Liquor License Approved for Rosati's Expansion

West side residents will soon have a sit-down pizza restaurant.

On Monday, village trustees unanimously approved creating a liquor license for at 2083 Orchard Road. Owner Arturo Carlos plans to expand his current restaurant into a 90-seat eatery spanning 1,800 square feet, and he plans to serve beer, wine and liquor as well.

Carlos wants to host fundraisers for local charities, and his small space on Orchard Road doesn’t allow that now, he said. Currently, Rosati’s only has a walk-in counter, and isn’t large enough for tables and chairs. Carlos also wants to use the new space to bring in singers and musicians.

He hopes to have the new restaurant open by the summer.

As for the liquor license, Carlos said he is only interested in serving drinks with meals, not in selling carry-out liquor. Trustees approved a license that requires at least 50 percent of his sales to come from food, and Carlos agreed.

“I’d like to be known as a great restaurant with great food, not as a bar,” he said. 

Trustees also unanimously approved creating three new liquor licenses for the three stores in Montgomery, at 1799 Douglas Rd., 1212 Ogden Ave., and 2091 Orchard Rd. The new licenses will allow those stores to sell liquor, in addition to beer and wine.

Store Manager Jim Martin said the alcohol display would take up less than five percent of the store space, but would likely bring in many customers. A Walgreens poll showed that 87 percent of the store’s beer and wine customers would buy liquor there if it were available, Martin said. 

Trustees increased the number of Class C licenses, which allow the sale of hard liquor, from five to eight, and simultaneously decreased the number of Class I, or beer and wine, licenses from six to three, eliminating the old Walgreens licenses.

“It is the typical policy of the Village Board to reduce the number of liquor licenses available to match the number of businesses that currently sell liquor,” said Police Chief Daniel Meyers in his memo to trustees. “This results in no outstanding liquor licenses being available at any given time.”