Mt. Prospect defers decision on alcohol at Randhurst theater

More than 18 months ago, AMC representatives met with some Mount Prospect officials to talk about serving alcohol at Randhurst's new movie theater.

They're still talking about it.

Since mid-February, the village board has spent hours at three different meetings publicly debating the idea. Trustees deferred the decision again on Tuesday until April because Trustee Paul Hoefert was absent.

“Like politics, alcohol is local,” said George Patterson, an AMC senior vice president. “We've spent a lot of time discussing different rules and regulations.”

Patterson was one of six AMC representatives — most of whom flew in from Kansas City — at Tuesday's meeting.

If AMC gets the OK to serve alcohol, there will be some pretty strict rules attached. Mount Prospect trustees talked about making sure alcohol beverages are in special cups and making those drinking the beverages wear wristbands. Each person will only be sold one drink at a time.

Finally, if an underage drinker is caught, AMC will take full responsibility, said Mount Prospect Village Attorney Everette Hill.

“We don't want to hear the excuse: they brought it in from someplace else,” Hill said. “It's AMC's responsibility no matter what.”

AMC first introduced alcohol to their movie theaters 14 years ago, Patterson said.

Today, the company operates more than 350 theaters all over the country, but only serves alcohol at 21 of those locations. The only Illinois theater currently serving alcohol is in the Yorktown Mall in Lombard.

However at Yorktown, alcohol is only served at one screen which is reserved for customers who are 21 years old and older. AMC wants to allow their Randhurst patrons to buy a cocktail at a bar called MacGuffins inside the building and be able to bring it into any theater. The bar would seat between 35 and 40 people, Pattersons said.

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

Mount Prospect's new theater will have 12 screens and seat about 1,800 people.

Mayor Irvana Wilks is backing AMC's bid.

“Randhurst is important to us,” she said. “We don't know how lucky we are. I see other municipalities in the northwest suburbs who don't have what we do.”