglas.

I just want to say I like your rebrand, I think it's good, and I like the new signage that you have downtown.

Oh, you saw it?

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Did you state your name for the record or no?

A barrel and heritage.

No, your name.

Your name.

Oh, my name.

I'm sorry, I'm John.

John Beckman.

John.

Yes, I'm the manager of the one of the managers of the store.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

All right.

If there's not any other discussion, if we can have a motion on uh this will be a recommendation to our city council.

This board does not have the authority to make this uh text amendment.

So this would be a recommendation to our full city council, which you'd have to go to and make a presentation and get their blessing, uh, providing that we have approval or a recommendation from from this board.

Um may I have a motion?

Motion to pass, recommend the uh Douglas uh makes a motion to pass as requested.

Second, uh Joya.

Um roll call Douglas.

Aye.

D'accord D.

I Gunzard, aye, McGurry, DeJoya, aye, chericho.

Aye.

Motion passes.

So this will go on to I'll touch base with you, but I'm gonna try and get on the next um city council meeting.

So, but I'll touch base with you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'll sign.

Uh next items E3.

Consider taste buds kitchen request to increase the cap on Class M recreation license by one.

So for our new commissioners, um, we some of our license categories and classes, we have a cap.

Um, that cap can only be um raised uh by our city council.

So this is another item that we don't have the authority to make the change here at this meeting.

Uh, this would be a recommendation to our uh city council.

Okay, all right.

So um we have a representative from uh taste buds here.

Is that you?

Yes, hi all right.

You can introduce yourself and I hope this is on okay.

Hi everyone, uh my name is Jackie Burton.

I'm the owner of uh Taste Buds Kitchen, and I appreciate um you all taking the time to um let me speak about um my business and what we're asking for today.

So whoops, actually, before I even talk about this, um I just want to mention that um Taste Buds Kitchen, it's a new business.

We're looking to uh lease a location at 620 North River Road, and for this location, we are going to need to go through planning and zoning uh commission and city council process for the major change to the PUD approval.

So I'm starting here first with the liquor commission as recommended um by the group that I met with, um great group by the way, um, before I pursue the um the zoning piece.

So I just wanted to make sure that was um out there now.

With regards to TBK and our and our vision, um, our vision, we want to really inspire a love of the kitchen and creating cherished memories for all, and and we'll do this by delighting guests through culinary entertainment um experiences.

So let me tell you a bit about um TBK or Taste Buds Kitchen.

Um we we are uh an organization that is um it's culinary entertainment, it's a business offering cooking classes, uh, birthday parties, summer camps, private events, and corporate events.

Uh we do not have a bar, um, and alcohol is not a focus of our business.

Um there are currently 17 Taste buds kitchens um open within the US now with 26 in development.

Uh, this franchise location would be the second in Illinois, the first location being in Bannockburn.

And we are all about food.

So the kitchen itself is going to be a large kitchen studio.

Um, the guests will come in, they'll learn to prepare their own food, like uh sushi, cupcakes, pasta, and more.

Uh, the concept of Taste Buds Kitchen, it is very similar to how you would think of an art class like Pinot Palette or uh Hawaii Fluid Art, where instead of paint, we use uh food uh ingredients.

So let me give you an idea of our different types of first services that I mentioned before with the cooking classes, the different events, uh, the different lessons, and our focus on kids and birthday parties and schools and groups and such.

And what this also kind of equates to is that this beer and wine license um we're requesting would be limited exclusively to the adult focused portion of our classes and the private events or corporate events, and it's intended to be um complementary to the culinary programming, not the focus.

And these adult classes and events, they represent an important segment of our business model.

Uh, since in this space, guests uh reasonably expect that they're going to um have the option of beer or wine as part of their um complete culinary experience.

And without the ability to offer this limited service, we would be at a competitive disadvantage compared to other similar concepts, and it would impact the long-term sustainability of the business.

So with that, I wanted to also share our different popular menus and such, and also um state that we are aware of um how we should we are committed to um responsible alcohol service and um understand beer, it's would be for beer and wine only uh on premise consumption and have trained staff and ID verification, and we would need to follow all the service guidelines set by the city of Naperville in the state of Illinois.

