Mt. Prospect delays decision on alcohol sales

When AMC representatives approached Mayor Irvana Wilks about serving alcohol at their new theater, she pictured a bowling alley.

“People bring kids and there’s a bar and there’s food and there are family nights and everyone has a good time,” said Wilks at Tuesday’s Mount Prospect Village Board meeting. “It has worked for years and years and years.”

Turns out it’s a little more complicated. The board talked about AMC’s request to serve alcohol at their soon-to-open movie theater at Randhurst Village for the second time on Tuesday. The board deferred the decision until March 15 when AMC representatives will be present.

AMC operates 382 theaters all over the country, but only serves alcohol at about 17 of those locations, said Irene Bahr, a Wheaton attorney who is representing AMC. The only Illinois theater currently serving alcohol is in the Yorktown Mall in Lombard, Bahr said.

There are other theaters such as Rosemont’s Muvico Theater that do serve alcohol in the area.

However at Yorktown, alcohol is only served at one screen which is reserved for customers who are 21 years old and older, Trustee Steven Polit pointed out.

“That is very different from what you’re asking for here,” he said. “Here you’d have a drinker and a nondrinker sitting right next to each other. I think that’s inappropriate.”

Trustee John Matuszak didn’t buy Wilks’ bowling alley comparison.

“The difference is lighting,” he said. “In a bowling alley, you know when a teenager picks up a beer. The management staff know what’s going on. They are watching.”

Trustee Paul Hoefert said it’s worth giving AMC a chance and said that Wilks “is not far off.”

“This theater needs to be competitive,” Hoefert said. “But there needs to be tight controls. There can’t be any slip ups.”

Only one resident — Mal Holec — addressed the board on the topic. Holec said he wouldn’t go to the Randhurst theater if alcohol was allowed.

“I won’t take my grandkids there if someone is going to walk in front of us smelling like beer,” Holec said

Mount Prospect’s theater — slated to open in April — will have 12 screens and seat about 1,800 people. There will also be areas with skyboxlike seating made to feel like a living room and it will feature state-of-the-art digital projection, 3-D screens and live broadcast capabilities.

AMC also wants to serve beer, wine and hard liquor in a small bar area inside the theater. It would not be sold at concession stands.

Mount Prospect is also discussing adding rules like making sure alcohol beverages are in special cups and making those drinking the beverages wear wristbands.