Gasthaus bar in Elgin to close for good on Saturday
The Gasthaus Zur Linde bar, which has been in business for nearly five decades but has had a thorny relationship with the city of Elgin of late, announced on Facebook that Saturday will be its last day in business.
"It is with a heavy heart that we announce that this Saturday September 26th will be our last day open for business. Due to the change in our license our sales are just not high enough to stay open," the post said about the downtown bar at 15 N. Grove Ave.
Bar owner Marco Muscarello and his son, attorney Charles Muscarello, did not return phone and email requests for comment Friday. The bar recently changed its outdoor sign to "Gasthaus Bar and Grill."
The city last month changed the bar's liquor license from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends and 1 a.m. weeknights, and changed its requirements so that the bar has to show that at least 50 percent of its revenues come from food and provide seating for at least 45 people.
That spelled serious trouble for the Gasthaus, because its receipts for 2014 and 2013 showed that more than 90 percent of sales came from alcohol.
The city took action after police responded to multiple fights and disturbances late at night in or outside the bar since last year. In the past, the Gasthaus provided security video footage whenever requested by Elgin police, but the bar refused to cooperate with two investigations in July. Police obtained the footage via search warrants.
The Gasthaus' closure was not a surprise, said Ben Rohling of Crystal Lake, a former Elgin resident who said he frequented the place as a youth and worked there as a bouncer from 2011 to 2012. "It's sad to see it go, but it's something that I knew would happen eventually," he said.
The Gasthaus started in 1969 as a German/Austrian restaurant operated by Johanna and Fritz Gross.
"At one point, when Fritz and Johanna owned it, it was Elgin's 'Cheers,' " Rohling said, referring to the iconic bar in the TV sitcom by the same name. "Anytime you went in there, you knew everybody. If you went there on a Friday and Saturday night, it was a high school reunion."
Fritz Gross died in 2001 and eventually Marco Muscarello, the owner of the building, took over its operations. "It took a dramatic turn," Rohling said. "It was remodeled from being a restaurant/bar to being almost exclusively a bar."
The clientele changed, too, he said. "Watching the decline of the clientele, there was hardly a time within the last year and a half or so that if I drove through downtown Elgin by the Gasthaus that there weren't police everywhere," he said. "It just a shame to see that, after so many years in downtown Elgin."
A special meeting of the Elgin liquor control commission - which comprises the entire city council - had been set for Oct. 7 to begin nuisance complaint proceedings against the bar, which could have resulted in fines or a suspension or revocation of the bar's license.
City Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley didn't respond to a request for comment Friday. Mayor David Kaptain said the commission will decide whether to proceed, cancel or postpone the meeting. He declined to comment further given pending litigation.
The bar in March filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to stop the redevelopment of the adjacent Tower Building. A hearing on the city's motion to dismiss the Gasthaus' lawsuit is set for Oct. 7.
The Facebook post says the bar will hold at "End of Gast" party Saturday. "We hope that all of you will come and celebrate all of the great memories that we have all made there. We will miss each and every one of you and we want to thank you all for supporting us for so many years."