HYDE PARK — Medici on 57th is applying for a liquor license after 55 years as a BYOB.
Owner Kathy Morsbach said Tuesday the culture in Hyde Park around alcohol has changed and the restaurant at 1327 E. 57th St. is going to try to get a liquor license to better compete with the new restaurants moving into the neighborhood.
“We’ve wanted it forever,” Morsbach said. “People have always asked if we had liquor.”
She said the restaurant has never pursued it in the past because it is right across the street from Ray Elementary School, and in the past restaurants in the neighborhood never tried to get around the ban on serving alcohol within 250 feet of a school or church.
Recent additions to the neighborhood like Nando’s Peri Peri, Target and others have been more aggressive about getting permission to sell alcohol despite being close to schools and churches.
“It’s hard for us to be competitive if people can go and get a beer with whatever it is they want to eat,” Morsbach said.
Neighbors will get a chance to weigh in at a community meeting at 6 p.m. March 14 at the restaurant.
Morsbach said Ray school and Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) have been initially supportive partially because the sales will be relatively modest.
“We’re going to find room for four taps,” Morsbach said. “We’d like to have some good beers and wine as well.”
Kirsten Esterly, general manager of the restaurant, said the earliest the restaurant could get the license would be August.
Representatives from Ray Elementary School were not immediately available to comment.