So we're mindful of our role in the compute community as well, and how it's important to adhere to these uh different requirements for serving alcohol, and we are just looking to um our have a goal of operating in a way that um we align with community standards as well as offering a great entertainment experience for our guests.

So I said a lot.

Um open to questions that you may have.

Commissioner Douglas.

One super fun, sounds like a really exciting concept and a question for council just to cover, make sure that class, I was on the website and just noticed the bullets that said the bars open.

This is for the um Bannockburn one to make sure that all this would still be covered of your offerings under the class M.

Curated selection of red and white wines and beer available for purchase.

BYOB is available with a $10 Corkage fee per bottle of wine or up to six bottles of beer.

We allow beer, wine, or bubbly, no liquor.

Just wanted to confirm that that would all be covered.

Uh so the the petitioner is aware that we don't allow BYOB in Naperville, and we discussed that at the liquor concept meeting.

Um, so she would be able to serve if the recommendation is approved by City Council beer and wine.

In your uh presentation, you mentioned the alcohol liquor would be complimentary to the food.

And when you say complimentary, I still charge for it, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

I meant to order like a like restaurant.

They work well together.

Yeah.

Yeah, they complement one another.

Food and wine.

Makes sense.

I just want to make sure that it wasn't part of like a package, like you know, you get it's wines included with your meal type of thing.

No, we would not offer something like that.

And then 620 North River.

Yes.

Where is that?

I'm trying to that is, I believe uh, I'm not sure if this this particular group would be aware of it.

It's um off of Ogden behind the McDonald's.

This is the same area where we're building a brand new daycare as well, which is why I'd need to go through the zoning and the whole PUD.

So, counselor, is that location with its proximity to the daycare, or is that part of our discussion here, or is that city council?

Just give me one second, because I wasn't aware of the proximity to the daycare.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh any other questions from the commission?

Commissioner Douglas.

When's the target opening date for this?

And if we were to approve another one, I did see on Instagram that there's another local business doing a similar concept that um is opening soon as well.

Busy butternut um clarified kitchen, um, a local business that was um talking about the same uh concept.

So I just wanted to make sure that if we approve today, would we still be able to approve for a future uh liquor commission?

Would it go to the through the same process of adding on more licenses, or is it gonna be capped at a certain number?

Counselor So how it works is we just increase the cap by one, it's a recommendation, and then unless someone um closes, and then we would need to reduce the cap, which city council would have to approve.

Um, you know, there would be no additional licenses available.

And typically if a business closes, we do reduce the cap.

It just depends on the timing, but this would just be an increase by one for this particular business, and then all the class M licenses would recreational would be issued.

So the question then would be is the the if the next applicant comes to us, they'll have to go through the same process to increase the cap.

Correct.

Yeah.

Um you were looking up the how how close is the daycare to the um location?

Is it within a hundred feet or is it further away?

They are literally across each other in the there's a parking lot that divides that would separate the locations.

Okay, I would need to look and see if it's within a hundred feet, because if it's within within a hundred feet, then you would need an exception.

Um, but I would have to check with Ted before we move this forward to see um the distance between the two businesses.

So would the exception be an exception to our liquor commission rules or to a city code or state code?

So the code provides so the state law recently changed to allow the local liquor commissioner to grant an exception, and so we wrote that into a text amendment to our code.

So it would basically be approval by the liquor commission.

It wouldn't need city council approval.

Okay.

So the cap still has to go to the okay.

Um Mr.

Mayor, uh would you like to proceed with this?

Because it sounds like this is gonna be your call.

And can we get operating hours on the on the record?

Uh we have not.

Did you did you go over operating hours?

Um I believe I stay put it, I I have not spoken about it, but it's it is on the application.

If you go ahead just for the record, sure.

Um the operating hours would be um anywhere from nine to nine, nine a.m.

to nine p.m.

Okay.

And the expectation would do to would be to do the liquor service within those hours, or would it be primarily later in the day?

It would be within those hours.

Um and it would also be based upon the event itself.

So liquor would not be available at all hours of the day, it's only by the event.

Okay.

Is the daycare open yet?

No.

Do you know?

