Wheeling restaurants caught selling liquor to minors

Two prominent Wheeling restaurants were caught selling an alcohol beverage to a minor during a villagewide sting in January.

The owners of T.G.I. Friday's, 1500 Lake-Cook Road, and Tramonto's Steak & Seafood, 601 N. Milwaukee Ave., pleaded guilty during a hearing on Monday.

Tramonto's will pay a fine of $300 plus court costs. Because it was a second offense, T.G.I. Friday's will pay a $1,000 fine plus court costs. The village board discussed the infractions for about 10 minutes in closed session before handing down the fines.

Zubin Kammula represented Tramonto's, located in the Westin Hotel. He said after their server was caught selling the drink to a minor, the restaurant's entire staff was retrained. The server was given a warning. In the future, Tramonto's will test their staff with mystery diners who must be carded, Kammula said.

At T.G.I. Friday's the server was fired, said Dimitrios Christopoulos, who represents the restaurant that was caught doing the same thing in 2008. “That's our corporate policy,” he said. “It's meant to send a message to the entire staff.

“We make no excuses. We rely on servers and they're not always perfect. We understand the seriousness of this and we hope not to appear before you again.”

Trustee Ray Lang expressed frustration and said restaurants need to card customers.

“We even warned you,” he said. “I mean, tell me how to get through to you guys. You need to help us.”

Wheeling's T.G.I. Friday's serves about 1,000 customers every weekend. About 20 percent of their customers buy alcohol, Christopoulos said.

Wheeling tested all 44 of their liquor-license holders over two days in late January. Each business was mailed a letter in December informing them the sting was coming sometime in the next 30 days, said Wheeling Police Chief Bill Benson.

“Our goal is not to trick them,” Benson said. “All we want them to do is understand we don't take underage drinking lightly.”

Police use an undercover 19-year-old who tries to buy an drink, Benson said.