No liquor license for Arlington Hts. karaoke bar

The Arlington Heights Village Board denied a request from a local business for a liquor license Monday night, citing concerns about ties to the restaurant’s previous owner, who had been convicted of prostitution.

Song Han, owner of the Korean restaurant and karaoke establishment Ding Dong Dang, 224 E. Golf Road, pointed to a clean liquor record at a karaoke bar in Chicago as supporting evidence for the license to be granted.

Ding Dong Dang’s liquor license was not renewed by the village in May. Han argued that, despite violations stemming from incorrect paperwork and improperly obscured windows at the establishment’s karaoke room, the errors were not severe enough to forfeit the license.

Trustees did not find a satisfying explanation for the restaurant’s liquor license being filed in the name of the previous owner, Myeong Lim, after the sale of the business from Lim to Han in August 2009. Lim, Han’s stepsister, was arrested on two separate charges of prostitution while working as a masseuse in Buffalo Grove in 2010 and 2011.

Mayor Arlene Mulder said the board’s committee of the whole, which ruled on the case, was not judging Han’s integrity, but said that the violations at the establishment under Han’s eye — unbeknownst to the village — were deeply concerning.

“Who was in charge? We’re learning from the last couple of years that it was your client,” Mulder said to Theodore Lee, Han’s attorney. “And yet, no one took the time to notify the village of the change in ownership. That in itself is cause for not being convinced that the operation would be run according to our laws and ordinances.”

Lee acknowledged the mistake and said he believed it was made because Lim still retained an option to buy back the company in the future, an option she has since waived.

This did not convince the trustees, many of whom were leery of Lim. Trustee Norman Breyer theorized Lim might still be pulling in a salary from the company despite Han’s status as owner. After Breyer’s statement, Lee disclosed that Lim held a 10 percent interest in the corporation that owns the property, seemingly contradicting an earlier statement that Han was the sole owner.

Han and Lee expressed their displeasure with the degree to which they perceived the board’s decision was influenced by the action of Lim, not Han.

“We wish that the board took Ms. Han’s qualifications on their own without being prejudiced by her stepsister’s problems in the past,” Lee said.

Han said the lack of a liquor license has negatively affected her business recently.

“All the income went down,” Han said. “I almost closed down. It’s hard to pay rent.”