Well, you I don't know if I can really ask if you know the anticipated date of that, but I I believe it could be the summer.

Um, I know the roof is up, it's looking uh pretty much.

So they're under construction.

Yeah.

Under construction.

Okay.

Counselor?

So I was just looking through the exception because obviously I wasn't aware of the distance and I'm still not sure whether it's applicable.

Um because it our code requires that you notify the daycare if it's within a hundred feet when you're seeking an exception.

So there's a process that has to be followed.

So I'm not sure if we want to table this and have it come back after we do an investigation regarding how close the daycare is to this or not.

Yeah.

Uh it sounds like that's what uh we're gonna need to do on this is to take do a little bit of research on that distance and then um circle back to another meeting.

Yeah.

Okay, so I next step in terms of me would be waiting for you to come back to me then.

Is that yeah?

So uh will we set this on the next agenda?

So um Ms.

O's captain will get back to you um after we have an opportunity to speak with our TED department to figure out the distance, and then um depending on what the response is, she'll provide you the next steps, which will be either submitting an exception with the factors outlined in the code or just coming back to a liquor commission meeting in the future.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great.

Yeah, anything else then?

That's it then.

Thank you.

All right, thank you all for your time.

Thanks.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, you want to uh take over?

Uh believe we are at reports.

Okay, our next item is reports, and this is going to be Detective Crichton.

Um I'm sorry.

It might be Ms.

Oz uh Zepkin.

Approved 2025 Liquor Commission annual report.

Uh yeah, so I attached a draft copy of the 2025 liquor commission annual.

Could you get a little bit closer to the microphone for us or aim it?

Thank you.

Okay.

Sorry.

Um, yes.

So a copy of the draft is attached in the agenda packet, and I don't know, Jennifer, if this needs to be a vote or receive it.

To receive it, the annual report.

Yeah, I'd like to smare good.

I'll make a motion to receive the 2025 uh annual report liquor commission.

Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion and second.

You need a roll call.

Dr.

I uh Kunzer?

I McGurry.

I Dejoya, aye.

Cherico?

I Douglas.

Aye.

All right.

Now, Detective Crichton, DUI report.

DUI reports.

We have September through November currently.

Uh we have uh 12 DUIs and 24 in September, September 24 compared to 22 and 25.

October would be 12 and 24 and 16 and 25.

And November is 18 in 24 compared to 13 in 25.

And we will uh provide a full year comparison at the next meeting.

All right, seeing no questions we'll go right commissioner chericho.

Yeah.

Uh any anomalies in terms of uh clusters of locations or anything like that.

Uh no, for those that do uh do self-report and that questioning that the officers do, there's no there was only one repeat, um, and it was just two.

So that's and is it all uh liquor related versus uh cannabis or yes, the uh vast majority are uh are still liquor.

Cannabis is very tough to uh to test still in this current time.

Got it.

Thank you.

Detective Crichton tobacco report tobacco report.

We did our first round of the fiscal year 26 tobacco compliance checks in mid to late December, December 17th and December 18th, where we uh check every tobacco license in town, and we had two violations.

Um one of them was a place that has not violated, I believe, in my tenure at all in the last four or five years, and then the other one is a is a heavy repeat offender, and uh I'm working with city legal to determine if uh they've changed the ownership so we can assess proper fines and or potential suspensions for for counselor Bonner.

Um one of the things that I've observed in in my two and a half years in the mayor's office is that we we're seeing more and more repeat violations on the tobacco violation side.

We have our matrix of penalties, and one of the concerns that we've got is whether or not these are the same owners throughout the entire penalty phase.

We have to make sure that that's applied correctly.

But in the case of an owner who's now maxed out our penalty matrix, I mean now we're taking clear potential replication hearing challenges, right?

That's correct, but for this specific business, if I caught recall correctly, there was a change in the corporation.

Um that we discovered when we issued the last citation.

So we're trying to see if we can link it to the prior owner.

Um otherwise it's difficult because the process starts over with the new corporation and business.

I think the moral of the story is our enforcement has been constant throughout Mayor Chericho's experience uh in office going back to Mayor Pradle.

I mean, we've always done things the same way, and we're still about even for the total number of tobacco license.

