CITY HALL — The owners of Fischman's Public House got one step closer to opening their hybrid restaurant and bottle shop Monday, as the City Council's zoning committee unanimously approved their requested zoning change.
Shanna and Gus Karamaniolas had needed the change to sell bottles and cans in the same building as the pub & grub they're readying in the Six Corners Shopping District.
Seven months after the couple uprooted Fischman's Liquors from its decades-old home in Jefferson Park, the couple is already busy gutting the vacant storefronts next to Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave, to make way for their revival just a mile down the street.
At a public meeting called by Ald. John Arena (45th) last month, every attendee supported the zoning change and welcomed the move.
"It starts with the owners, who are Jefferson Park folks and really believe in helping the community," Arena said Monday. "They run a fantastic business — everyone saw the success they had at their original location."
In their eight years at the helm of Fischman's Liquors in Jefferson Park, the couple turned the half-bar half-liquor store into a pulsing community hub and an emporium for craft beer.
But their new spot, with a far roomier 4,000 square feet of space, will also offer a food menu that Shanna Karamaniolas described as "Americanized tapas."
Karamaniolas and her husband are aiming to open their bottle shop by March, and the restaurant by June, she said.
