Mt. Prospect bar on watch list

Mount Prospect officials are allowing Lety’s to continue to serve alcohol but are keeping an eye on the bar and grill at 1827 W. Algonquin Road.

“I would like them to continue to be in business, but I would like to put them in a special category with conditions,” said Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Trustees unanimously agreed to add conditions like making Lety’s hire a security company and increasing the surveillance of the parking area, Wilks said after the meeting.

Lety’s will join Retro Bistro, 1746 W. Golf Road, as the only two bars in the village on the watch list. The board lifted similar restrictions from Karaoke House Nina, 1776 W. Golf Road, after the bar went three years without a liquor code violation.

Lety’s opened only last August, but Wilks, in her role as village liquor commissioner, suspended the bar’s liquor license at a hearing in February after a rash of arrests in the previous few months. On March 11, she returned the license for a probationary period that ended on April 30.

The bar’s owner, Jesus Rosales, has been cited for serving intoxicated persons, failing to report a fight and permitting the consumption of alcoholic beverages not purchased on site.

Rosales’ liquor license was suspended from Nov. 12 to 15 and he was fined $700 for serving alcohol to intoxicated people, Wilks said.

Rosales did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

According to a Mount Prospect complaint, another fight broke out on Dec. 23 when one Lety’s customer hit another customer in the head with a pool cue. Mount Prospect police weren’t contacted, according to the complaint. On Feb. 5, a security guard broke up another fight that ended when a man said he was going to get his gun. The man said he drank 15 beers at Lety’s and was arrested on charges of drunken driving later that night.

A Feb. 12 incident when a drunken driver allegedly trying to run people over was the last straw, said Wilks after the February hearing.