What we are seeing though is an upward trend in just repeat offenses when it comes to um our our testing of of the the correct correct.

There are a couple stores that just seem to continually repeat.

One consideration might be an overhaul of the code to where we can take more decisive action sooner.

We're just restricted right now by the by the liquor and tobacco code on how many violations before we can take that decisive action.

So that could be a consideration to make it more stringent if if the commission felt that was necessary.

Okay.

Local liquor law essentials training report.

Liquor training.

September we had 62 go through and pass October 59, November 25, and then December 22.

And that's typical of lower numbers during over the holidays.

And then we also uh so we'll stay pretty level for those until about maybe April or May when people start hiring for the summertime college students, stuff like that coming back.

So that's pretty pretty even Keel Mr.

Mayor, Commissioner.

Uh thank you, sir.

Um I actually had my light pushed uh for the last item.

Can we sorry?

Can we step back on that?

Go ahead.

All right.

Go back to debate.

Um, so we I think it's been 10 years since we looked at the matrix of uh the you know the violation matrix for um alcohol or tobacco uh underage service or any violation, I guess.

And would it make some sense for us to take another look at that at this point?

Yeah, I I think so.

I was wondering if um uh we can direct staff to uh do a little bit of research on what other communities are at right now and see if we are in line or if we're you know below or above uh at the time I think it was a pretty well uh written and established uh um chart, you know.

I think in fact we shared it with the DuPage Mayors managers so they can apply it to their cities, but um it has been 10 years and a lot's changed, so and if we continue to get these violations with um repeat uh businesses, seems to me that whatever we're doing is not quite enough.

Yeah, it's it's almost like it's become a cost of doing business.

Yeah, you just pay the fine and go on.

So if I may yeah, make a motion to uh direct staff to uh come back with the report on uh our our our violation package uh compared to our benchmark communities in the area.

Commissioner Douglas?

Second, a motion and a second.

All those in favor, aye.

Sorry opposed motion carries.

Could I pop in on that just real quick?

Um just one thing to note too with this is uh we're very very fair.

Um we last round we used a 15-year-old male and a 16-year-old female.

So that's pretty young.

And the age of 21.

And the age is 21, and we've typically been using 15, 16-year-olds.

So this isn't borderline stuff here.

So I just thought I'd add that.

All right, liquor concept.

Since our last commission meeting, uh, we had quite a few concepts.

Show Calby Barbecue is a class A restaurant that is currently opened.

Um Kitchen is another class A restaurant in the downtown.

I believe they're open, but they don't have a liquor license yet.

Tasting divine um is asking for the tequila.

Um Caillou Raman is a new Raman restaurant, class B Freedom Drive.

E9 Club is an indoor golf simulator uh with membership requirement.

Um there in the very early stages of building a building.

Um and then Taste Bud's Kitchen is a class M request, and that'll be going I think to the next commission meeting.

Any questions on the concept report?

When we would be seeing E9 or any of the other ones.

Um E9 was able to take a existing class M license, and so Hawaii Fluid Art gave up their liquor license, and so we're taking that class M and giving it to E9.

Commissioner Cherico.

Thanks, Mayor.

A ways back we had uh approved the uh I think uh a variance for uh like a spa, Russian spa, right?

Did is that did that go?

Is that in place or um I sent them an application but never heard back from them and I don't know if they've ever broken ground either.

Okay.

So I can follow up with planning, but I I really don't think it moved forward.

Was that a text amendment, do you recall, or was that just a special for that?

I don't like Commissioner Bonner or uh Counselor Bonner, I believe that was a we put them in a straight B license.

Right, and we just wrote a restriction into the license regarding the areas where well that was what we were intending to do if a license was issued.

My question then is is if that if they don't use that license, is there anything that we need to do to unwind what we did or no?

It's only applicable for that specific applicant.

And I don't believe a variance was grant, I think it was just um if they applied for a lie the license and it was issued, it was gonna have restrictive language regarding specifically where liquor was gonna be served within the facility.

Okay, thank you.

All right, seeing no other questions and nothing more on the agenda, we have a commission or a uh motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye, all right.

Opposed, we are adjourned.

Uh uh.