DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus is centered in one of the North Side’s most affluent neighborhoods. Students are offered a plethora of cultural opportunities to take advantage of, not just in Lincoln Park, but the entire city.

There are also aspects that tend to be universal to every college experience – particularly the bar scene.
Some of the staple bars right next to DePaul are Kelly’s Pub and McGee’s Tavern and Grille, which are just a stone’s throw away on Webster Avenue.

State Restaurant and Caf’ÛΩ, located on the corner of Webster Avenue and Bissell Street, is the new kid on the block. Opened in 2006, 80 years after Kelly’s, it’s now one of the largest sports bars on the block, built large enough to accommodate huge crowds of drinkers.

Yet it was never supposed to be another bar for the college crowd; the community had been promised something different. It was not supposed to have over 100 TVs or draw in the same amount of patrons as a River North bar.
It was also never meant to draw attention from the Chicago Police Department or require weekend security teams either.

“They originally told myself and the Sheffield Neighborhood Association that it would be white tablecloths, a sit-down place,” said Vi Daley, former Chicago 43rd ward alderman from 1999 to 2011. “It was going to be more for families in the neighborhood type of a place.”

Daley realized during the building of State that they did not have “fine dining” in mind.

“(State owner Kostas Giannoulias) was building before he even had his liquor license,” said Daley. “Some of the neighbors noticed that all of a sudden there were high top tables and television screens coming in. It was like this is triggering something else than what he originally told the community.”

With two bars located on the cross streets Webster Avenue and Bissell Street already, the last thing Daley wanted was a bar of that magnitude.

“McGee’s is over there, Kelly’s is over there and they really didn’t want another establishment like that,” said Daley. “If it was fine dining, maybe they could live with it.”

Once State finished what was going to be a family restaurant, their next move was to get their liquor license. Daley, with support from the community, lobbied against State during this process.

After appeal, State was granted an Incidental Activity License, which requires the sale of alcohol to be secondary to the sale of food. Giannioulias’s cousin, Alexi Giannioulias, was the Illinois State Treasurer at the time of the license hearing. Daley said she did not believe this connection impacted the outcome of the hearing, but she said that many others did.

Once State had a liquor license, it steered away from fine dining, and turned into the problematic bar that Daley and the neighborhood had feared.

John W., who lives on Bissell Street closer to Belden Avenue with his wife and two children, said when he first visited the bar he was told to remove his baseball hat inside, and that it was attempting “white tablecloth” kind of place, without the food quality to match. However, John said this phase “didn’t last long,” and soon turned into a sports bar.

Between 2007 and 2010, State had 30 complaints filed against them, according to records from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Local Liquor Control Commission.

Among the records, received through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are violations for the sale of alcohol to a minor, a happy hour violation and battery by agent. They were also cited on two occasions for a restaurant operating as a tavern.

Police reports from the CPD, also obtained through FOIA, show that the sale of alcohol to a minor involved a cooperating minor who entered the bar and purchased a glass of Miller Lite beer without being carded. The reports stated that the happy hour violation occurred when an undercover respondent received a wristband drink special from a State employee. The CPD did not release any other police reports.

As a result of numerous violations, State was forced to close operations for a six-day period in June 2009 and paid a $5,000 fine.

A couple who live on the corner of Webster Avenue and Bissell Street across from State, said that they were initially skeptical of the bar, but recently have noticed more security for bigger events and a more tightly-controlled bar scene.

However, they said they noticed some potential “drug exchanges” in State’s alleyway and in front of their house.

A former DePaul student, who wished to remain anonymous, was a server for State before they had their liquor license in 2007. The source, who was 19 years old and a freshman at the time, said underage drinking occurred at State when they were just BYOB.

“Because it was BYOB, the server was in charge of checking IDs. However, since there was no formal ID training, fake IDs were easily accepted as proper forms of identification,” said the source, who spoke anonymously because she is still in the service industry. “It was a very lax system. Most of my underage freshmen friends would go and drink there regardless of if I was working. Underage drinking was a regular thing.”

The source said she, along with other employees, knew that the neighborhood was fighting against State getting its liquor license. She also said that without a liquor license, State might have been hard-pressed to stay in business.

“We were made aware of it by the owner and management due to their frustration with not being able to obtain a liquor license,” she said. “The restaurant wasn’t making money. In a neighborhood like Lincoln Park, the restaurant depended on the support of its neighbors coming in and patronizing them, but since they didn’t support State, it was suffering financially.”

A receptionist at the nearby consignment store, STUFF, located at 955 W. Webster Ave., said State was “very nicely maintained and landscaped.” She also said the bar was a great addition to the neighborhood, and that she thought it closed over the summer for remodeling, rather than underage drinking citations.

Adam Mitsakopoulos has been a manager at State since 2010. Mitsakopoulos said that State has tried to make improvements for the neighbors, yet he also felt that this is partially a college town and that sometimes people do not want to travel all the way to River North for a large sports bar atmosphere.

One measure that Mitsakopoulos said has been helpful in lowering complaints has been the hiring of a security team for weekend nights and busy football Sundays. He said they have a security team with one person who walks around and behind the premise to make sure no State patrons are disturbing the neighbors.

For better or for worse, it appears that State is here to stay. It is undoubtedly a bar that attracts a college crowd, or even slightly older, into what seemingly transforms into a club on Friday and Saturday night. They have drink specials seven nights a week and only two nights of food specials, though their liquor license states that the sale of alcohol be secondary to the sale of food.

It certainly has not turned into the fine dining establishment Daley imagined.

“It infuriated me so much that someone could come to you, ask for something, look you straight in the eye and tell you they’ll do one thing and they do something else,” said Daley. “I think that was the biggest problem for some of the other people in the neighborhood: he lied to us. This kid just came and blatantly lied.”