Mayor Lori Lightfoot to extend hours for liquor sales at Chicago bars and restaurants

Under pressure from bars and restaurants hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will reverse a curfew she imposed on liquor sales and allow those businesses to sell alcohol until 11 p.m.

Lightfoot was quick to criticize Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to ban indoor service at bars and restaurants due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, but she also had been criticized by bars and restaurants over her own restrictions, which in some ways had been tougher than the governor’s. While the state rules dictate bar and restaurant service must end at 11 p.m., the mayor had ordered liquor sales to end at 9 p.m. and for the establishments to close at 10 p.m.

Now, as Pritzker’s new rules are scheduled to go into effect on Friday, the mayor is changing the city’s rules to allow liquor sales at bars and restaurants until 11.

Although Lightfoot is loosening the rules for bars and restaurants, alcohol sales at liquor stores, grocery stores and other establishments with a packaged goods license must still end at 9 p.m., her office said.

gpratt@chicagotribune.com

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