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Last call for alcohol in Rosemont to move from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Last call at Rosemont bars will come a little earlier starting next year.

Village trustees Monday approved liquor code changes that will shift closing time from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m., in a move set to take effect right after New Year's Eve.

"With the insanity of the world today, we don't need to be the slush pit for everybody that runs into a 2 o'clock place and says, 'Where we going now?'" declared Mayor Brad Stephens.

The time change was prompted by responses to a village survey of the 15 existing 4 a.m. liquor license holders within the Northwest suburban dining and entertainment mecca. Many already voluntarily close by 2 a.m., from bars and restaurants in the popular Parkway Bank Park entertainment district, to hotel bars that cater to late-arriving travelers.

"Only two didn't really come back with the same remarks along the lines of 'nothing good happens after 2 a.m.'" That was the consensus," Stephens said.

That includes Adobe Gila's, the Mexican grill that serves up sizzling fajitas, along with 64-ounce margaritas and 84-ounce fishbowls. Managers there declined to comment Monday.

And while the owner of Little Angelo's Pizza & Catering couldn't be reached Monday, Stephens said the Mannheim Road strip mall pizzeria has an after-hours clientele of third-shift workers.

Because the clock already has started ticking on annual liquor licenses for 2021, bars and restaurants won't have to surrender their 4 a.m. licenses until the end of the year - unless they choose to. A provision in the rules approved by the village board Monday allows a 4 a.m. license holder to trade in that license for a 2 a.m. one by May 1, and get a $500 refund for the difference.

"We asked and felt it was time, with where our world is going," Stephens said. "We don't want to be reactionary. We want to be proactive in saying let's just clam it back a little bit."

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